BOFEPUSU, UDC Forces Lock Horns At BOPEU Congress

Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday December 7, 2015 16:24

With great oratory Motshegwa,  used a parable of three candles individually tagged love, faith and hope. They were being blown hither and thither by the wind, resulting in a darkened house. In this parable, Motshegwa said there was only one candle left, the candle of hope, which withstood the wind and promised to light the other candles again. Motshegwa had made his point, and the congress delegates responded with a thunderous applause.

Motshegwa used the platform of offering the traditional solidarity message, to remind the BOPEU Congress of what he saw as the danger that was not supposed to be allowed to prevail. Presidential candidate, Sikalame Seitiso’s campaign resonated well with Motshegwa’s rallying call. Seitiso campaigned against the idea of taking BOPEU out of BOFEPUSU, while the president Andrew Motsamai favoured the move.

Then came former trade unionist and also former CEO of BOSETU, Justin Hunyepa, now a Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) activist, in a mean mood as he took to the podium to offer his party’s solidarity message.To be honest to the man, he had forewarned the congress that as a political activist he would speak politics. Nothing less. The UDC support in the hall was loud  as Hunyepa punched the air and shouted the Viva salute.

He trained his guns on  BOPEU and BTU, the two unions he described as traditional sweethearts of the ruling party and recruitment grounds of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from time immemorial. Hunyepa claimed that the BDP government had long been using BOPEU and BTU to recruit talented leaders into cabinet.Interestingly, the UDC president Duma Boko, who was in the programme as one of the speakers, did not turn up at the BOPEU congress and sent Hunyepa in his stead. Boko’s no show at BOPEU was read as a protest against BOPEU leadership’s position to pull out of BOFEPUSU, a very important UDC ally going into the 2019 general elections.

It looked like the congress was warming up to the idea of resisting the idea of moving out of the BOFEPUSU until a certain Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) official Ibo Kenosi stood up to offer his solidarity message.

Seemingly irked by the allegations made earlier by UDC’s Hunyepa against BTU, Kenosi was on a warpath, to clear his trade union’s name after being labelled Domkrag’s sweetheart. And he did it with stinging oratory that left the audience eating out of his hand.

Kenosi did not only defend BTU’s reputation. He described himself as a proud product of BOPEU mentorship. Kenosi also spoke of how the outcome of the BOFEPUSU elections hurt him when he realised that a fellow affiliate, BOPEU had been betrayed. “At those elections, we all slept having agreed that BOPEU will take the presidency of BOFEPUSU, but a clandestine meeting was later held resulting in changes…we betrayed BOPEU…” Kenosi also seemed to have a go at presidential challenger, Seitiso, when he told the hall that they should not trust anyone who after serving in the executive committee, then starts blaming others for the decisions that were taken in the collective.Despite his organisation being a member of BOFEPUSU, Kenosi told the congress that the best way for BOPEU was to cut ties with BOFEPUSU because the federation had betrayed BOPEU.

Kenosi also told the congress that he was not surprised that there was no BOFEPUSU representatives at the congress. According to Kenosi, BOFEPUSU did not want its affiliates to come and grace the BOPEU Congress, as he narrated how they tried to stop him from coming to the BOPEU congress by scheduling the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) meeting on the same day of the BOPEU Congress.

“ A fax came just when I was preparing to come to this Congress, informing me that I should be at the PSBC meeting the following day. I could not do that when BOPEU needed our solidarity.” His speech delivery was followed by deafening cheers from the crowd. If the UDC and BOSETU speakers had scored points for Seitiso, Kenosi may, ominously, have won the elections for the incumbent Motsamai.