Unions launch own property scheme

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Monday September 27, 2010 00:00

Unigem is owned by the Botswana Teachers' Union, Botswana Secondary School Teachers' Union, Botswana Public Employees' Union, the Botswana Land Boards and Local Authorities Workers' Union and the National Amalgamated Central and Local Government and Parastatal Workers Union.

The new company was contracted by the government to administer the Government Motor Vehicle and Residential Property Advance Scheme (GEMVAS) last year.

Unigem's Chief Executive Officer, Pido Siwawa, has emphasised the company's brief as assisting eligible government employees to apply for loans with participating financial institutions. 

Unigem also reviews the processing of such applications and the terms and conditions of the scheme with a view to bringing about the necessary innovations and improvements.

The company currently has a staff of 27. 

'We are currently engaged in acquiring and deploying technologies that not only seek to improve our service delivery channels but also provide us with tools that will assist us in performing back-office functions more efficiently and conform to world standards,' Siwawa said. The company has been sensitising government employees about the scheme, with its officials going on countrywide tours. Siwawa said during these interactions, they gathered feedback on employees' perception of the scheme; the feedback will enable them to introduce innovations to make the scheme more attractive.

One of the immediate needs that they are still addressing is that of accessibility. He said when it was under the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the scheme was only available at the headquarters in Gaborone.

Unigem has now identified strategic areas around the country where it will open operational offices. 'This will greatly alleviate the distance people used to travel in order to access and utilise the scheme,' the CEO said.

Siwawa said the launching of the company also marked the beginning of an investment house for their shareholders.

At the formation of the company, the shareholders were required to collectively raise P6 million as start-up capital.  

The money was raised effortlessly overnight, which was a pointer to the cooperative nature of Batswana, Siwawa said. 'This collective effort forms the platform with which Unigem can enrich the lives of Batswana by seeking and harnessing similar investment opportunities for the citizens who were instrumental in realising the birth of this company by using the advantage of economies of scale,' he added.

For his part, the Chairman of Unigem, Samuel Molaodi, said the launch of the company marked an important milestone in the process of trade union cooperation and economic empowerment of workers in Botswana.

'The road to this day has not been smooth but a protracted one marked by lengthy negotiations with the government on the possible takeover of the administration of GEMVAS,' Molaodi said. 

'Around 2008 when we in the trade union movement heard of a possible outsourcing of (the) GEMVAS scheme, we strategically positioned ourselves to take advantage of this bold initiative by the government.

'We realised that was an important opportunity not to be missed as far as empowerment of our unions and members was concerned.'

After winning the tender, they went into negotiations about the amount of capital that each union should contribute before finally settling at P1.2 million for each union. 

Molaodi said the culmination of this negotiation process was the signing of the shareholders' agreement among the five unions on April 1 last year. 

This was the first time they experienced cooperation of the five public sector unions on such a scale. 'We committed ourselves to incorporating a company run on good corporate governance principles,' Molaodi said.

He said the government should be commended for taking a bold initiative not only to empower Batswana but also for trusting trade unions as partners in the initiative. This dispels the notion that trade unions stand in an adversarial and antagonistic position against the government, he added.

The point is that unions are indispensable partners in the development of the country. 'This project, more than anything else, underscores this important fact,' Molaodi said.

He views the project as being different from others from an empowerment initiative in the sense that it is a broad-based economic empowerment rather than the empowerment of individuals.

The public sector unions represented in the new company have over 90, 000 members between themselves. 'We hope the government will continue to keep unions in mind when it continues to privatise some of its services,' Molaodi said.

The contract that has been signed between the company and the government constitutes the founding and guiding document of their relationship.

Molaodi said while the company has so far observed its terms and conditions meticulously, fulfilment of some conditions depend on the cooperation of government officials.