04 May 2025

Minister for State President Mr Moeti Mohwasa has expressed concern over low levels of productivity in the public service.

Addressing a leadership consultative meeting in Maun on Tuesday at Maun Lodge, he said public servants were the driving force behind delivery of quality services hence the need for all  to play a role in improving productivity.

“There are complaints that you do not communicate well with customers nor give feedback to them. I urge you to develop the culture of acknowledging customers’ grievances. It is disturbing as some officers take long to respond and ended up being transferred,” he added.

Mr Mohwasa cautioned officers against a tendency of using official time to do their personal errands, saying this contributed to poor service delivery. He said failure to deliver projects on time also delayed projects and ultimately affect job creation opportunities.

“Victimisation in the workplace can lead to frustration, under-performance and a negative work environment hindering teamwork and collaboration and as such as supervisors, you should motivate your juniors  by providing positive feedback to help them grow into better leaders,” he added.

Mr Mohwasa further informed the gathering that the new administration had no intention of ill-treating any employee but rather provide protection for all public servants.

“You do not need to be a member of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) to excel or progress in the public service but you have to perform your duties as expected. Our priority is to ensure fair treatment to all," he said.

He said government would prioritise merit adding that  the aim was to promote fairness at the workplace. Minister Mohwasa also urged Dikgosi to play their role towards building new Botswana noting that they had a mammoth task of promoting nation building.

He also urged public servants and stakeholders to join forces to fight corruption in the workplace saying they should establish a robust anti-corruption culture and foster a transparent environment.

Corruption, Mr Mohwasa said, affected services delivery and delayed projects implementation citing that some projects which could cost less were budgeted huge amounts of money which could be used to push more projects.

Going forward, he said procurement officers were going to declare their assets and do Invitation To Tenders (ITT) to ensure accountability saying that it was disturbing as some prepared for tenders even before it becomes public.

For their part, some participants expressed dissatisfaction with poor service delivery. Nxaraga Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Othusitse Modriver accused land board for taking long to allocate plots in Nxaraga saying that allocation was suspended since 2014.

The delay, he said had fuelled illegal squatting and also disadvantaged residents from benefiting from some existing government initiatives because they did not have land certificates. ENDS