The Cabinet reshuffle�s domino effect

Mmegi Editor | Tuesday April 8, 2014 10:28

What appears to have fallen by the wayside in this debate is the impact the reshuffle has had on the line ministries affected, which have only just emerged from the chaos that traditionally surrounds the end of government’s financial year. For some of these ministries, the replacement of substantive and seasoned ministers with those in acting capacities is a blow for the political muscle needed to drive certain interventions. The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture is a case in point. Prior to the reshuffle, then minister, Shaw Kgathi was spearheading a new ‘shared services’ structure under which all departments would be phased out and replaced with core functions such as policy development, research and others. Such a cataclysmic change in the sports ministry would, of necessity, require a continuation of sorts in the political leadership within that ministry. Kgathi understands the motivations for the new structure as well as its impact, and therefore is the perfect candidate to implement his ideas.

No doubt he has spent time sensitising ministry staff about the possible effects, gathering their input and presumably securing their buy-in.

While Vincent Seretse will no doubt enjoy a hand-over/take-over from Kgathi, it would be disingenuous to assume he will automatically pursue all the ministry’s on-going initiatives, including the restructuring, with the same gusto and acumen as his predecessor. Infact, Seretse might find himself struggling to contexualise what Kgathi was thinking when he came up with those initiatives.

The education ministry, which prompted the reshuffle, is even in worse condition, with an unclear arrangement at ministerial level and the departure of its administrative chief being the permanent secretary. The ministry still has to explain fully why students of Shakawe Senior Secondary School should not be given access to classrooms and laboratories to prepare them to sit for the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education.  We still maintain our position that, if indeed government is committed to eradicating poverty, then bold decision needed to be taken to address the Shakawe saga instead of the careless gesture and attitude that Mma Venson-Moitoi displayed.

In addition, the placement of the reshuffled ministers in acting capacities creates the kind of uncertainty within which indecision thrives. With six months to go before the general elections, Batswana, workers and investors would have been hoping, for once, to avoid the type of paralysis that grips governments ahead of electoral processes.  We hope that we are not going to be fed with any excuses not to hold elections, as experimented last December in the Francistown West by-election.

 

Today’s thought

“Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”

 

– Criss Jami