SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
FRANCISTOWN: Member of Parliament for Francistown West Ignatius Moswaane has called on public servants to stop shunning politicians and work collaboratively with them.
The legislator made these comments recently in view of people who were honored during Botswana’s 50th golden jubilee, some of who he says did not deserve to be honored. He said deserving people were not honored because there is a tendency by civil servants to sideline politicians when names of nominees are shortlisted.
“If the office of District Commissioner had consulted us about Francistown heroes, we may have assisted them by listing deserving people. So the public service has to start recognizing politicians because we are the governors of this country. We are totally disappointed by the list of nominees because most of them did not deserve to be honored, if there was consultation we could have advised,” he lamented, stressing that public servants should accept that they have to work alongside elected politicians.
A recent shortlist of Francistown heroes was criticized by people who said deserving individuals were omitted, blaming poor consultation as the chief reason for such omission.
One councilor who preferred to comment anonymously- rubbished the list: “We were so surprised when the list was read, lots of deserving individuals were left out.”
Reached for comment Specially Elected Councilor Peter Ngoma stated that all councilors were shocked when the list was read during the award ceremony. “If the DC office had engaged us we could have helped them list prominent figures who worked for this city for a long time, but because we were not consulted, a lot of deserving people were left out,” he argued.