BMWU cautioned against boycotting October poll
Onalenna Kelebeile | Wednesday September 10, 2014 15:59
The union took a decision to boycott the general elections after salary negotiations with BCL mine stalled. Addressing a rally during the launch of Thakadiawa council candidate Evelyn Kgodungwe on Sunday, Xhabue said the move is illegal as the union is depriving its membership of their fundamental constitutional rights to vote the government of their choice. He said members should reject the leadership decision. Xhabue, who is also the regional chairman of Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) in Francistown, announced publicly that he was still a civil servant. He dismissed BOFEPUSU leadership’s announcement that the federation had put its support behind the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in the coming general elections. He said the position only represents views of a few individuals who are supporters of the parties under the umbrella.
“The decision was never sanctioned by BOFEPUSU. Our last congress in 2012 made a resolution that the Umbrella has failed and we took a decision that we are not going to be partisan in 2012 when we elected BOFEPUSU leadership. There has never been any other congress that could have made a resolution to support the Umbrella,” he said.
Xhabue, who is also chairman of BMWU in the Francistown region explained that their union later convened a special council where the issue of partisan politics was rejected and resolution was made for BOFEPUSU, as a federation, to make a final decision. Referring to his status of holding a government job while contesting for political office, Xhabue said as a former industrial class worker, he qualified.
‘He explained that the Public Service Act of 2008 did not repeal the Regulations of Industrial Employees when the former industrial class employees were converted to permanent and pensionable status. As it stands, the regulations allow industrial class employees to hold their jobs and hold political offices to augment their paltry salaries.
He further said since they did not receive financial incentive upon conversion to permanent and pensionable status and the Public Service Act is silent on the issue then the affected employees are free to seek political offices.