13 Jul 2026

The Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa has challenged public relations and communications officers to reengineer their roles and embrace modern digital landscapes to drive organisational success across the government.

Speaking at a retreat for Public Relations officers in Palapye on Thursday, Mr Motshegwa emphasised the critical need to transition public relations from traditional practice into a strategic pillar capable of solving the socio-economic predicaments of citizens.

Minister Motshegwa emphasised that government’s primary role was solving daily citizen challenges through empathetic, field-driven policy formulation.

“Our culture should be about interacting and engaging with the people. We need to see people’s state of life and hear them, so that we design policies and programmes fixated on the particularities of the predicament at hand,” he said.

Mr Motshegwa however said a conducive work environment was vital for communication teams to succeed.  He said public relations officers were employees therefore confronted and faced with many issues in the workplace that may deter or act as hurdles in their responsibilities, emphasising that for them to succeed there was need for a conducive work environment.

He also challenged public relation officers to venture into the academic realms of communication to better navigate the modern digital landscape.

The minister said public relation which was originally birthed during the Industrial Revolution to manage corporate-public conflicts, had drastically shifted. He said that internal communication was the heartbeat of the organisation, breaking down departmental silos to keep information flowing smoothly.

Mr Motshegwa said organisations must possess strategic and robust communications strategies to achieve success internally and externally. “The role of communications teams has never been more crucial than now. These teams are the link teams that hold organisations together ensuring that both internal and external communications are seamless, effective and impactful,” he said.

Externally, he said, public relation teams operated as the guardians of the organisation’s reputation, aligning messages across both the ministry and local councils.

Mr Motshegwa said to achieve this, there should be a shift toward creativity, innovation, and technology. He called for the aggressive use of video production, graphic design and the effective management of official social media platforms.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary – Human Resources and Administration, Mr Mothusi James said the retreat came at a critical time during the evolution of their ministry following the restructuring and repositioning of the ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs.

He said they had been entrusted with a renewed mandate and heightened expectations to effectively communicate government programmes, engage stakeholders strengthen citizen participation and support policy advocacy initiative.

Mr James said communication was no longer merely a support function but a strategic tool that shaped public understanding, that built trust in government institutions, that promoted transparency and strengthened accountability.

He said as the ministry responsible for bringing government closer to the communities, they had an obligation to ensure that their messages were consistent, timely, accurate and responsive to the needs of their citizen. ENDS