Democracy is ingrained in our blood – BTU
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday July 11, 2022 06:00
The congress will be held at Majestic Hotel in Palapye from July 11-15 and it will be held under the theme, “Empowering educators; building globally competitive human capital for the nation”.
The objective of the theme, Tupane explained, is to empower educators to be globally competitive and “strive for the improvement of academic and professional qualifications of our members.
If our members are global, they will not necessarily have to find employment in Botswana but also in the diaspora.” The event will be BTU’s sixth delegates congress, Tupane said.
Touching on issues of the elections, Tupane stated that BTU is a democratic union that recognises that leaders should not be imposed on members but members as the custodians of the union should freely choose people they want them to lead. “All BTU members are at liberty to choose the people they want to lead them.
Our members are also at liberty to submit their names for nomination if they want to contest for any leadership positions as per the dictates of our constitution,” said Tupane. Many BTU members, Tupane added, have expressed interest to stand for various positions that will be on offer during the congress. “This indicates that BTU has been a democratic union since it was founded in 1937. As BTU, we are very happy that our union is growing in leaps and bounds since its formation,” he noted.
Tupane added that Vice President Slumber Tsogwane will officially open the congress while the executive secretary of Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC), Mavis Koogotsitse, will give keynote address.
The event, Tupane continued, will also be attended by delegates from the Southern Africa Teachers Organisation (SATO), sister unions from Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania in addition to others from Education International (EI). According to its official website, EI is the voice of educators worldwide, which represents organisations of teachers and other education employees across the globe.
“EI is the world’s largest sectoral federation of unions, representing 32 million education employees in about 400 organisations in 174 countries and territories across the globe,” as per the website.
Asked about which positions will be contested for during the congress, Tupane said: “The president, deputy president, secretary-general, deputy secretary-general, treasurer, vice president tertiary, vice president gender and human rights, vice president primary, publicity secretary, secretary for sports, arts and culture and secretary for occupational health and safety.” Tupane pointed out: “The competition during the congress will pit incumbents and non-incumbents. As it is customary, we expect to have a very successful congress.”