They would rather the institution be a stand-alone entity following separation with Lesotho and Eswatini. They also want a commission for an independent forensic audit of the institution to assess its financial status and operational efficiency. The employees aligned to the Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) have since developed a position paper presenting staff concerns. Staff concerns are centred around the secrecy of the IDM closure without prior consultation with them and circumstances regarding the impending merger. These include staff welfare, the impact of the merger on the financial situation of the country, as well as the contribution of IDM locally, regionally and internationally. According to the position paper, there have been some speculations over the closure of IDM since 2022, when it was speculated that the institution would be subsumed into the University of Botswana. “Although this issue disturbed employees, the management did not address the employees in order to give them assurance regarding job security or manage the uncertainty that was caused by the media. Fortunately, the issue was moderated down by the President’s speech which did not include IDM in the State Owned Entities (SOEs) planned for rationalisation,” the employees wrote in 2024, adding that strong speculations arose that IDM was closing, which led to a state of confusion. Moreover, they state there were rumours that the institution would not even have the 2024 July first year intake. This, they say, caused emotional distress to the employees who were still in the dark about what was happening, and like in the past year, no formal communication was made about the issues. “Fortunately, the institution had intake which enrolled over 1, 000 students. This, however, did not alleviate the uncertainty as the closure issue was still lingering and rumoured along the corridors by some managers close to top management. A new development emerged that IDM will be merged with the BNPC and the BPSC,” they further state. On January 29, 2025, IDM staff received an email from the office of the Country Director inviting them to a meeting, which was scheduled and attended on January 30, 2025. The meeting was addressed by the Director of Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), Gaone Machola, who announced that; three countries; Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini have decided to exit the tripartite.
The closure of the regional office
