The minister was scheduled to address council staff on Friday concerning their working conditions but some officers felt they had been manipulated into attending a campaign for the Botswana Democratic Party.
Lazarus Rapelang and one of his colleagues at the council, Esther Morgan both accused the minister of trying to lure them into voting for the ruling party. “Time is running out for their election campaign and now they are making Francistown their second home. Just a few weeks ago, the Minister in the Office of the President, Oliphant Mfa, was here. You never see these men here unless they want something. We can’t even remember the last time we saw Tshipinare here,” said Rapelang.
Morgan asked, “Why the late address of workers? How many times have we requested him to come and see the conditions under which we work? Why is he only coming a few months before the elections and what guarantee can he give us that he will implement our requests because he might not be given the same ministry if he is elected?”
Another group of officers said that they didn’t suspect anything, but were sure that Another officer commented, “Look he has not even answered most of our questions. These people think they are at liberty not to deliver.”
When interviewed by Mmegi, Tshipinare dismissed the allegations.
“I was doing my job,” he said. “I was appointed in early September 2002. In the one and half years I have been here (local government) I have been to see council seniors and now I am attending to the council staff. This is not a campaign gimmick. If it were, how would I expect the people of Francistown to vote for me?”
He said the meeting had afforded a lot of people an opportunity to speak about their problems freely. “That puts us in a better light concerning their problems at work. Now we know their grievances, and we will try to solve them with time. Even though I appreciate that they have problems they should also understand that it would take time to deliver on them,” he said.
