03 Apr 2013

Serowe South MP has decried what she termed sluggish behaviour shown by some civil servants.

Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi was addressing kgotla meetings in Moiyabana and Sehounou on Tuesday. She said this after residents had complained that poverty eradication programmes and some services in their villages had stalled without an explanation.

The MP, who is also education minister, said some civil servants had the tendency of turning away customers and in some instances delaying to help them without valid reasons.

She said she had observed the trend for some time now and wondered what could be causing the problem because Serowe was the headquarters of the Central District and it had people who had been given the responsibility of ensuring that Batswana got satisfactory service.

The minister said some complaints did not necessarily need her intervention as they could be solved at district level rather than waiting for her to hold a kgotla meeting.

Dr Venson-Moitoi expressed concern that in most cases, civil servants made empty promises to the public during kgotla meetings but after that they never make follow ups to make sure that people get help.

She urged village extension committees and village development committees to play their part and always seek for answers as well as demand service delivery.

When commenting on the issue, the acting deputy district commissioner, Mr Ewetse Selelo acknowledged the concerns, saying he would call all stakeholders to meet and map the way forward on how best they could solve the issue.

He said , in most cases, lack of transport of one of the issues that hindered service delivery in the district but if different departments could come together they would surely find a solution.

Mr Selelo also pointed out that some projects such as backyard gardening were lagging behind because the supplier of the equipment which was supposed to be used failed to meet the deadline. ENDS