Maele issues stern warning to UB
Staff Writer | Friday December 19, 2025 14:37
Maele made the remarks earlier this week at a meet-and-greet session hosted for the newly appointed UB Council members. Despite stating that the council members’ appointment takes effect from 1st January 2026, Maele had the ongoing restructuring on his mind.
To this end, he indicated that they identified credible individuals who will help with good governance within UB and offer strategic direction to the public institution. Maele noted that the council has a duty to hit the ground running in January. He said the council must work with management to ensure that they finish the restructuring, which has been ongoing for five years.
“I have given the Vice-Chancellor strict terms. I gave them up to the 31st of March 2026 (to have completed restructuring),” he said. He warned that if UB is not done on the agreed deadline, all those who failed will be casualties The minister, therefore, impressed it upon the new council that it has a fiduciary responsibility to run the University of Botswana. However, he said that in doing so, they must stay away from operational matters but be of strategic influence to the institution.
For his part, Vice-Chancellor Professor David Norris, in welcoming the new members, said the university had a role to impact society. Professor Norris stated that upon arriving at UB in 2017, about 92% of the institution’s budget was going into salaries. However, he stated that there was little impact to show for that. Against this backdrop, he noted that the management saw a need to restructure the university into a High-Performance Organisation (HPO).
As a result, he pointed out that “Mmadikolo,” as UB is otherwise called, has managed to improve on The Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Norris said this was a testament to improving the quality of research. “The minister was talking about the restructuring, which took a lot of time but had to be done,” said Norris. “In 2017/18 we reflected on our functions and realised that we had to change course,” he said.
Meanwhile, the restructuring has taken longer than expected, causing anxiety and distress to staff members. Nevertheless, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel as the institution is working tirelessly to ensure that by March 2026, all employees will have transitioned into the new organisational structure.