Motshwarakgole Dumps UDC, Declares War On Molale
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday August 28, 2017 17:00
Motshwarakgole, who is widely regarded to have been the ace card for the UDC in the run up to the 2014 elections, literally gave the UDC no assurances, despite the fact that they had been seen as a Botswana Federation of Public, Parastatal, Private Unions (BOFEPUSU) project. That seems to have changed, as on Saturday Motshwarakgole declared that “BOFEPUSU ga se ya phathi epe...utlwisisang seo...ga re ba phathi epe, phathi e e ka lelang le rona, re ka e ema nokeng”(BOFEPUSU does not belong to any party...you should understand this fact...we do not belong to a specific party... we will lend our support to any political party that listens to our pleas). Uncharacteristic of himself, the man who is famous for the 2014 elections slogan, ‘Moono ke ono oo’, as he rallied the public officers to vote for the UDC, was speaking a totally different language at the Congress, and perhaps the UDC should be worried.
BOSETU, a member of BOFEPUSU, also seems to be towing the line, as they did not invite the UDC to the Congress, instead invited individual political parties. Still at the Congress, Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Minister Eric Molale became the first ruling party Minister to be targeted by trade unionist. Motshwarakgole engineered the Congress to identify Molale as workers’ enemy number one, and declared that the strategy to ensure that Molale loses at the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) primaries should start in earnest with mobilisation of all public servants in each and every village in Molale’s constituency.
BOFEPUSU accuses Molale of arrogance and persistent refusal to engage with the BOFEPUSU including his latest decision to snub the BOSETU Congress.
While Molale was at the wrong end of the BOFEPUSU stick, Motshwarakgole reserved blessings for the likes of Unity Dow, Fidelis Molao, and BDP labour committee official who honoured the BOSETU invitation and stayed on the entire day to observe proceedings.
Motshwarakgole was undoubtedly one of the toasts of the BOSETU congress, as he showcased to the multitudes why he is hailed as the Godfather of the trade union movement in Botswana. Shortly after being introduced as the first fruit of local trade unionism- Lebutswa-pele in Setswana- a title reserved exclusively for him, Motshwarakgole lived to that reputation with a flashback of trade union activities dating back to the era of Philip Matante, the founding president of the first political party in Botswana, the Botswana People’s Party. The simple mentioning of that moment of 40 years ago demonstrated Motshwarakgole’s remarkable journey with trade unionism, and why he best fits the description, Lebutswa-pele.
And if 40 years is too much to take, Motshwarakgole actually comes far beyond the 40 years with the trade union movement. At the Congress where he spoke as Lebutswa-pele, Motshwarakgole mentioned a moment in 1968, 49 years ago, when he was still an active member of the manual workers union. It was in 1968 when he experienced the first trade unionist, a certain Rex Ndzingi, winning a council seat. That year, Motshwarakgole was not even a grassroot follower, but was already the national chairperson of manual workers union.
Motshwarakgole also played a big part in the setting up of the precursor to the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions and saw its then executive secretary, Pelotelele Tlhaodi, becoming the second councillor from the trade union movement. Motshwarakgole also saw the former Lobatse branch chairperson, Derek Magosi, also joining politics under the BDP ticket, just like Tlhaodi, before Motshwarakgole himself joined politics to become a councillor for a sustained period of time. While the story demonstrates how far Motshwarakgole has come with the trade union movement in Botswana, he used these incidents to demonstrate that as far as he had lived, politics and trade unionism had always been bosom buddies, with all political parties, including the ruling party also being able to freely recruit from the trade union movement.
He said councillors would easily double as trade unionists, political party activists and full-time employees without any issues or troubles with the employer like it is happening today.
In fact, the current dynamics whereby the ruling party, through its government, has been fighting tooth and nail to bar public servants from political party activism irks Motshwarakgole Motshwarakgole used this scenario from history to wonder why the current government would want trade unions to stay away from politics, stressing that such rights would not be taken away from the trade unionists and citizens, as it is also the basic rights of citizenship.