Stop the sabotage � Dingake urges BOPEU, gov�t

Chakalisa Dube | Thursday December 1, 2016 16:27

These are the words of suspended High Court Judge Key Dingake, giving counsel to the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) central executive committee conference in Francistown on Tuesday. Dingake preached peace between the two parties.

“Both of you need each other to advance the agenda of the country and to do so you need to respect each other. Treat each other with respect and humility,” he said. Dingake added that the differences between government and trade unions should be driven by evidence other than ill motive. “As for workers, do not make demands that are not validated by or driven by evidence,” he said.

“Do not make demands that cannot pass the test of reasonableness and rationality. “To the unions, every position you take, you must justify it. Every demand that you make, you must justify it. “You do not justify it by common sense. You justify it by evidence. Nothing should be given that cannot be justified. Similarly, your employers should justify all their positions on the basis of evidence and nothing less.”

The judge advised unions against contravening and undermining the law while carrying out their mandate of fighting for workers’ rights.

“These same things I have said to you, I say with equal force to government as an employer. The government carries a heavier burden than you (unions) to obey the law. They are the greatest teacher and they cannot afford to disobey the law,” he said.

Dingake noted that historically the attitude of the law towards trade unions was hostile because labour bodies were not viewed as equal partners but conspiratorial bodies intent on sabotage.

The thinking, he said, has since changed and unions are now regarded as genuine partners in development. For this reason Dingake said that government and unions need to engage in transformational leadership and view each other as genuine equals in the development of the country.