ICT ministry this, ICT ministry that...!

Sir,

Thank you Mr Editor, in advance, for the space in your publication to air my views. One can only lament the ‘good idea gone bad’ in as far as the ICT ministry operations is concerned.

To have an ICT ministry is a good idea as these days communication is the backbone of all developments worldwide.
Disappointingly, the same cannot be said about the staff of this ministry, including the minister herself. This is one ministry which is not easy to cooperate with. I know from experience.
As a new and technical ministry, we were expecting to see it being headed by a seasoned politician and administrator.

I have nothing against Make Pastor Nelisiwe Shongwe nor Nathaniel Mahluza, but the duo has dismally failed to facilitate a promising ‘take-off’ of this all new ministry.
Ego is at play in this ministry at all times, the conflict of the private and personal secretaries is nothing but a symptom of the real problem within this ministry.
If you want to prove my point, just try to cooperate with this ministry, you will notice how unprofessional things are run there.

As for the conflict of the secretaries, this is an embarrassment in the part of the duo (minister and PS) because we assume they know government regulations governing secretaries (personal and private), but they seem like they’re lost in the Amazon jungle, and they allow their personal egoes to take control.
How can the minister and PS take sides in this ‘school-girls cat-fight’ instead of showing maturity and leadership among these secretaries?

As the public, we follow what is going on in all government offices, though they (public figures) may think they are beyond reproach.
Having the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) send back this ministry’s performance report for fine-tuning numerous times is one indication that all is not well.

Maybe the minister was supposed to start as an appointed MP if the powers-that-be insist on having her on board.
But if you’d ask me, she was good as a pastor, running her business than heading such a crucial ministry.
As for the PS, maybe he was supposed to start as an under secretary (US) to grasp the tiny details of management and public administration, including ‘sound’ report-writing skills, or better-still, remain the director of computer services.

Lastly, one must say we were taken aback when the PM recently said all cabinet ministers are performing well, when we know most haven’t delivered even half of their previous year performance targets. But this explains the variations in the meaning of good performance, as these are relative terms.
We can’t wait for 2013, to have a new recycled cabinet. Maybe things will be better then, we can only hope.

Hopping Hopper,
Manzini

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: