24 Feb 2014

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Mr Thato Raphaka has implored employees in his ministry to seek counseling on time when faced with stressful situations.

Officiating at the ministry’s annual wellness day in Francistown on Friday February 21, Mr Raphaka noted that stress was one of the factors that when not managed could affect service delivery in the work place.

He said by taking immediate action against challenges either personally from families or in the workplace, this would help address the problem.

He said in most cases, stress led to absenteeism in the office adding that this also affected customer service in the public service. The lands ministry started conducting wellness activities in 2004 with the aim of promoting wellness and team building.

This he said, followed realisation that with team building, employees could easily associate and share things that might be affecting their performance in the office as it gave them the platform to network as well as to get to know each other beyond work.

“Initially we confined them to health screening for different illnesses, however since last year we added other activities including physical exercise, ball sports, choral music and talent shows to stimulate the body and the mind,” he said.

He said this year’s theme: A Healthy Mind is a Productive Mind, was chosen in line with the ministry’s mandate of land management and delivery of housing for socio economic development of Batswana.

“In order for them to achieve their mandate they need to work hard as a unit with every section putting all their weight without some lagging behind due to issues of poor wellbeing,” he said. Also incorporated in the wellness activities were the awards to recognise best performing groups. Ends