BOPEU happy to court Khama

Oarabile Mosikare | Thursday May 7, 2015 16:19

Addressing the media Tuesday night, Motsamai said it is their role to develop a working relationship with those in power, to engage them on issues affecting their members.

“Some issues are not for bargaining but for consultation and policy. Policy is the prerogative of those in power, our role is to contest it,” said Motsamai. He gave the example of National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11) which is about to be formulated saying they have to get into the policy forums and engage the Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) and government bureaucrats to shape it in their favour.

“NDP 11 cannot be brought to the Bargaining Council,” he said.

Motsamai charged that there were double standards applied, noting that when teachers unions engage the Ministry of Education and Skills Development on Levels of Operations or supervision of sporting activities outside the Bargaining Council, it is viewed by the media as a legitimate interaction. “But when BOPEU interacts with OP it is selling out. BOPEU has to engage OP because its membership cuts across the entire government. “Our first point of call is the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), which is a department under the OP. The Head of Public Service is the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP). When we engage the OP we are administratively engaging the PSP. According to the Public Service Act, His Excellency the President is also the mandate giver of negotiations. A smart trade union cannot avoid an opportunity to engage with the Office of the President of the country. Fortunately our members are able to separate the office from the person or the party,” he argued. Motsamai cautioned Botswana unions against the tendency to copy everything from South Africa especially the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), as there are progressive and more advanced models. “We want to repeat mistakes of SA trade unions, rather than learning from their successes and failures... The biggest lesson from COSATU and SA is that the model of trade unions affiliation to a political party have never benefited workers and is not sustainable in the long run.”

He said that since it was formed in 1985, COSATU is currently in its worst crisis, with its affiliates at each other’s throat over ruling party policies. “The issue at hand is ANC and its economic policies, especially macro-economic policy, from GEAR to NDP, causing frustrations among workers; the division also come from the role of trade unions in the removal of Mbeki – Malema, and EFF come from inside the ANC’s failure to deal with internal dissent, now ‘Economic Freedom’ rhetoric is spilling over and becoming attractive to young workers,” said the BOPEU boss.