25 Mar 2025

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Major General Pius Mokgware, has stressed the urgency of reforms aimed at enhancing national economic resilience. 

Speaking during a panel discussion in Gaborone on Monday, Maj. Gen. Mokgware highlighted the need for the country to shift toward eight unspecified hour-economy if it was to compete on a global scale and safeguard its economic future. 

“The economy does not sleep, but if we are going to sleep ourselves, then the economy will decline,” the minister said, urging local businesses and sectors including government to operate around the clock in order to remain competitive in an increasingly interconnected world. 

Minister Mokgware’s remarks were directed at industries struggling to adapt to global economic trends that favour continuous production and innovation. 

He said if all companies closed at 5pm and all government employees knocked off at 4:30pm and people need to request permission to renew their national identity cards, it slowed progress, adding that it was high time service providers maintained a 24-hour economic activity model so as not to risk losing out on both domestic and international growth opportunities. 

Maj. Gen. Mokgware further called upon manufacturing and retail businesses to offer services at all hours aligning with the global economic shift toward uninterrupted activity. 

“We are not talking longer hours, but that the other group comes in at 7.30am, leave at 4.30pm, and the other shift comes in at 10am and knock off after their eight hours,” he noted, saying that could improve profitability and productivity. 

Meanwhile Maj. Gen.Mokgware revealed that the ministry was working on integrating National Service personnel into the broader economy, with the intention to absorb participants into the country’s formal workforce system.

 He said in the transition, individuals participating in the National Service would after completion of their service be absorbed and receive a minimum wage of P4 000. ENDS