In the cross-fire
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday November 30, 2015 18:00
BOFEPUSU was not in attendance at the Labour Advisory Board (LAB) meeting convened by deputy chairman Sam Leero in the absence of the chairman Kingsley Sebele. Representing the workers was the Botswana Federation of Trade Union (BFTU), who had also roped in BOPEU to represent public servants. The meeting was also attended by representatives of Business Botswana (formerly BOCCIM) and the government.
Those who attended the Thursday meeting, which came ahead of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) regional gathering in Addis Ababa this week, told The Monitor that Batshu spoke of how rival trade union movements want to get him to take sides but he was not willing to do so. Batshu is also reported to have told the meeting that he had advised BFTU and BOFEPUSU to solve their differences on their own, after BOFEPUSU asked the Minister to intervene.
Insiders also say Batshu revealed that BOFEPUSU had asked him to cancel the LAB meeting because they were not in attendance.
Last month BOFEPUSU declared that they had now become a national labour centre along with the BFTU. BOFEPUSU secretary General Tobokani Rari was quoted as saying they wrote to the Ministry on two occasions after the conclusion of their court case in September to say that now that their registration is no longer in dispute, BOFEPUSU have to be recognised as a second labour centre in the country. “Hence the move by Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to give us a status that we are now recognised as a second labour centre in the country. That is captured in their letter of 18 August 2015,” Rari was quoted as saying.
Rari further said this also means that BOFEPUSU now is able to sit in all tripartite structures in the country, including the LAB.
BFTU secretary general Gadzani Mhotsha however disputed that. “Sometime in August we received a letter from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour advising us to include them in our dialogue, “ said Mhotsha.
He said BFTU then wrote back to the ministry asking for clarification.
“We told the PS that we have never doubted BOFEPUSU as a Federation and we include them in all our activities, can you then explain further, but the Permanent Secretary up to this day, has never written back to us,” he said. Mhotsha noted that the Labour Act recognises that there is only one representative of the workers, being the BFTU.
“We have three slots in the Labour Advisory Board. We have offered one slot to BOFEPUSU, they have refused. We are in the habit of inviting them to our activities, but recently when we did, they said we should never invite them to BFTU activities,” he said.
Mhotsha also confirmed that they are not taking any BOFEPUSU representatives in their party for the ILO regional conference in Ethiopia this week. Instead BFTU have extended the invitation to BOPEU. Attempts to seek clarification on these matters from Rari proved futile as he was said to be out of the country at press time. Attempts to reach him via his Facebook page also could not bear fruit yesterday.