Push Country’s Agenda – chief of staff

North West District Council has been implored to join forces with government to move the country from middle income to upper income economy.

Chief of Staff, Mr Boyce Sebetela said the country aspired to attain the upper income status, saying to achieve that the country’s economy had to grow by 5.7 per cent, adding that currently it stood at 4.3 per cent as per the economic report of 2021.

He made the remarks when appraising the councillors on the Reset Agenda, noting that the road to achieving 5.7 per cent was not easy, hence all stakeholders should come on board and play their role to achieve the country’s ambition, which was in-line with the national Vision 2036.

To accelerate pace, Mr Sebetlela said individuals and organisations had to identify economic paths as a matter of urgency to move the country forward.

The district, he said, was a tourism hub, adding that they could exploit available opportunities to contribute to the 5.7 per cent growth rate.

He said the district could see how best it could value chain tourism sector to extract maximum value.

“The road to reach the upper income status is slow, hence President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi introduced the Reset Agenda, which calls for a radical shift.

It calls for every individual and organisation to rethink and change the way they had been doing things with an aim to bring more results,” he added.

The agenda, he said, called on all to change the speed, actions and improve productivity in an effort to attain the high income status.

The reason the country was stuck, he said, was because people did not introspect, and he called on legislators and management to take stock and acknowledge their flaws that hindered progress in development.

Mr Sebetlela further noted that the country was left with only two National Development Plans to reach 2036 and called on public servants and political leaders to identify what they wanted to reset.

He said they needed courage to stop, start and improve, take hard choices and actions, adding that the first to reset was leadership behaviour, styles and relations between themselves, juniors, structures and other authorities.

“If you are not able to rethink together, you cannot move forward and you cannot stop anything as far as the Reset Agenda is concerned, hence it is critical for you to have good relationship for smooth implementation of the agenda,” he added.

He also noted that the agenda calls for reset of functions, structures, processes, service standard, laws and policies, adding that it also emphasised excellence in every organisations and a move to use digital infrastructure.

Mr Sebetlela noted that Ngamiland District was vast and usage of technology could help reduce distances travelled by residents to access services.

Technology, he said, could enable members of the community to participate effectively in the economy and live better lives.

He called on public servants to reduce doing things manually, noting that some services could be privatised if they experienced challenges, citing litter collection.

He emphasised the need to be creative and efficient in everything they did to boost productivity in the workplaces.

For their part, councillors appreciated that the Reset Agenda could indeed bring positive results if well implemented.

The agenda, they said, could address the issue of wastage in the public sector.

Councillor Television France said the district could benefit a lot from the tourism sector considering available products in the region and urged government to accelerate efforts to improve Sehithwa-Mohembo road construction, saying it could help stimulate the economic growth.

He also cited the newly constructed Mohembo Bridge, saying government had invested in the project, hence it should take road infrastructure into consideration.

The bridge facility, he said, was a tourism product and had the potential to generate more income. BOPA