Volume 54 Issue 6- June 2016 : Feature

Starting as a history teacher at Gaborone Senior Secondary School in the early 1970`s after graduating from the then University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS), Ms Bakwena went through all the ranks of the public service until she became the permanent sectretary in the Ministry of Education in 2004 where she started her civil service career.

In between, she worked in different capacities mostly in the education ministry, and the current crop of senior civil servants know Ms Bakwena from the time she was the bursaries secretary in the Ministry of Education. She managed the governments scholarship fund with outmost intergrity, humility and honesty, as she was responsible for placing students in tertiary institutions locally and all over the world and monitoring their performance.

In many respects, she became the “mother” of many students studying abroad as she had to visit and counsel them through all their problems of living and studying in a different culture and country.

After having worked for the public for a period in excess of 40 years, Mma Bakwena may proudly say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” (2nd Timothy 4:7).

During a farewell to bid Mma Bakwena, speaker after the other showered her with accolades for being the best leader on how the public service operates.

Although she spent almost 50 years in the public service, Ms Bakwena in fact retired from the public service at the age of 50, but was not left to go to Molepolole and instead employed on contracts in different portfolios for the next 18 years until she finally retired as the first woman Ombudsman.

Asked how she was able to work as the Ombudsman without a legal background, she said she did not feel constrained or handicapped by the lack of a legal mind as she has used the law a lot. She also noted that there is nothing the Ombudsman should have a legal background, but that the act only stipulates that the person employed for the post should be neutral and should not be in politics.

“I concur that most Ombudsman posts are occupied by people with a legal background, that legal background does not necessarily mean a lawyer as lawyers also have different orientations towards the law. The Ombudsman is a non-verserial scheme, it does operate like courts where laws are quoted as interpreted, but  an Ombudsman should be balanced, able to balance law and fair and just,” she said.

She said the work of the Ombudsman was mainly mediation and that a public sector Ombudsman should be able to listen and with a broad knowledge of the public service.

Ms Bakwena said with a wealth of knowledge on how the public service operates, it was important to have lawyers working with her to interpret the law. 

 Ombudsman colleague`s who have worked with Ms Bakwena`s predecessors, the deceased Messrs Lethebe Maine and Ofentse Lepodise, the chief legal investigator, Mr Ramatlotlo Selei said Mma Ba-Kay, as they affectionately called her, would continue to be part of the Ombudsman family and that they would look up to her for advice.

She said Ms Bakwena was not one of the leaders who believed that leadership was an opportunity to dominate others.

“Instead she listens, takes counsel and guides others to realise their potential and exercise their own professional judgement. She gives those she leads an opportunity to show their ability. She is unassuming and treats all equally,” he said.

He said Ms Bakwena had an aptitude to learn that deserves emulation, adding that after she joined the office, she started engaging stakeholders in public education on the role and functions of the Ombudsman.

Mr Selei said Ms Bakwena did her best to advance the interests, vision and mission of the Ombudsman, and that some of the positive changes she contributed include the establishment of the public education unit and the expansion of the office to improve accessibility to services.

“For the longest time we had only two offices in Gaborone and Francistown, and it was during her tenure that another branch office was set up in Maun and another will soon open in Tsabong,” he said.

The directorate of the Department of Public Service Management (DPSM), Ms Ruth Maphorisa referred to Ms Bakwena as her mentor and “mother.”

“Some years back in 1988, I happened to appear before Mme Mma Bakwena who was then the bursaries secretary. Little did I know that some years later she will welcome me to the Ministry of Education as her deputy permanent secretary. Years later she introduced me to the bargaining council and  little did I know that by introducing me to the bargaining council, I will later take over as director DPSM, where she served  before, “ she said.

His son, Mr Montwedi Bakwena, who spoke on behalf of other family members, described his mother as someone who would bent backwards to move the nation forward.

 “I want to rejoice in the legacy that my mum left behind. Mama had an incredible love and passion for the development of this nation, and she was ready to pay any price. ENDS

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