17 Mar 2020

 Councillors in the Ngamiland District have challenged government to consider introducing a strategy that would make working in remote areas attractive.

This, they argued, would motivate employees and improve their performance.

Councillors made the suggestion during a recent council meeting after reports that some public servants declined to work in districts such as Ngamiland and Kgalagadi.

Such, they said had resulted in shortage of nurses, doctors and midwives in the district, a situation the minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Lemogang Kwape said the ministry was grappling with because nurses declined transfers in numbers.

Dr Kwape appreciated that shortage of nurses and midwives was a challenge countrywide, Okavango Sub-district being the hardest hit, particularly by midwives shortage.

He said the sub-district had an establishment of 169 nurses with a shortfall of 17, adding that out of the 169, 49 were midwives.

Of the 49 midwives, Dr Kwape said 35 were available while the rest failed to honour the call to work at the sub-district due to reasons ranging from social to health while some retired and resigned during the period 2019 and 2020.

He said last year, the district received four midwives who were from training and two this year on a three-year contract.

Dr Kwape said the ministry continued to recruit and train more nurses, particularly midwives.

Meanwhile, the councillors argued that with incentives, government stood a better chance of retaining employees, especially those deployed in rural areas, where working conditions were not favourable.

They said such was the case in some countries and it was working in recruiting, motivating and retaining public officers.

Without such benefits, they said communities would continue to be disadvantaged. Ends