INSIDE THE PRESIDENCY: VICE PRESIDENT ADDRESSES MEDIA Welcome once more to your weekly window into events and issues involving the Presidency. Yesterday, H.E. the President, Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, led fellow members of Cabinet in a friendly football match against their Permanent Secretaries at UB stadium as part of this year’s annual Public Service Day and Convention. The game resulted in a 2-1 Cabinet victory with His Excellency scoring a brace. Earlier on Thursday, the Acting Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, the Honourable Shaw Kgathi, officially opened a two day event, which is being held under the theme: “Innovating Public Governance for Sustainable Development.” In his keynote address the Minister Kgathi observed that Public Service Day was welcome opportunity for public servants to not only celebrate but also interrogate their individual and collective service delivery, observing that: “Creating access to timely and quality service to majority of the citizenry is the essence of good governance. It is also unquestionable that the success of countries in providing accessible timely and quality service is the basis for global competitiveness.” The Minister went on to note that while poor work ethics continues to be a log jam toward concerted efforts to enhance the country’s competitiveness, Botswana had moved up five places to 74th position out of 148 countries in the in the world Economic Forum’s most recent Global Competitiveness report, also placing it in 4th position in the Sub-Saharan Africa regional category. Given the need to enhance the nation’s competitiveness, the Minister observed that it was critical that Botswana should fully embraces e-government as a reform strategy to enhance good governance, strengthen greater equity, efficiency, productivity, growth and social inclusion. The convention continues today and will culminate in an awards ceremony tonight recognising excellence among serving public officers. Vice President On Wednesday His Honour the Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, officially opened a Botswana Editors’ Forum Workshop on Economic Reporting Focusing on Small and Medium Enterprises. In his remarks he noted that inasmuch as “we all live in a world that is driven, by and large, by economics and organised around business it is absolutely crucial for media practitioners, more especially those reporting on economic and development issues, to be grounded in at least basic understanding of how markets operate and how consequently businesses falter or prosper.” He further observed that “the topic of Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprises (SMMEs) was most timely given that SMMEs have been identified around the world “as critical elements for achieving sustainable inclusive development through a more diversified and productive economy” given that “by their very nature SMMEs serve as incubators of innovation and entrepreneurship;” further noting that: “The promotion of SMMEs has become a core component of Government efforts to eradicate absolute poverty and promote citizen empowerment, including the youth, as well as a catalytic segment for growing and diversifying the economy as a whole.” He also noted that Government’s commitment was further reflected in the fact that 213 new small businesses, with an expected domestic investment of P391 million have been financed by CEDA over the past year, which are expected to create 1859 jobs. With respect to the media industry, Vice President Kedikilwe reaffirmed that Government appreciates that the private media, like the private sector in general have their own challenges, which include the relatively small market and the infancy of indigenous publishing and other media related activities. He further acknowledged that local media are constrained by a lack of adequate training and mentoring, which is due not only to under-investment in human capital but also because media houses often find it difficult to retain more talented and experienced journalists. In the above context, Kedikilwe paid tribute to the Botswana Editors Forum for its own efforts to promote newsroom training as well as organizations like CEDA for their support. With respect to the importance of media to the economic wellbeing of the country, he further warned that a country that cannot effectively communicate its own interests is, in this era or epoch of information age, an endangered country. Endangered species, adding that: “For instance, without media there can be no serious marketing, without marketing there is no product appreciation and sales, without sales (at national level in services and exports) our society will have limited outlets and therefore no business. No business, no jobs. A paradoxical irony for an industry that is labour intensive.” On the subject of media ethics he stated that “just as popular faith in democratic politics will be compromised by dishonest governance; the credibility of any free media will likewise suffer if it casts aside such professional values as truthfulness and ethics, accuracy, balance and fairness, while indulging in sensationalism and malicious insult.” He therefore called on the press to ensure “coherence between headlines and the substantive story”, while avoiding unfair innuendo, noting that some people avoid interviews to avoid being quoted out of context. He also called for rebuttals and corrections to inaccurate stories “to be given some semblance of prominence and reader friendly font.”
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 05:56:18 +0000
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