Labour Day exposes BOPEU, BOFEPUSU fissures
Ryder Gabathuse | Wednesday April 19, 2017 16:31
Until a year ago, BOPEU was a member of BOFEPUSU, a federation comprising four public sector trade Unions, the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU), Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers’ Union (BLLAHWU) and National Amalgamated, Central, Local and Parastatal Manual Workers Union (NACLPMWU).
Under both BOFEPUSU and BOPEU, there are admitted trade Union members from parastatals and the private sector.
The sour relationship between BOPEU and its former partner federation, BOFEPUSU was recently not helped by a High Court case in which the former sought a number of reliefs against the latter.
In the matter, which was taken to Court under a certificate of urgency, BOPEU sought amongst others, reliefs that BOFEPUSU the admitted trade Union party to the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) be ordered to submit its audited membership figures for the period ended December 31, 2016.
That BOFEPUSU be declared to have violated Article 8.1 of the Constitution of the PSBC; that BOFEPUSU be ordered forthwith to pay its outstanding financial contributions in the sum of P1,065.30 and that BOFEPUSU be suspended from the membership of the PSBC. The BOPEU application was dismissed with costs.
Post the taxing legal battle, BOFEPUSU secretary general Ketlhalefile Motshegwa declared this week, “obviously unity among the public sector trade Unions is affected given the way we deal with labour issues”.
The militant trade unionist raised a need for people to appreciate the desire and need to plan and celebrate the Labour Day as a collective rather than the current divisions.
He further noted that people ought to appreciate that in Botswana, there are peculiar circumstances.
He observed that trade unionism in Botswana is relatively new compared to the developed world as it was only in 2007 that the public service started unionising and abandoning associations. He quickly pointed a finger at both the trade Unions and their leaders for their failure to comprehend and articulate ‘ideological clarity’ to take the agenda of the workers forward.
“It’s normal to have differences at various levels of life. But, even when such internal differences do exist, they should not be ballooned out of context,” he said, indicating that where there is such ideological clarity, things will come up clear.
His contention however, was that without proper ideological understanding, leaders would simply take their way even when it means misleading their members.
Motshegwa had a problem understanding why BOPEU leadership can allow its former president, Andrew Motsamai to control the union leadership when he has retired from BOPEU to run union investments known as Babereki Investments.
He described Motsamai as the source of the divisions between BOFEPUSU and BOPEU.Motshegwa was happy that BOFEPUSU was busy canvassing non-unionised workers so that they can raise the voice of BOFEPUSU.
On the BOPEU side, the general secretary, Topias Marenga acknowledged the fact that in the eyes of the public, the public sector employees were not united as demonstrated by the sour relationship between them and BOFEPUSU.
He however, explained that in the past, BOPEU came up with a publication with a Setswana title: “Se se tsetseng thobaelo” which roughly translates to “source of suspicion/turmoil”.
He said the publication sought to open the eyes of trade unionists so that they could see and identify the source of their acrimonious divisions and attempt to heal the differences.
He further acknowledged that on Labour Day, BOPEU will be in Selebi-Phikwe jointly with the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) where they plan to attract and unite workers.
It’s apparent that a good number of workers still remain ununionised and have no platform to articulate their work-related issues. BOPEU/BFTU now provides a roof over their heads so that employers cannot do as they wish with their rights.
He feared that issues of ‘which Union is greater than the other’, tended to derail the course of workers who are keen to see themselves united.
Egos and pride, he emphasised will never take them anywhere. Marenga was worried about what he termed an emergence of a ‘third force/ third hand’, which he blamed for stirring workers to remain polarised by politics.
He emphasised that, ‘it’s not active politics that polarises workers, but the presence of the third force”. On May Day, BOFEPUSU will hold national celebrations in Serowe and Maun under the theme: ‘Championing collective bargaining and social dialogue towards workers power’.
What remains clear is that public sector workers will be divided on the Labour Day, with BOPEU directly associated with the ruling elite whilst BOFEPUSU in cahoots with the opposition coalition partners under the ambit of Umbrella for Democratic Change.