Chronicle Editor
AT the first provincial development committee meeting of the year on Thursday, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube related a recurring experience for most of us.
“I sometimes visit some of the offices,” she said.
“You knock and knock at the offices and get no response yet the workers will be in the offices. You then move in only to find someone busy reading a newspaper and they don’t bother attending to you. You are later told it’s already lunch time, come after lunch.”
When the worker later realises that he or she is actually speaking to the most senior figure in the province, they quickly transform from being a slothful, disinterested fellow to feigning friendliness.
“It’s not right and if you check the clock when they say its lunch time it will be 15 or 20 minutes before the lunch hour,” she added.
“You are turning away people, some who would have come from very far away and probably have no bus fare to come back. Let’s attend to the people, let’s respect the people we serve. Without these people we have no work”.
Minister Ncube’s account is indeed what the common person often experiences, not only in Bulawayo, but also at other centres countrywide when they need Government services. Empty offices with chairs wearing jackets, workers slouched in their chairs endlessly sipping coffee with their legs on top of their desks and endless chatter as clients queue up for hours outside.
We are encouraged that she, as the governor of the province, from time to time, goes out just like the rest of us for Government services or to just check on how her charges are going about their work. We want her to keep on doing that, also reading the Riot Act to those she finds wasting our time instead of working. The unannounced visits will keep them on their toes, unsure whether Minister Ncube would be in their offices next time.
Her experience is also a call to public service supervisors to pull their socks up as well to earn their keep. Where would they be when their subordinates play instead of working?
Civil servants must understand that their positions are an honour to serve the motherland. They are actually privileged to be in those positions. Therefore, they must always have that push to want to deliver for their country. They are the face of their country; they project the image of their country through the work they do.
Previously, civil servants explained away their slothfulness to the fact that they were poorly paid. There is absolutely no excuse now as civil servants are, as a matter of fact, some of the better paid workers in the country.
Online Reporter