Unionist urges teachers to fight for their rights

Sesupo Rantsimako
Correspondent | Tuesday March 30, 2010 00:00

Speaking at the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) northern region conference in Francistown on Saturday he said they have realised that employers are violating teachers' rights. That is why the conference was held under the theme 'Solidarity against poverty and oppression'.

The aim of the conference was to determine what the region has achieved since the last conference. The conference was meant to foster teamwork and to discuss and agree on what is going to be presented at the BTU national congress to be held in Goodhope from April 4-10.

Baeng said government should engage teachers when making decisions. He said teaching is the mother of all professions yet teacher's rights are being violated. 'As president of BLLAWU, I have the right to redefine teachers' roles in government to protect workers to liberate through action and not to allow anybody to act as an impediment in our progress,' Baeng said.

He added that when choosing leaders of government workers' union, the workers have to know each other because nowadays, the government is attacking all unions that are fighting for workers' rights. 'Teachers are people like anybody else, so why does the government make a lot of noise and end up firing teachers who have relationships with students? We want this to come to an end,' Baeng demanded.

Secretary general of BTU Koorapetse Kgasa said employers are not sure how the union operates. They suspect BTU to be driven by politics.

'We are part of the government and we operate as an organ in the system like the body parts which work together to make a system,' Kgasa said.

He indicated that one of the challenges facing BTU is intimidation that render its leaders ineffective, as they fear losing their jobs.

'I have already sacrificed myself, by daring the government to kill me for fighting for teachers rights,' he said.