The Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa has challenged local authorities and ministry executives to prioritise service delivery and shift their focus from just planning or talking about goals to executing them with extreme speed, quality and efficiency.

Speaking at the forum for council chairpersons and mayors in Palapye on Thursday, Minister Motshegwa said leadership should possess the necessary pedigree to transform local economies.

He said leaders in the ministry from the level of mayors, council chairpersons and council secretaries should pass an honest verdict on their own performance.

While acknowledging that some competent leaders exist within the structures, minister Motshegwa expressed concern regarding widespread institutional delay, lack of traction on agreed programmes and an absolute absence of innovation.

‘’Sometimes I painfully doubt that we have competent leaders because of the procrastination and the lack of results in some of the activities and programmes we have agreed. There is no traction in some instances,’’ he said.

Mr Motshegwa said in some instances, some council leaders did not even grasp what was happening within their own municipalities.

He said the era of long, decorative speeches was officially over, and was replaced by a strict focus on timely and decisive decision-making.

“All we want now is action, execution, and implementation. It is as simple as that. At the end of the day, we will not be adjudged by the speeches we made, but by the deeds and impact we made on the lives of the people,” he said.

Mr Motshegwa also said poor deployment strategies was one of the root causes of government failure, high unemployment and persistent poverty across Botswana. He also criticised the systemic practice of deploying personnel into critical state roles without verifying their capability.

“One of the challenges of many organisations, including us as government, is that we simply just deploy people without regard for capability, excellence, and competence,” he said.

“We want to leave this ministry with success, and for us to leave it with success, we need competent, merit-based people. There is no room for substandard performance,” he added.

He challenged leaders to be proactive, innovative and results-oriented, while continuously acquiring knowledge and developing the capacity of those they lead.

He highlighted the importance of re-engineering organisational processes, linking strategy with practical tactics, strengthening a high-performance culture and prioritising activities that deliver measurable results.

He also called on councils to become more entrepreneurial and investor-friendly, particularly by identifying opportunities to generate revenue and attract investment into districts.

Acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ms Tshepo Kebakile said the forum was aimed at refining and validating the draft strategy to ensure alignment with government priorities, Vision 2036, National Development Plan 12 and the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme. The strategy also takes into account functions recently transferred to the ministry during the restructuring phase.

She emphasised the need for district leaders to build consensus, strengthen ownership and commitment, and harmonise operations between traditional governance institutions and local authorities to improve service delivery. ENDS