Govt negotiated in bad faith says UB lecturer

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Friday June 17, 2011 00:00

Speaking in an interview, Molaodi, who is a lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies, pointed out that the manner which government dealt with the workers leaves much to be desired. 

Molaodi said while government had shown willingness to negotiate with the workers union from the onset, President Ian Khama was going around making pronouncements that could have an impact on the negotiations. This he said brought a strain into the negotiations, adding that government was negotiating in bad faith. The UB lecturer said the pronouncements that Khama was making, were some of the issues that hardened the union's stand.

'They had to respond to the pronouncements. It took away focus from the negotiations. What were they going to negotiate when the cabinet had already taken a stand?' he asked.

Molaodi also slammed the role of the official media during the strike.  He said the way the official media represented itself did not augur well for democracy.  He said the official media withheld certain information to the public and did not report the union's side of the story. He added that it was only towards the end of the strike that the union was given some little exposure. 

Molaodi said it was clear that there was government censorship which is uncalled for in an open society.  'You begin to ask yourself questions when such things happen,' he said. 'If you deal with somebody withholding something, then you would become suspicious.

What is the role of government in maintaining the democractic principles of openness and equal access to information.  If the public media is censored then there is a problem,' he declared. Molaodi said the government wanted to use the issue of the involvement of opposition parties as a scapegoat to stop the negotiations.

But as far as he is concerned, there was nothing wrong with the opposition involvement. He said trade unions are by nature political. Molaodi noted that political parties will always take advantage of labour unrest.  As far as he is concern, there is nothing wrong with this.   'I would have been surprised if the political parties had remained silent.'

Molaodi is in support of the workers.  As he puts it, they were justified to demand a salary increase as they have not had a salary hike in three years.   He said if you take prices of commodities to the same period, you would find that they have increased drastically. 

Molaodi said the value of land, as well as building materials has also risen. He said although there was a sharp increase in the price of commodities civil servants were not cushioned against such costs.  He maintains that if the civil servants had been given a salary increase in the past three years, they could have been cushioned. According to him, even a salary increase of three percent every year could have made a difference.

He said if the government had been giving them a small increase every year, they would not be demanding 16 percent.  Molaodi points out that the government has not dealt with this issue economically. Molaodi said there are quite a number of lessons from the strike.

'I hope our economic experts will see the danger of going for a long time without salary adjustments,' he said. 

Secondly, he said in some situations, you cannot avoid doing without a deficit. He said strong economies like America are running their economy with a high deficit.  'It is just a question of putting a limit.'

But in Molaodi's book, at times you have to swallow the bitter pill. 'If salary adjustments are not catered for, you have to finds ways to address them.  I am not saying a deficit is necessarily a good thing.  In our country the situation is better than in other countries,' he said, adding that Botswana can afford to run with a deficit.

He said the government emerged worse from the strike. 'When you negotiate you have to negotiate in good faith. Negotiations are supposed to be about give and take.  It is difficult to negotiate when you make pronouncements. 

It is also difficult to yield especially when statements are made by the president.' He said when Khama had made a statement, it was very difficult to reverse what he had said.  'Once you make a statement in public it is not going to be easy to retract it.  Government should learn that whenever they are involved in negotiations, they should not make pronouncements that would prejudice the talks,' he said. 

As for the unions, he said, at times they must understand their members clearly or what it is that unifies them. 

He said the fact that there were five unions in the strike, showed that they had varied interests. 'They should negotiate with those things in mind.  If you say No Pay No Work, what does this mean for each category.' Molaodi said the unions and the government should update themselves on labour. He said it seems the issue of essential services was not clear. He said when the two parties initially agreed that 30 percent of essential services should remain at work, who was supposed to implement that aspect?

Molaodi observed that this was the first legal strike by the civil servants of this kind. He said government did not anticipate the strike to last for so long.

He said it is high time the government counts the losses. 'We need to evaluate how the strike impacted on major services. We need to understand what happened and how government services were affected?' He said following the strike, there is also the question of the stability of public institutions.  'We are not sure about what is happening in government offices.  How is it going to affect service delivery?' he asked.  To him, these are some of the issues that need to be looked into in order to map the way forward.  But to Molaodi, the big question is about the country's democratic principles. He said people will begin to look at the nature of the country's democracy differently.

But will the strike have an effect on the country's political landscape.  Molaodi said it is possible that the strike could haunt the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) during the 2014 general elections.  He said this will also depend on how the BDP will manage itself going forward.

'When things like this happen you could expect a protest vote.  We may see an instance where workers might say let's punish the BDP.

It will be very high in urban areas.  In rural areas it might occur but not in high numbers because there are not so many civil servants working there as compared to towns.'

Molaodi said it would also depend on how the opposition parties strategise. He said opposition parties might take advantage of the situation.