11 Aug 2026

President Advocate Duma Boko has urged public service leadership to inject agility into daily operations and rethink structures that continue to slow down government delivery.

Officially opening the Public Service Leadership Conference in Gaborone yesterday, President Boko said many government institutions were configured in ways that made them ‘inherently dilatory and unnecessarily complicated.’

“There is maybe a reality that government is too bureaucratic. Configured not for agility. Inherently dilatory in its processes. Unnecessarily complicated in its operations. These are realities, maybe perceptions. We must deal with them,” he said.

The President challenged leaders to use the conference as a platform for self-examination and to assess whether their institutions were delivering the results citizens expect.

“I hope this gathering avails you the opportunity to examine yourselves, individually and collectively. Reflect on the institutions that we have. On their efficacy. Are they able to deliver the result and the outcomes that we need?” he asked.
President Boko called for a “radical simplification” of processes and procedures to make government more accessible and human rights-centric.

“In constitutional law we call it a means-ends calculus. And the means that we are deploying ought to be properly suited to the attainment of the ends that we want to achieve,” he said.  

He warned that any disconnect between means and ends would require transformational innovation and bold leadership to help lift Botswana’s ailing economy.

The President also cautioned public officers against hiding behind legal technicalities to avoid action.  

“The excuse that the law does not permit makes absolutely no sense. It is not an excuse, much less is it antithetical. The law does not constrain you. In the doing of that which is good for the public, the law never constrains. It is your work and your interpretation of the law that constrains you,” he said.

He urged leaders not to be ‘prisoners of their own conceptual moorings and limitations.’

President Boko further said government must be bold in taking decisions on State Owned Enterprises that offer no compelling case for continued existence. He said some SOEs should be transformed to make them more responsive to current challenges, while others might need to be closed.

The three-day Public Service Leadership Conference brings together senior government officials to reflect on institutional mandate, efficiency and service delivery. ENDS