Rari's Final Lap at BOSETU
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday May 4, 2021 16:41
Rari secured a fourth term after defeating Innocent Mannathoko, Sekgwama Gobusamang and Wabo Tshosa at the union’s elective congress last week. The elections were coordinated from Palapye, but voting was in six centres across the country.
“This will definitely be my last term as BOSETU secretary-general. I, however, don’t believe in curtailing the freedom of people to contest the election on the basis that they have served for a long time and therefore they should be prevented from standing,” he told The Monitor.
“I believe that democracy allows that there be competition amongst individuals. If there are young turks who are coming up, they should come into the playing field and prove themselves, compete with the incumbents and then beat them because they are providing quality.”
Rari further stated that the notion that people should step aside because they have overstayed in their positions does not really assist any principles of democracy.
According to him, his victory means that people trust him and they retained him on account of the good work he has done for the union over the years.
Rari said he intends to use his last term to broaden the membership base of the union. “We have seen BOSETU growing to 17,000 out of a total of 26,000 educators excluding those in the private sector. My mandate, along with other members of the executive, will be to broaden the union’s membership. We want the union to penetrate the private learning institutions in a bid to broaden its membership base.”
“Over the years the union has accrued a lot of fluid and fixed assets but the members are yet to fully benefit from them. Working with other members of the executive I want to use my tenure to ensure that the union leverages on those assets to come up with more initiatives that would strongly benefit the general membership.”
A few months ago, BOSETU engaged an independent firm to conduct a forensic audit that revealed that the union had some leakages because of the absence of proper financial controls. Rari said his mandate will be to lead the restructuring process of the administrative arm of the organisation for purposes of plugging all the leakages that have been experienced in the past so that the union does not lose money unnecessarily.