Unions to seek members' approval to quit BFTU

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday August 13, 2010 00:00

The decision to affiliate to BFTU was taken by a special congress and the same congress will have to take the decision to join the newly formed Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU).

Yesterday, the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs issued a public notice of application for industry recognition of a trade union known as Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions.

In the schedule, the ministry's Commissioner of Labour and Social Security, Rose Sennanyana, says the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), the National Amalgamated Local and Central Government and Parastatal Workers Union (NALCGPWU), the Botswana Land Boards and Local Authorities Workers Union (BLLAWU), the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) and the Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) should have made representations to the Commissioner of Labour within 14 days of publication of the notice.

When asked what the purpose of the special congresses would be because it appears the unions have made up their minds, the President of BOSETU Shandukani Hlabano said it should be viewed like booking a seat on a bus.

'We did not want to be left behind,' he says.  'If the congress refuses to let the union affiliate, we will step down.  The congress has the final say because it is not as though we have already affiliated.'

The notice should not be surprising to their members 'because it is a tentative decision that we have taken in the form of where we want the union to go and we would be asking for their final word,' says Hlabano.

Similarly, the newly elected President of BTU, Simon Mapolelo, says the notice does not mean BTU has already affiliated with the new federation.

'The general council is the representation of the whole membership and they can give powers to take a decision concerning the general members,' he says.  'We are yet to affiliate after the extraordinary congress.'

Mapolelo explains further: 'It is not about terminating the affiliation with BFTU because there is nothing wrong with affiliating to two federations,' he says.

BOSETU will meet this weekend at Goodhope Senior Secondary School for the special congress while BTU will meet at Mahalapye Community Hall on August 21.