There is a school of thoughts that holds that ministers of government are central to government operations hence the quality and the performance of ministers are crucial.
A central proposition of this school of thought is that government ministers matter, such that the standing and conduct of government is a direct result of the attitude and competence of cabinet ministers.
This school of thoughts assumes that the conduct and performance of individual ministers do have a significant and often lasting impact on the direction of national policies and such other state interventions.
Regardless of whether you agree with this position or not, the little fact that government ministers are the political heads of government ministries is testament to their centrality in the overall functioning of the government.
Government ministers are essentially charged with the responsibility to drive the agenda of the government such that if they fall asleep on the job, the whole system of government would be paralyzed and the nation would certainly suffer the consequences.
Government ministers have a responsibility to drive Botswana’s development agenda by defining what need to be done, how and when it has to be done hence they are the nerve center of government operating system.
And this is reason why state presidents need to have firm control of their cabinet ministers. The vice-like grip of the cabinet by the president is necessary to demonstrate that he is playing the necessary presidential role and that he is rightly connected with the activities of government.
This is reason the president takes most of the credit when things go well and also explains why the president has to take the flak when things go wrong. Put in simple words, the president does his job through his ministers and it is only logical that they feel his presence.
It is not that ministers are expected to get everything right all the time. However, ministers ought to recognize that there is a correlation between their conduct and the overall performance of the government.
There have been instances where some ministers appeared to have been caught off-guard in relation to the core mandate of their ministries while some are on the back foot most of the time.
For the very first time in my entire adult life, Botswana recently plunged into a monumental crisis when public health facilities across the country ran out of stock for various medications especially for chronic diseases.
Whereas it is admitted that such shortages can happen, especially when pharmaceutical companies have to urgently produce certain vaccines for urgent universal vaccination as was the case with the production of COVID-19 vaccines, how the authorities explain the crisis do carry more weight and may indicate that there was much more to it than it would appear.
It has been reported that one explanation for the shortage of medications in public health facilities was that global demand was overstretching the capabilities of suppliers, yet private health facilities source from the same suppliers and did manage to get their orders.
Thus, a plausible explanation for our predicament could be that the relevant ministry did not allocate enough funds to procure the medicines. This suggests that the relevant Ministry did not do it homework and in that case, the relevant Minister had to take the blame and eventual fall for this criminal abdication of responsibility.
However, the minister seemed to be less bothered, rather opting to tell Batswana that Botswana was not the only country battling the shortage. Even if that was the case, it was irresponsible, reckless and arrogant for it seems to suggest that since we were not the only ones in trouble, then there was no need to make noise.
It is not the first time the world has to battle a pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies are profit-oriented and always improvise to meet demand regardless of the challenges they face and so the excuse that the shortage Botswana was experiencing was a result of limited supply tastes like a big lie.
The Minister slept on the job, perhaps in the full knowledge that his position as government minister was unconditionally guaranteed.
In recent times, announcements about the shortage of BAITS ear tags at the Ministry of Agriculture have become a signature song often played with such calmness as to suggest that the Minister is least bothered even as the absence of the ear tags has the potential to throw the small farmer into destitution.
It is not that the ear tags could never be in short supply but the cavalier attitude of the Minister could be suggesting that he does not care about the impact of these frequent shortages on the small farmer who often may have to sell promptly to fund an emergency.
Elsewhere at the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, all levels of the education system have to face off with crises that compromise the quality of education in the country and subsequently our ability to attain the ideals of Sustainable Development Goal number 4 that speaks to among others, achieving universal access to quality education at all levels of the education system.
In primary schools, there is dire shortage of learning materials to a point where schools are begging for exercise books and other materials necessary for learning to take place. For learners from poor families, the shortage of exercise books could mean that they may not be able to copy down schoolwork and class notes until donations are received.
Classrooms and hostels are dilapidated to a point where they look like buildings where children learn witchcraft.
At tertiary institutions, students go for long without their allowances being paid, especially at the beginning of a semester, yet many of these students live in rented rooms and have to use public transport to get to campus.
As a result some miss lectures while others miss assessment tasks with a bearing on their final course grades. This has been going on for ages now without a solution while the Minister responsible is living his best life, growing cheeks and using expensive moisturizer to create a glowing look.
At one of Botswana’s public universities, employees have gone for almost 6 years without any adjustment of their salaries to inflation, and when asked about this, the Minister confirmed that indeed employees got nothing for five years even flavoring his ridiculing by laughingly emphasizing that the employees got ‘same nothing’ during the immediate past financial year.
Again the content of the Minister’s response was not the real deal. The Minister’s body language, his laughing off to his colleagues who were making side enquiries suggested that UB problems were the least of his worries and whoever was pissed off could go hang from the nearest tree.
Much the same can be said about other state ministries where there have been incessant complaints from members of the public on uncomplicated matters that could easily be addressed if the ministers were up to task.
As a result of this larger than life attitude by our government ministers, President Dr Masisi’s administration is in disarray as ministers do as they please. Their lack seriousness, their arrogance and happy-go-lucky approach to the plights of the masses places ministers in the same group with problem children from a mafia family.
President Dr Masisi have been credited for deviating from the norm of appointing delinquents to head government ministries when he appointed lettered individuals from different disciplines to fashion a cabinet that came to look like a model of a high performance organization.
This decision by the president to surround himself with people of substance was expected to ensure that government delivers the best of services. Unfortunately, the arrangement is not delivering as expected mainly because his ministers are too comfortable in their jobs and have become complacent and/or are rebelling against his authority and openly daring him to throw the first punch.
President Dr Masisi is in a crusade to build a positive public image of himself by revamping some government programs. However, the president is warned that his ministers have developed a taste of rebellion and unless he urgently, completely overhauls his cabinet, his efforts may come to naught. Yet, President Dr Masisi’s past cabinet reshuffles have just been largely symbolic, with ministers merely being transferred between ministries like distinguished inmates swapping correctional facilities. This time around the president must crack the whip and sack some of these under-performing, self-seeking, rude ministers.
