Time To Thoroughly Prepare For An Impending Revolution!!!
Correspondent | Monday August 1, 2016 15:01
Without condescending however, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has been a torchbearer notably on workers rights issues. Your party’s election manifesto for the past general elections was very impressive. The BCP’s ambition to transform our working poor must be commended.
We have had to reflect on the challenges you identified in your election manifesto, viz ‘inadequate earnings; job insecurity; unsafe working environment; limited social security, ineffective dispute resolution mechanisms and limited engagement between the tripartite partners (employer, employee and government) which you say cannot be left to the labour movement alone. There is no better truth than this.
The suggested remedial measures on how best to fix challenges on the labour fraternity from your manifesto is also worthwhile and we agree with you that it should be embraced by any serious organisational entity seeking to transform the lives of its masses for the better.
BOPEU welcomes your calls for unionisation of workers both in the public and private sectosr.
Your calls for the introduction of a living wage for workers that is aligned to the cost of living is a noble idea. Post the 2011 public sector strike, your party was vocal on the realignment of essential services workers in the public service. It is our wish that you continue to reject the proposed amendments to the labour laws that would see the entire workforce in Botswana essentialised.
As a political movement you have even in your dark days, managed to be consistent on workers issues. Political parties have a moral obligation to help workers in their holy war or struggle against the employer. Political parties have to defend the immediate interests of the workers, by striving for higher wages and better working conditions.
When it was formed in 1998 the BCP developed a unique and better organized political movement. Its ability to manage democracy and properly deploy cadres, resonates better with your theme for this gathering. It has in its rank and file, comrades who still cherish the ideal of serving selflessly. We at BOPEU deem such quality leadership exemplary and admirable.
We believe that the BCP is a progressive political movement because it has over the years sought to be more practical and shed of the rhetoric that make up our body polity. You are truly a worker’s party.
Allow me Director of proceeding to borrow from a selfless struggle stalwart Nelson Mandela when he assessed achievements. “I shall stick to our vow: never, never under any circumstances, to say anything unbecoming of the other …….The trouble, of course, is that most successful men are prone to some form of vanity. There comes a stage in their lives when they consider it permissible to be egotistic and to brag to the public at large about their unique achievements,” he said in Conversation with myself.
“Only arm chair politicians are immune from committing mistakes. Errors are inherent in political action.
Those who are in the centre of political struggle,who have dealt with practical and pressing problems, are afforded little time for reflection with no precedents to guide and are bound to slip up many times.
But in due course and provided they are flexible and prepared to examine their work self critically, they will acquire the necessary experience and foresight that will enable them to avoid the ordinary pitfalls and pick out their way ahead amidst the throb of events.” This are the wise words of Nelson Mandela.
The message Mandela is trying to convey to you as the BCP is that it’s time to look forward and forget about the outcome of the 2014 general elections. The opposition needs to work as a collective not only for nurturing democracy, but to achieve a radical change necessary for the emancipation of the masses of our people.
Director of proceedings, the winds of change have started to blow. Our people’s resentment towards the status quo is disturbing and requires political parties to prepare for the impending revolution. A bloodless revolution with a regime change in our lifetime.
To this end, it is important that parties and the labour movement should always work as if victory of our struggle is taking place tomorrow.
We have to believe that the change is not so far. We should always work as if the victory of our struggle is taking place tomorrow and we have to believe that the change is near.
Director of proceedings, we are in a sick era where corruption is a culture and an unaccountable regime subjects Unions to a series of illegal and inhuman sanctions merely because of our commitment to represent the workers.
Government has adopted an anti-trade union stance and perceives organised labour as an impediment to good governance and economic development. Only a progressive political movement like the BCP can come to workers’ aid.
We are happy that given an opportunity to govern, you have vowed to commit to ‘pursuing economic policies that are geared at attaining full employment and according all citizens an opportunity to live a life of dignity in which hard work guarantees success’
In conclusion, while appeals for party funding are understandable, I want to encourage you as a party to work on modalities of enriching democracy within your party by coming up with ideas on how best to fund your struggle.
Topius Marenga
BOPEU Secretary General