Tlhagale: A teacher who traded his chalk for workers� struggle
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday February 17, 2017 11:15
SELEBI-PHIKWE: Fiery trade unionist Tlhagale’s strong bond with his teaching career had a significant bearing on his passion to lead others.
In this interview, the Maun-born former social studies teacher narrates his journey from classroom, to Jwaneng’s Debswana Mine and to the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) headquarters, the Union House in Selebi-Phikwe.
Our interview is initially billed for the Barcelos Restaurant in the heart of town, but is shifted to his office at Union House as lovey-dovey couples were already occupying many seats at the restaurant, celebrating Valentines’ Day.
The nameplate on the door of the office occupied by the interviewee ushers us into the President’s Office. It is moderately furnished and immaculate by any standard and orderly with a lot of woodwork in the background. It’s the Office of the ‘Commander-in-Chief’ of the BMWU.
Incessant knocks on the president’s office door bear testimony that he is a busy man.
One thing positive about the 54-year-old Tlhagale is that he keeps time perfectly, a trait that he perhaps carried from the several boardroom battles he has waged agaist hard-nosed CEOs of mining houses.
His outlook has always been to strike a balance, fight for fairness. His leadership prowess harks back to his early days at the Molepolole College of Education (MCE) where he trained as a social studies teacher.
Around 1986/89, he was elected into the MCE’s student representative council as minister of academic studies.
He joined Debswana mine in 1993 in the training section as a non-technical teacher, teaching adult basic education.
“There were a lot of bad things that the Mine management – from across the mining houses – were doing to the employees that incensed me and forced me to take my position as a Union leader,” he reminisces about his first step into Union leadership, as he reclines on his chair.
The advantage of being a teacher at that time was his ability to articulate issues better for the benefit of the miners.
It was at the Jwaneng branch of BMWU that Tlhagale had the urge to join the Union’s national executive committee to help his colleagues deal with issues of workers.
Eleven years into his trade unionism, the 54-year-old trade unionist-cum-farmer was fired from work in 2005 following the now famous 2004 strike. The experience did not deter him.
Some of the notable trade unionists that were fired for leading workers in the strike included Chimbidzani Chimidza, Lentsifetse Masilo and the late Golekanye Mogende.
He continued, however with his leadership role within the union, rising meteorically from the Jwaneng branch leadership to the NEC as the general secretary and finally, the president.
Tlhagale still mourns the closure of the BCL and Tati mines, which were placed under provisional liquidation last year, as though the incident happened yesterday. The process resulted in the Union’s strength being reduced by about 3,900 members. The BMWU also suffered a loss of about P200,000 in monthly subscriptions.
Like a commander who has lost a significant number of his men in a combat, Tlhagale is worried about his Union’s dwindling fortunes.
“We lost people,” he declares in a no-surrender-no-retreat tone of voice.
Geographically, the BMWU has been in Selebi-Phikwe and Francistown with a further geographical spread to the Boseto Mine in Maun, besides the main Debswana operations at both Orapa and Letlhakane Mines and other mines that have set up.
Because the diamond Mines are still very strong, the BMWU president is optimistic that this will keep BMWU afloat. Mowana Mine has started preparations for re-opening and Tlhagale is excited it could prove a lifeline to their now jobless and desperate members.
Although the BMWU has lost 3,900 members, the president says this will not affect their bargaining strength because the Mines do not have a bargaining council and as such, they do not bargain as a collective.
“If we had a bargaining council in the mines, maybe we were going to be affected as this arrangement works on set thresholds.”
The BMWU president is concerned about the Union’s reduced political influence.
“If BMWU for instance, is controlling all the mines, it enhances the voice of the trade Union. At the congresses, when the workers speak with one voice, it gives the Union power,” says the man who seems to have a prediliction for gesticulating, as he draws imaginary circles with his hands in the air.
He is impressed that the BMWU National Council has met and come up with a resolution that mandates a legal team to work around the clock to fight all possible legal issues emanating from the closure of the BCL Ltd.
The Council also came up with a provision for social nets targeting identified former miners (now jobless) in dire need of assistance. The Union leadership or a select group will go all out and look for money to assist those who are hard-pressed.
On March 31, as an effort to raise funds towards this social gesture, the BMWU will host a gala dinner in Gaborone.
“In the main, we have seen that we have lost valuable subscriptions from the closed branches. Government has not lived up to its promises as we have a retrenchment agreement and we need to raise funds for legal fights.”
The BMWU disagrees with the Government and the liquidator and has now submitted workers’ claims for the retrenchment packages to be paid.
To Tlhagale, this is the advantage of working as a collective and he is buoyed by the fact that the Union’s remaining branches have mandated their NEC leadership to fight for the fallen heroes’ benefits to the bitter end.
It was the branches that recently funded the Union leadership delegation led by Tlhagale to attend the Mines and Money London Conference where they marketed the BCL Group of Mines to potential suitors.
BMWU is adamant that they are not going to allow Government to “peddle negativity” about the BCL Ltd’s potential to be sold.
Tlhagale is encouraged by the news that a takeover deal is in the works.
“Government is now waking up because we took a step to market the BCL Group independently.”
How are president Tlhagale and the BMWU coping with the loss of 3,900 members and the subscriptions that used to go into the union’s coffers?
He is coping because his 14 years of experience in the NEC leadership in particular has taught him many valuable lessons.
The trade unionist says people are not aware how difficult it has been to deal with a partner like the BCL mine. The country’s oldest copper/nickel mine’s management in its dealings with the union was never transparent.
BMWU is waiting to see what happens at the creditors’ meeting in April but certainly they want to see their members’ claims for retrenchment packages paid to cushion the effect of job losses and their next cause of action will be determined by the attitude of the liquidator.
“If they say they don’t pay the workers, then it will be another story,” emphasises the BMWU president stressing that the legal route is imminent.
Is BMWU Union House on the verge of relocating?
As he reclines on a chair, rubbing his hands as if warming them, Tlhagale explains that it’s only the union congress as the highest body that can order the relocation of the Union headquarters.
Despite the challenges they are facing today, BMWU doesn’t have any plans of relocating the Union House outside Selebi-Phikwe. With so much historical connotations attached to the Selebi-Phikwe town, he does not imagine anytime soon the Union House relocating. “You have to appreciate that the Union headquarters started off in Orapa and because of the restrictions of the enclosed Orapa, it had to relocate to its current place,” he says. He remains optimistic that the BCL Group of Mines will re-open.
The Francistown Union office was designed as a training type of an office and plans are afoot to open an additional office in Gaborone. There are also plans to develop the union plots in Letlhakane.
Tlhagale has been at the helm of trade Union leadership for 14 years as a NEC member. Union work takes a lot of his time to the extent that he has limited time for his family. He is a staunch supporter of both Maun Tigers and Township Rollers football teams.
He however, strives to share the little time he has with his family and farming which is his other passion.
Although BMWU general secretary, Mbiganyi Ramokate recently pronounced that the BMWU supports the united opposition parties under the ambit of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) his president is non-committal on this issue.
“I have always referred the questions on the BMWU position on political affiliation to Ramokate to articulate it better,” quips Tlhagale, preferring to reserve his comment on the matter. Over a decade as a BMWU NEC member, is Tlhagale not behaving like a school principal to those he leads?
“I can’t even try that because the general membership always expect to get what they want from their leaders. Their interests are for them to see their leaders showing them where they want to take their organisation,” he explains. He therefore, he says with finality, strives to deliver according to his mandate.