29 Mar 2022

Botswana Prisons Service employees welfare scheme signifies a bright future for officers and their families, says Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Kagiso Mmusi.

Launching the scheme in Gaborone on Monday, he said workers’ performance depended on them being well taken care of.

Stating that staff welfare was not only important for employees but for the entire organisation, Minister Mmusi said its promotion was good for prevention of stress and creation of a positive work environment where people and organisational performance thrived.

Many organisations, he said, had confirmed that satisfied employees showed great interest in their work, became productive and proud to belong to their organisations.

It was therefore no coincidence that the organisation was taking care of its employees, the minister said adding it would be among those with the best status and many people wishing to work for it thereby attracting and retaining  talent.

Mr Mmusi said the partnership between the organisation, Stanbic Bank and First National Bank Botswana and Liberty Life Botswana was true testimony that pulling together reared good results.

For her part, prisons commissioner Ms Dinah Marathe called the scheme a historic milestone which would see all those who joined it becoming financially stable and independent.

Encouraging all officers to join, she said the involvement of the two banks and the insurance company was assurance that ‘our investment are secure, the banks are all here to reassure us of that aspect’.

Taking the audience through the scheme’s journey, Ms Marathe said through staff interactions, she identified some priority areas key among them welfare issues.

“I developed a roadmap through which I outlined our performance goals and respective performance outcomes, and the establishment of the staff welfare scheme is one of the performance outcomes outlined under staff welfare. We therefore had to hit the ground running to implement the roadmap and inculcate a culture of excellence in the prison service,” she said.

Ms Marathe said once in operation, the scheme would offer savings, insurance, personal loans, mortgage loans and venture capital.

It would also promote a savings culture amongst officers and facilitate payment of low insurance premiums through the group life cover.

In addition, it would enhance officers’ credit worthiness, facilitate access to low interest borrowing and bring about financial freedom thereby rendering them more productive, she said.

Ms Marathe welcomed the approval of regulations allowing her office to pay medical expenses for officers’ injured in the line of duty. Ends