Amongst the myriad of duties that governments have is the duty to provide services to the governed through their various departments. This rendering is done by the government not by its own hands as it is itself not a singular being having limbs and eyes as to be maimed; this it does through its hands and eyes, the lot of the civil service who form part of its pool of agents and operatives who are from time to time employed, promoted and sometimes jilted. To prove its effectiveness amongst other things, government is to demonstrate to the body politic that it can through its agents render proper, timely, efficient, relevant and uncompromising services. To achieve this end, governments across the civilized world have set up offices albeit differing in name but bearing a similarity of purpose, namely to hire, promote and dismiss those in the public service. Here in Botswana we have the Directorate of Public Service Management. These offices do not however act with reckless abandon neither on whim nor caprice; this they do with and by the authority of law and other instructions that are attendant to every economy.
It is against this backdrop that the author supposes in this piece a basic principle of demographic and economic persuasion that, as the population grows its demands and needs multiply; that the body of civil service must in its various permutations manifest and mirror this growth. In so doing it must endear itself (through information availed in censuses, surveys and various studies) to the needs of the nation and see to it that it does not falter in availing its various agents to render most needed services to meet the beckoning of the public no matter how various and multifarious they may be. In brief the staff/members of the civil service must increase at the rate of need and growth. It would be a misnomer to suggest that the same crop of people that provided services back in the ‘90s be the same lot that should do so in contemporary and fast changing Botswana.
It is perhaps keeping in touch with these realities that the Public Service Act, 2008 has among its notable provisions Section 15 (3), which clothes the Director of Public Service with the power to dismiss any person within the public service who may have attained to age of 45. This article however will not commit itself to the legal specifics of the said provision as it wills not here play an appraisal of public service laws. It (the section) is intended to keep the civil service vibrant and youthful so as to have reposed in itself the confidence that it will serve the rest of the people at uncompromising speed and heartwarming commitment; in absence of the challenges of age infirmity, out of step knowledge and most of all with relevance to the needs of the present generation. It is feared by the spirit of that provision that it might have been possible to have a voice from the past ordering the youthful new of the civil service on what to do on matters that the voice is not an authority on. It is a safeguard against the sentiment, personalization of things, further, the overbearing and taskmaster attitude that often comes with age. Most importantly, it is also in the spirit of that provision to deal with sense of entitlement to positions that often laces comments of senior civil servants, who are known to voice their distaste at the new lot that seems to invade the civil service at a rising rate.
Now therefore, it is expected by the public, in most instances on the hinges of practice and entrenched custom perhaps amounting to a rule of law that those who reach completion of their studies at various high institutions of learning are to find employ first in the civil service then secondly in the private sector and thirdly for some to join the security forces being Prisons, Police Services and the Botswana Defence Force. It is on these premises that whoever completes their education upon any cast they deem qualifying for employment; members of the public expect them to find acceptance and absorption into the above listed sectors. This according to them shall keep the said sectors relevant, vibrant and most applicable.
The state of graduates in our country today looks like scenes from the days of the great depression of 1932. Many graduates like the unlettered lot fill the streets, sit home, shift and turn with tree shadows, dish out applications in their hundreds but with not a single positive response; as such some have totally given up hope. Those adopted in governmental makeshift initiatives such as the National Internship Programme face serial exploitation and abuse from their bosses and cry bitterly with no answer from whosoever may and has power to come to their aid. They remain in these exploitative arrangements some for years after promises that theirs is but a temporary platform, a springboard that will catapult them to their dream jobs. This they later find to be a farce; a design by government to keep them in bondage at a meager allowance which cannot even cover one’s transport needs for a month while government and its cooperating companies rise and rise to stardom and success on the sweat of their brow and the breakage of their kilt.
Those that seek to pursue business with dreams of being multi-million pula employers find that the system through which they could be getting funds is laced with red tape throughout and clearly orchestrated to reject the youth. They demand outrageous securities, unbelievable installments and mad down-payments which things one cannot have attained in their youth.
Government seems to have forgotten the very things that matter, its very reason of being, the interests of the people in their individuality and/or collectivity; pleasing all without offending the other. This is a heavy burden, which is why it is not heaped upon any single man who is by himself prone to offending some and pleasing others, but upon government which is by its nature is by the people and for the people. An all pleaser! It becomes untenable therefore when a certain segment of the public feels that their needs are being sidelined at the expense of the other; that they are not being listened to and another is being listened to in their stead. The general population of graduates is youthful. It having been proven so far on good authority that ours is a youthful population as opposed to an aged population as in countries like Japan. It is needful that any self respecting government in fear of falling out with the majority of the population that it governs move with utmost swiftness to appease that segment, particularly as is the case in Botswana where that majority population is likely to determine the incoming government at the polls. If the BDP government seeks to cement its relevance among the youth of our country which is fast dying out it must see to it that it begins to pay particular attention to the interests of the youth. It also having been apparent that all government’s attention is now focused on the aged, the poor and the rural lot.
At varying points of their inaugural speeches and periodical state of their nations addresses Presidents of most progressive nations of the world seeing that unemployment is among the critical challenges of modern day governments are relentless in addressing their nations on how they intend to deal with this overly important need of their people. To date, the job creation campaign more especially in the US forms the key matters that Presidential hopefuls and the incumbent must address. Barak Obama has risen to celebrity stardom after his government created more than 300 000 jobs in this already challenging economic time. Even across the boarder in South Africa, the Opposition is incessantly in keeping the incumbent upon his toes; they demand from him to tell them how he seeks to deal with the now global crisis of unemployment and idleness of their youth. The situation of graduates and by extension that of the youth in Botswana is by all standards one of pure and utter doom. The same old tired rhetoric by those who govern promising employment and thorough initiatives to the youth has proved what it really is. Pure vote seeking and nothing less! It is also on these basis that the Opposition must needs emulate the posture of their brethren abroad; to keep the current regime on its toes and demand answers. It is not the political bickering; demagoguery, mudslinging and back biting that will save the constituents. It is the lifeline that is lasting job creation!
Political leaders, merchants of the private sector, gate keepers in security forces need to wake up and smell the coffee; it must come upon them as a biblical open vision that what we have upon our hands is no small matter but a global crisis and the call upon them to refine local structures and preserve their own. The few attempts by various governmental departments geared at improving the livelihood have been found wanting, initiatives for the youth are not reaching all, they seem segmented, the backlog swells daily at DPSM, their website even fails to open and the National Internship Programme has turned moribund and defunct; there is truly a need for serious consideration and stratagem.
The enduring legacy that the Khama government can leave for the people of Botswana and particularly the general populace of the youth is not the handing of blankets and jackets or fat cakes and Oros to the rural lot but the unforgettable legacy of job creation and getting the huge lot of our youth off the streets. Employment being the lifeblood of the majority of the people in Botswana and the rest of the world is truly a memorable gesture. It is most improbable that one would erase off such from his mind.
Mr. Editor, it is with great and deep sadness that the writer sits and put to ink these matters. It is with the hope that those at the helms of power have regard to these overly pressing and unsettling matters and come to the aid of the people. Act now he says, and your actions will ring for a lifetime, miss the occasion, your fall shall be great.
