08 Apr 2025

Botswana Railways organisational structure was last reviewed in 2019. 

Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday, the Assistant Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Keoagile Atamelang said consultation with the union on the structure was concluded in June 2021 and implementation was effected in September 2021. 

He shared that an independent consultant did the salary review structure during the financial year of 2022/2023 and the Board of Directors approved it in March 2023 for implementation, subject to availability of funds. 

“To date, management has not been able to implement the approved salary structures despite the Board’s approval because the organisation’s financial situation has not improved to accommodate the budgetary requirements of the new structure,” he said. 

He said that the approved salary structure, which was done across the board covering all job positions from the lowest grade to executive, could not be implemented due to financial challenges faced by Botswana Railways. Mr Atamelang said salary levels of Botswana Railways across positions are guided by the Botswana Railway Compensation and Benefits policy, therefore the salary levels and their implementation are guided by the financial performance of the organisation as well as the prevailing market rates per job position. 

He said this was done through participation in annual market compensation and benefits comparisons by the private sector consultations as engaged by Botswana Railways. The assistant minister said in the past, Botswana Railways engaged Tsa Badiri Consultants, a private consulting human resource firm and furthermore, the organisation adopted a pay policy at the 50^th percentile of prevailing market compensation rates for every survey job position. 

Mr Atamelang said the disparity in terms of pay between lowest and highest job grades in the organisation was not substantiated as the current salary market survey findings show that the executive job positions were found above the market per findings by an independent consultant. 

He further noted that the consultant who was engaged to do the salary structure made some of the observations that included that employees among the unskilled, semi-skilled to clerical were paid well within the organisation of 50^th percentile. 

Mr Atamelang said the other observation was that the basic salary of the General Manager has been pegged at the Permanent Secretary level as it is the same for other parastatals of the same level, however the survey indicated that the total compensation and benefits were well below compared to other counterparts.

He noted that the Board, subject to funds availability, had approved the new salary structure for implementation, therefore the new salary structure would be implemented once the organisation’s revenues exceeded its operating costs. 

Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Reuben Kaizer had asked the minister to state when last was Botswana Railways organisational and salary structures reviewed and implemented. He also asked if the two structures were both reviewed and implemented across all positions, and if not, why was there a huge disparity between the highest paid and the least paid employee and also when will there be a review and increment of salaries for the staff. ENDS