07 Sep 2022

Poor implementation of government policies has a negative impact on the economy.

This was said by the Selebi Phikwe Town Council (SPTC) Mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana when welcoming the Permanent Secretary to the President, Ms Emmah Peloetletse during a courtesy visit to the mayor on Monday.

Mr Modimana said implementation of policies was still a challenge hence the need for public officers who were the implementers to be abreast with policy reforms and implement them without fail.

The mayor said the government often came up with good reforms but the ground was not fertile to receive the seed.

He said there were long processes that took forever to effect those reforms hence the need to revise some of the processes to remove any impediments to implementation of policies.

Mr Modimana said if this was left unaddressed, it would ultimately result in reforms not implemented, hence impacting on the economic diversification drive.

“We are one of the best countries in terms of policies, and countries come here for benchmarking and go back to implement them and we later go to such countries for benchmarking,” he said.

Mr Modimana also explained that sometimes government had failed because of officers’ attitudes, urging Ms Peloetletse to put an eye on officers to ensure implementation of policies without fail.

He also called for decentralization reforms to help fast track developments in the districts.

Chief executive officer for SPEDU, Mr Jazenga Uesesa also raised concern that government introduced economic inclusion and procurement laws but were not effectively implemented.

He said the country had since stagnated to move to a higher income, adding “what can we do as a collective to move this country to a higher income status?”

Mr Uesesa said officers had been complaining that the policies and directives that existed were not based on any law but the economic and procurement laws were made in response to their complaint, adding that this had not helped much as those policies were still not fully implemented.

Ms Peloetletse, who is on countrywide engagements explained to public officers in Selebi Phikwe and Bobonong that the main aim for her visit was to engage with them as foot soldiers of the government and try to come up with mitigations to challenges hindering service delivery.

She said during her visit, she would also take public officers through policy reforms, enacted laws and encourage them to use those laws to empower Batswana economically and socially.

Ms Peloetletse also visited the multi-million Pula Selebi Phikwe Citrus project, which started in 2020 and expecting its first harvest in 2024.

Leased from Mmadinare Cooperative for 50 years, Selebi Phikwe Citrus planted a wide array of citrus fruits such as lemons, grapefruits, mandarins, valencia oranges and many more which would be for international markets whilst 10 per cent would be consumed locally.

“This is the project that demonstrates the value of partnership with the community and private sector,” said Botswana Investment and Trade Centre CEO Mr Keletsositse Olebile.

Ms Peloetletse also visited The BULB World to appreciate their business operations. Ends