20 Nov 2013

Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Lebonaamang Mokalake has implored land boards, land tribunals and ministry headquarters to reduce backlog of issues.

Officially opening the ministry’s three-day leadership forum in Palapye on November 18, Mr Mokalake requested the three units under his ministry to work on a backlog of issues such as appeals, investigations, requests for change of land use and decisions that take forever to implement.

He said his ministry took the initiative to establish committees in land boards, which once in place would implement decisions of the land board without having to wait for land board meetings to monitor implementation.

The minister further said implementation and monitoring would therefore become a continuous exercise. “I want to believe that this would reduce the backlog of issues at land boards, tribunals and headquarters,” he said.

Furthermore Mr Mokalake said there were issues of concern to this nation, especially issues reflecting in the President’s Ten Point Agenda. The agenda raised, among other issues, lack of respect especially to senior citizens, inaction on reported cases of negligence by officials, rebuke and ridicule to complainants, inconvenience and delays in service as well as improving overall efficiency and reducing bureaucracy.

Mr Mokalake said it was clear that the leadership of the country, customers and stakeholders were still not happy with performance in these areas. He said it was therefore imperative that his ministry focused attention on these “as they were growing pains, pains that require all of us to be awake and to address burning platforms that we all want to run away from.

Regarding performance improvement, he said his ministry had partnered with Morupule Power Station, Selebi Phikwe Copper Nickel Mine and Botswana Power Corporation on team building exercise. He said the ministry was determined to eliminate silo mentality that limit support to each other and propel service delivery implementation.

“We believe that it is time to cherish the art of pulling together, not because you have to but because it matters so much that we all want to chase the beauty of accomplishing team results that matter to customers,” he said. ENDS