Mokgware shoots from the hip on World Productivity Day
Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday July 2, 2026 12:35
“COVID taught us that people can work from home, but here in Botswana, we are still looking for the four walls. “The traffic is full of people going to the offices when in fact they could be doing things at their own houses, working, being productive. “Instead of driving, getting hooked up in the traffic, going to the office, you could be sitting at home with your laptop, working there, and producing results. “That’s why our offices you find them full of magwinya le mogodu, when you could just eat in the comfort of your house there and still be productive.”
Labour and Home Affairs minister, Pius Mokgware, used the celebration of World Productivity Day last Thursday to rail against hardened policies and attitudes in the country, which he said are weighing on productivity and national competitiveness.
In off-the-cuff remarks, Mokgware said there were a number of examples where simple policy upgrades could boost productivity, but the inflexibility of companies and institutions hampers change.
In the latest World Competitiveness Yearbook released last week, Botswana’s ranking fell to 66th out of 70 economies, down from 59th out of 69 economies in 2025.
Whilst the weak economy played a significant role in the decline, an indicator called Business Efficiency recorded the largest decline, with the country’s ranking falling from 48th to 58th. In Productivity and Efficiency, the country fell from 51st to 63rd, whilst it was ranked last amongst the 70 nations in terms of talent attraction and retention, as well as worker motivation. The country was ranked 66th out of 70 countries in terms of employee training.
The country’s productivity, or the efficiency with which workers, businesses and the broader economy produce goods and services using available resources, has been a long-running challenge in the country.
This is despite the sights of ordinary young and old citizens walking, cycling, or using commuter transport before dawn every day, fighting to eke out a living. Going by Mokgware’s observations, these efforts are fruitless because the underlying policies impede productivity.
The resistance by most companies to the ‘work from home’ policy is just one of the examples.
“If we have to be productive as a nation, it starts with our own organisations first,” Mokgware said. “It starts by trying to achieve the bigger mandate, the bigger picture of where we want to take Botswana to. “These are issues which are very critical.”
Mokgware said another example of policy rigidity was in law-making, which is the foundation of other policies that cascade through institutions and corporates in boosting productivity and competitiveness.
The minister said the current process followed to produce laws was archaic and restrictive, as only the winter sitting of Parliament is exclusively set aside for debating and passing new laws. The situation, he said, causes a heavy backlog at Parliament in terms of law-making.
“We want to be a private sector-led economy, but there are certain things which we have to do. “There are certain laws which we have to amend, but the biggest enemy in our country is the way we have to amend our laws. “It’s a very long process, but that only comes in the July, August Parliament because the other sessions are for the budget and the State of the Nation. “Today, we have more than 40 laws which have to go to this Parliament, and I don’t think in six weeks we will be able to do that, because we have a backlog from the February Parliament.”
He continued: “It is time now we change this process so that it can suit our challenges.
“We should leave those systems from 1966 because we don’t know why those people in 1966 put the Parliament to be like what it is today.”
Mokgware said, besides policy, he believes challenges such as the economic contraction, diamond dependency and unemployment have to do with long-standing leadership weaknesses as well as attitudes within those tasked with making changes.
He said when the new leaders have sought to bring about changes, there are some within the civil service who have adopted the attitude of ‘we are used to doing things like this’.
“Don’t think if you want to get to Francistown in three hours, you can get there with a Toyota model of 1978. “You have a collision between what you want to do as an organisation and the resistance from those people who are used to the old system. “That’s why sometimes we hear permanent secretaries saying, hei dilo tsa goromente o mosha, because they are still locked in the old system. And you expect that person to produce and to give you results? “They are not going to give you results, and that’s why they are saying dilo tsa goromente o mosha because it shows that they are not with you.” Mokgware said the urgency in the country’s challenges required agility in thinking and fresh attitudes tuned towards productivity and results. “These issues need new leaders, agile leadership, people who can sprint to address these big solutions. “They don’t want people who move slowly, as if it is business as usual.
“They need leaders who are agile, leaders with new eyes. “You need leaders with new ears to hear properly what the people are saying, new legs to help you to arrive at the appropriate situations at the appropriate time and new brains for you to deal with these issues, which will think differently.”
The latest competitiveness report indicates that despite the decline in global ranking, the country recorded improvements in key areas of government efficiency, particularly public finance management, which improved from 41st to 37th.
The latest ranking suggest that some improvement is being made, but going by Mokgware’s comments, there is some way to go in both attitude change and policy approach.