Africa-Press – Lesotho. Public employees should embrace the digital age and lead the nation in taking advantage of new technologies. Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology, Mr Thulagano Segokgo said this at the ministry’s annual retreat in Palapye on Tuesday.
Mr Segokgo said a technology-driven organisation such as his ministry must embrace change instead of running away from it. “We are in a technology driven environment, which calls on us to be focused, futuristic and innovative in our leadership.
Let us adopt an employee friendly workplace and a change-ready mind-set,” he said. Mr Segokgo said modern communication and information technologies allowed citizens to reclaim their public institutions by contributing to service design and in some cases taking charge of service delivery.
This, he said, was also pronounced clearly on Priority 3 of the RESET agenda – digitilisation. With digitalisation, he said, Botswana had the potential to transform into a better economy, and therefore encouraged employees to reset in order to reform mental modes.
The minister however, pointed out that the past years had been a rich period of experimentation in the public sector service delivery that aimed at making government more efficient, transparent and responsive.
“I want to believe that we have eliminated issues such as systems down, limited research output and low expenditure of our development budget allocation,” he said.
Minister Segokgo also highlighted some of the strides the country had made, such as the release of the high demand spectrum to operators allowing for broadband connectivity and 5G rollout, taking services online, employment creation, and development of FTTx access networks across the country.
Mr Segokgo said other achievements included rural connectivity geared toward closing communications gaps and ensuring inclusivity of all citizens and advancing the government’s e-education efforts through connecting public schools; transformation of postal services through the introduction of virtual teller machines and Post Boxes; rollout of minimum of 100Mbits/s Wi-Fi in government facilities such as clinics and dikgotla and banking the unbanked through initiatives such as Poso Money.
Given the ministry’s retreat this year was meant to reflect on its mandate and develop its 2023-2028 strategic plan, the minister called for setting of a clear plan with goals, targets and a purpose, which he said should be finalised before the ministry could embark on doing business, adding that taking time on an ongoing basis to review past performances and project future performance, provided a road map to follow.
“I believe you will agree with me that, without strategic planning, which is knowing your current state and where you want to go, your likelihood of failing is very high,” said Mr Segokgo.
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