The Botswana Daily Newspaper of Monday 22st November 2022 carries a story title ‘Government to establish appellant structure office’. The short of the long is that due to the incessant complaints about poor public service delivery, government has taken a decision to establish a full-fledged office to deal with such issues.
Of all matters covered in the story, what caught my attention was the pronouncement that the proposed office would be housed in the Ministry of State President. Really? We certainly can do better than this.
It ought to be remembered that the Government of Botswana established the Botswana National Productivity Centre in 1995, to confront low productivity and inefficiency mainly in the public service and to boost the country’s competitiveness.
Low productivity and inefficiency are generally a result of poor work ethics and the BNPC has for the longest time, sought to confront this evil of poor work ethics. BNPC has certainly played its role and needed, as it still do, others to play their part.
Unfortunately, the very institution that intends to house the appellant office has lately been in the news for the wrong reasons, specifically for President Dr Masisi’s perpetual tardiness.
It certainly would be a mockery and a waste of efforts and public resources to have the office in a Ministry that has no slightest discipline to keeping time.
Perhaps we can draw wisdom from the saying that ‘he that beats the drum for the mad man to dance is no better than the mad man himself’. Essentially, having the proposed office housed in the Ministry of State President would mean that government’s efforts at addressing public complaints would be mere window-dressing.
It is noted that President Dr Masisi kept law makers, invited guests including chief executives of multinationals that support our non-profit organizations and the general public waiting for almost an hour at the recent State of the Nation Address.
This was his latest instalment of his rotten habit of arriving late at scheduled event and never really feeling bad about which suggest that he does it deliberately. In fact, his late coming habit has become legendary.
President Dr Masisi is the head of state and government with the wherewithal [both in terms of his authority and of being venerated by multitudes for being commander –in-chief of the armed forces] to model any behaviour whatsoever.
Thus, it is no brainer that his habitual lack of punctuality does create a domino effect that is frustrating interventions seeking to fix a culture of poor service delivery in Botswana.
The sum effect of this disregard for punctuality is that ours is a tardy administration, a delinquent government that has mastered to express its craving for attention and admiration by breaching, with brazen regularity, standard rules of a very expensive commodity called time.
Some scholars have emphasized that time is a commodity which must be utilized, sold and bought hence the maxim that time is money.
In this instance, it is suicidal for a developing country such as Botswana to have a head of state who is very informal, reckless and irresponsible about time.
Essentially, there is a price to pay for being unpunctual such as losing investment opportunities to competitors, being caught unprepared by pandemics and so forth hence the need to appreciate the value of modern time.
Among other things, the BNPC has in the past expressed frustration with poor work ethic, itself a consequence of lack of a sense of time management and/or lack of appreciation of the value of time.
In today’s cutthroat world, leaders do not create time hence activation of scheduled events should not depend on whether the guests have arrived but rather on whether the hour has come.
Demanding President Masisi to be punctual should be understood in the context of asking the country’s number one citizen to take his job a little seriously and live by example in the full knowledge that multitudes will be inspired as they learn his behaviours.
The president’s habit to arrive late at scheduled events is essentially a manifestation of poor work ethic which is a major reason Botswana’s economy is on a free fall. Our economy is losing out on opportunities to its peers in the region largely because our president never fails to be late to the show.
His Cabinet Ministers know very well that he is always late hence there is really no need for them to be on time at events that feature the head of state because they will still have to wait after all.
Their accounting officers have come to live with it and the trickle effect is that the entire chain of command lacks a sense of workplace discipline with the result that deadlines are not honoured hence doing business in Botswana is nightmare.
Being punctual starts with planning ahead and ends with keeping a promise. It has been emphasized that being punctual shows that one is a man of his own words, dependable and reliable.
On the other hand, being habitually late and not feeling bad about it means that one does not really care and/or that he/she is not committed to what they are expected to do because if they had fire in the belly, they wouldn’t come late.
The founding father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin is remembered for his remarks that if a man is careless about time he is probably careless about all other things in life.
Other great minds have noted that the habit of being prompt once formed extends to everything positive including keeping promises. And the reverse applies.
It is fact that Botswana has a serious, deep-seated problem of poor public service delivery. Low productivity and inefficiency are our distinguishing traits.
Whereas a combination of factors account for this sorry condition, an abysmal work ethic is central to poor public service delivery and is an impediment to economic growth.
At the centre of most Batswana’s poor work ethics is the African time syndrome that often manifests in failure to organize one’s own time, being careless about time and about everything that has to do with time.
Generally, the phenomenon of the African time syndrome has been researched by scholars such as Makgala, Mazrui, Thebe and others and indeed this is not a trivial matter but a real massive problem that is threatening to block genuine efforts in industrialization, in achieving sustainable development and generally in improving standards in Botswana.
Could it be that President Dr Masisi is an adherent of the African time in which case we will have to live with it even as it causes so much misery in missed opportunities and general lack of development?
This column is on record calling for President Dr Masisi to reconstruct his public image, either through his own efforts or the efforts of his handlers and family. The column was alarmed that the President is showcased as a careless, unbothered, and pitiless citizen who battled to ascend to the highest office to solely placate his appetite for personal and family wealth.
But there are no indications that our observations were ever taken seriously hence the father of the nation and who is also the face of government still handles himself like an idle Bishop.
It is not that we expect our opinions to have a desired influence on everyone who is discussed or affected by our discussions but some of our commentaries may help build leaders’ character and reputation if taken into consideration.
A cheeky and scandalous public image that projects a president as incorrigibly dishonest, dispiriting pathological liar and lately a perpetual loafer has far reaching consequences for both the individual and the nation he leads.
It is in this context that the Badge of Courage has a small favor to ask from the powers that be – better have the proposed office managed from SSKB. It cannot be denied that there is a need for dedicated full-fledged structure to handle general complaints from members of the public in relation to provision of public services.
However, it will be self-defeating to have such office in a Ministry that is probably the main reason the president is so sloppy that he cannot force himself to wake up early to take care of national business.
Psychologists have theorized that in some instances lack of punctuality is associated with leaders who overestimate their worth and have to demonstrate that they are different from the rest of us and do not have to be subjected to our time.
There is no dignity in being waited for especially when the guests will ultimately have nothing to show for their patience as is often the case with our fumbling, unimaginative and uninspiring government.
