#Evil laws must fall
Dithapelo Keorapetse | Friday April 22, 2016 10:11
Political parties and their Members of Parliament and councillors, civil society, media, academia and other pro-democracy forces should fight these attempts to entrench tough measures on many fronts through enactment of laws restricting democratic space. Parliament should also not deviate from its key responsibility bestowed on it by the constitution. The constitution is clear that legislation should be for the “peace, order and good governance of Botswana”. Some of the laws proposed and some which have been passed can easily fail the test of promotion of peace, order and good governance.
Recently, before Parliament adjourned, the Minister of Education and Skills Development proposed an amendment to the Botswana Examinations Council Act.
The amendment sought to effectively force teachers to invigilate and supervise learners’ projects for free. The proposed amendments sought to reverse a court judgment which declared that unlawful. There were also arguments that key stakeholders were not consulted by the Minister. The law was vehemently opposed by trade unions and federations, MPs from across the aisle and teachers. The Minister withdrew the Bill purportedly to further consult. This evil proposal must never be allowed back to Parliament. Teachers in this country have been ill treated by the government for a longtime. The Public Service Act provisions are incompatible with the teaching profession but the government is indifferent about pleas to rectify the situation. Teachers need recognition that theirs is a special kind of profession with peculiarities. They need to be remunerated accordingly.
Trying to force them into free labour would only serve to heighten existing tensions between teachers’ unions and the government.
Parliament was also required by the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs to declare almost all civil servants essential service. Further the Trade Dispute Amendment Bill seeks to give the Minister more powers to declare other cadres not stipulated in the Bill essential.
This is just a pretext to interfere with the right to engage in lawful industrial action. The government has for a very longtime restricted the workers and prevented them from striking. In Botswana, it has always been difficult to stage a lawful strike; the first legal strike may have been University of Botswana Academic and Senior Support Staff Union and the University of Botswana Non Academic Staff Union 2010 five-day strike. The second, and the first major one which shook the country was the 2011 public sector strike staged by unions affiliated to Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions. The most notable illegal strikes were the 1991 public service strike whereby thousands were dismissed, the 2004 Debswana strike in which 461 workers were dismissed and the 2005 machine men BCL strike where 181 men were fired for participating.
Since 2011, the government misguidedly has believed that strikes are an interference with its right to manage the public service and the general workforce. Declaring civil servants including teachers essential, is equivalent to withdrawal of the right to strike and therefore practically the same way as wage slavery. A workforce which cannot withdraw its labour freely is either oppressed or enslaved. A free personnel must be free to strike to exercise its right to collectively bargain with the employer. Withdrawal of labour should be a fundamental right because it is itself an expression and exercise of other rights such as freedom of expression and the right to associate, as well as the right o assemble, protest and petition, including picketing. If the proposal is allowed by Parliament, it would add to the already existing disparity in bargaining power between labour and capital.
It would exacerbate the negative impacts of the labour policies of the government which are authoritarian, class biased and oppressive. Civil servants are already enslaved by the government; they are compelled to accept mere survival existence in return for their labour. Workers of Botswana through their unions should send a clear message to the ruling party that it can change the rules of the game as it wishes but it will pay a heavy political price.
MPs should advocate for laws which will unequivocally permit the right to strike with clear immunities from tortuous and criminal liability. Another evil Bill is coming! The ruling party wants a golden handshake for President Ian Khama through amendments to the Presidents (Pensions and Retirement Benefits) Act.
He wants among others a housing allowance, gratuity, pension, and other perks. This is not only criminal, it is also insane. This Bill and its implications will be discussed in this space in the near future.
Some laws like the proposed whistle blowing Bill have been watered down. The Bill is inadequate in protecting whistleblowers who have for a longtime been totally unprotected notwithstanding their good deeds of exposing corruption.
This Bill will be discussed in more details in due course. The same thing applies to the Assets Declaration Bill which the Minister was clear would not include an aspect on interests and liabilities. MPs should enact progressive laws which can promote democracy with its key principles of transparency and accountability, peace and good governance in general. Laws such as freedom of information are long overdue. There is also a need to overhaul the constitution to modernise it and consolidate the polity’s democracy.