City Clerk To Go On Penal Transfer?

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Monday December 7, 2009 00:00

Kesentseng Kebabonye is being transferred to Ramotswa, while one of her deputies, Godimo Garegope, is on the transfer list though it could not be established where his next station will be, say the sources.

It is being speculated that the transfers follow the flak the council took from employees and the Permanent Secretary himself during his recent visit.

'Things are not going well at the council and it is possible the City Clerk may have taken the ultimate blame for all the mess,' says one source. 'The mess' refers to potholes in the city's roads and traffic lights in a state of disrepair, among other things. The council's Public Relations Officer, Priscilla Gulubane, attributes this 'mess' to lack of spare parts.

'We are in the process of obtaining the parts,' she says. 'Once they are here, the traffic lights should be repaired.'

Before she was transferred to Francistown, Kebabonye deputised David Modisagape. She assumed the position of City Clerk upon the retirement of the latter.

Kebabonye could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press and Gulubane, who was out of town, declined comment.

'Where do you hear that from?' he queried, 'I know nothing about those transfers.' But she alluded to the council management beating the deadline imposed on it by the Permanent Secretary, Thato Raphaka.Raphaka, who did not mince his words during his visit, demanded of council management, especially the embattled Human Resources Department, to address issues like confirmation of employees hired on a temporary basis for 'too long' and of people refusing to go on transfer.  Raphaka, whose visit was also for the purpose of encouraging council employees to work hard in like with President Ian Khama's fifth 'D' for Delivery, preached fire and brimstone as the reward for those who failed to meet deadlines.

Council sources say one person who deserves to be transfer-listed is the Human Resources Manager because his department took much of the blame for 'the mess'.

'That man is no good,' says another source. 'For as long as he is here, the council will continue to suffer. It's all very well that Mma-Kebabonye is being transferred, but this man should also go because he is the root cause of all the mess here.'