Dikoloti irks BOFEPUSU
FRANCISTOWN: The Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) says it is irked by the continued attacks on civil servants by some ministers and prominent government officials.
The federation through its spokesperson, Mogomotsi Motshegwa was reacting to recent remarks reportedly made by the Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti. The minister made the remarks in a shared mobile phone conversation with Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye West, David Tshere. Tshere who is also chairperson of the health and HIV committee was seeking an update from the minister on the availability of medication in local hospitals. The Mahalapye West legislator confirmed the conversation with Dikoloti but denied leaking it.
There have been widespread reports of shortage of critical medications in government hospitals around the country but the minister downplayed the severity of the situation in the leaked audio.
Dikoloti said the medications are available and created insinuations that some civil servants were to blame because they were sleeping on their jobs or at their best sabotaging the government by not ensuring that hospitals have sufficient drugs. In the contrary, early this week, in a press conference he partly conceded that there were shortages of some critical drugs in local hospitals and government has lined up several strategies to remedy the situation.
“We are disappointed. We do not expect a minister to utter such words. He could have been candid about the situation on the ground instead of laying blame on some civil servants. He should also have given assurances that the government will resolve the situation accordingly,” Motshegwa told Mmegi.
He added, “If things go negative, senior government officials blame the civil servants instead of taking full responsibility. When things are going well the ministers and senior government officials take all the credit. This happens even in sports. We are not amused at all.”
Motshegwa stated that unions have in the past launched complaints to the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) against ministers and senior officials who speak out of turn against the workers. He however said that it does not look like the trend will cease anytime soon.
“The minister knows what to do when he is not happy about service delivery in his ministry. As the key driver of the vision of the ministry he should also know that the buck stops with him instead of shifting blame. It is a very lame excuse for him to blame the workers.”
Meanwhile, Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) spokesperson, Kenosi Mogorosi would not want to dwell much on the leaked conversation. He elucidated that the union has been strongly led to believe that there are no medicines in hospitals. Nurses have in the recent past lamented that the continued shortage of medicines is negatively impacting on their members and often put them on a collision cause with their clients.
“It is very frustrating for nurses to continue to work without adequate resources. Some of them have left because of frustration. It also affects them psychologically when they cannot satisfactorily service patients because of shortage of drugs and resources. We also want to emphasise that we are not politically affiliated and we are committed to supporting the government’s endeavour to provide quality health abuse,” Mogorosi said.