Sunday, February 16, 2025

Allowing civil servants to dabble in business will prove counterproductive

Last week an announcement came from the president that henceforth civil servants will be allowed be involved in business. It is now official.

What the president conveniently does not say is what has happened as to allow such a drastic departure from a policy that has served this country so well.

Allowing public servants to dabble in business is akin to allowing them to openly engage in politics.

It is an earth shattering decision that cannot be taken lightly on account of one’s mood on a given day.
Very clearly, we are now entering a dangerous territory.

The civil service in Botswana is a powerful institution that has at least in theory been created to stay above politics.

While we know that in practice this has long rung hollow, there is no reason to now declare an open season.

A majority of senior civil servants are card carrying members of the ruling Botswana Democratic party.

That tragically also extends to the top brass at the Botswana Defence Force, the Botswana Police Service and the Prisons Service.

Even as they claim to be apolitical, somehow membership of the BDP is seen as a subtle way of progression within these agencies.

We all know that the BDP performed terribly at the polls last year due, in no small measure to an unhappy public service.

BDP fight for survival should not be at all cost.

It important to point out that not being allowed to do business was a never part of the grievances by the public servants.

Rather, public servants want fairness, they want a culture of meritocracy re-introduced and they demand to be treated in a civil way especially by the political leadership.

They also take unkindly to being bullied including by such key personnel like Permanent Secretary to the President.

In short they want integrity and dignity brought back to the public service.

Instead of doing just, President Ian Khama has been on a wild frolic the net aim of which is to divide and ultimately annihilate trade unions.

There is no evidence to suggest that since after October last year president Khama has all of a sudden become a convert of meritocracy in the public service. If anything all the old vices, clad in deceiving coattails of ambivalence persist, only at a much higher tempo.

All top level appointments since, as all those before have been a total sham.

Some permanent secretaries and indeed their deputies cannot tell the difference between government and a governing party. The rot at the top of the civil service is irredeemable.

The civil service has not collapsed mainly on account of the technical expertise of those at middle level management. This is the truss that holds the entire edifice from collapsing.

On a positive note this is at least one good solace that those who will be running this country in the next five to ten years can afford because by then this lot would be at the top leadership.

Crude insincerity, outright dishonesty and bad faith permeate all the key decisions in government.

To understand reasons behind allowing civil servants to also become business men and women, one only has to go as far as scrutinize the so called Graduate Volunteer Scheme to discern how disingenuous this government can be.

The tactic to allow civil servants to also become business people is an extension of the ones before it. They all have one thing in common ÔÇô which is to disarm trade union leaders of the legitimate concerns they have been voicing out on behalf of their members, while not addressing those concerns.

This time around, instead of just dividing trade unions, the president is also placating and appeasing them by giving them concessions, albeit void ones. The tragedy though is that he might just have overreached himself. Allowing civil servants to become business people is set to inevitably backfire.

It will increase corruption, institutionalize insider trading and abuse of inside information.

Most critically the decision is set to make the public service even more ungovernable than it currently is because overnight those who choose to go into business will invariably have two masters to obey.

It is a tragedy made in hell.

Civil servants are the same people who issue out such things like trade licenses and other permits, to business people.

How will it play out when such civil servants are also competitors to real business people?

Those who have even the most basic experience in business will tell you of the venality of our civil servants. That is set to skyrocket when they now are directly interested in business.

Public servants, especially trade unions should not be duped. A decision to allow public servants to dabble in business is a convenient and infinitely cosmetic distraction from key demands already made.

Running a business is a fulltime job. Just how does a civil servant who is employed on a fulltime basis by government run a successful business? It sounds slightly like Alice in Wonderland!

By allowing civil servants to now engage in business, it is clear that President Khama still has his political guile, deft and agility.

What has however deserted him is a sense of right and wrong.

He seems to believe that because the BDP is in trouble it can use all arsenal including outlawed weapons to stay in power.

That is not how it works, General!

Even in war, there are rules. And those who break the rules are invariably always held liable ÔÇô no matter how long it takes.

RELATED STORIES

Read this week's paper