Dikgosi accuse MOPAPA of disrespect
Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday June 23, 2016 15:23
They said for a long time the government, particularly the ministry of presidential affairs and public administration, has sidelined them in formulation of policies and programmes, only to invite them for launches of such policies and programmes.
Kgosi Galeakanye Modise of Tswapong said they are unhappy with being left out and only being called when programmes and services are being launched.
“For a long time now we have been disrespected by being left out, and your ministry is the worst, you never consult dikgosi on anything,” he said.
This was after the assistant minister Phillip Makgalemele presented to Ntlo ya Dikgosi, that they will be working closely with the traditional leaders in making sure that government services and programmes reach people in the desired manner.
Makgalemele told dikgosi that GICO was meant to ensure that all government services and programmes reach everyone in the country.
“The recent transfer of District Commissioners to the Office of the President is meant to improve service delivery to the people.
We shall be working with them together with dikgosi, Village Development Committees (VDC) and the rest of the civil servants,” he said.
He said even though they have a 10-point agenda, which outlines how public servants should serve, and given standards of providing services, there is need for thorough monitoring.
Presenting CBM to dikgosi, Bonolo Taka of GICO said the CBM approach is a social accountability tool that empowers local communities to demand government services from extension service departments.
“Local communities are empowered to rate government services using village score cards, the process uses the community as its unit of analysis for monitoring at the local level,” she said, adding that through the process, the community gets to know about their entitlements; provision of direct feedback between service providers and users, and helps resolve outstanding service delivery issues amongst other benefits.
Taka hinted that they have trained five districts with 42 score cards covering nine ministries for the most critical programmes and basic services have been developed and are being administered by the districts.
She said the roll out to the remaining districts is ongoing.
She said the participants will be dikgosi, all village structures under VDC’s including Parents Teachers Associations (PTA), farmers’ committees, health committees and social welfare committees and district extension teams.
Kgosi Mosadi Seboko of Balete also expressed concern at the lack of inclusion of dikgosi saying they hope that dikgosi at all levels will be included as the initiative is a good one which needs them.
For his part, Kgosi Maruje Masunga said the 10-point agenda should be adopted by all in government and Batswana be taught about it, so they can demand answers from service providers.
Ntlo ya Dikgosi chairman, Kgosi Puso Gaborone applauded the government for the move stating that this will improve the quality of services provided to Batswana.
He said the move is long overdue as dikgosi work closely with merafe and always receive complaints.