BTU to engage MoESD, DPSM over conference snub

CHAKALISA DUBE
Staff Writer | Friday April 13, 2012 00:00

BTU president, Simon Mapolelo, made the remarks in an interview with Mmegi this week after the official opening of the two-day conference. Both the MoESD and DPSM were allocated large chunks of speaking time on the programme on the first day of the conference to deliberate on issues related to teachers' welfare. The invitation of the two bodies was also meant to facilitate dialogue between teachers and the officials on various issues affecting the teaching profession.

'Our secretariat has been following both organisations for nearly three weeks and they confirmed their availability.

None of the organisations indicated that they will not be available,' he said, 'We will approach the two organisations after the conference to establish why they did not honour our invitation without any excuse and air our displeasure about their actions. Maybe they have something against us'. Mapolelo added that engaging the two bodies will help them iron out differences if at all they exist. 'We cannot afford a situation where decisions are driven by our differences. In the end it is not the DPSM, MoESD or BTU who suffer but the students,' he said.

Mapolelo said they invited the permanent secretary in the MoESD and the director of DPSM to the conference. He said that if the said officials were not available, both organisations could have directed other officials within their structures to attend the meeting.

He charged that the two organisations' decision to shun their invitation shows that they are not keen on addressing the ailing welfare of teachers. MoESD principal public relations officer, Oarabile Phefo, could not deny or confirm that the ministry received an invitation from the BTU. 'I could be consulting with other senior officials to see if they did receive the invitation but they are all not available,' he said. 

He added that the ministry does not have anything against the BTU. 'We regularly honour teachers' union invitations. We do not only honour them when we have other pressing official matters,' he said.

The public relations officer at DPSM, Akanyang Mmui told Mmegi that she is not aware that the department was at one point invited by BTU. 'Let me engage with other authorities from the department to establish if we indeed received an invitation from BTU. You will get back to me later,' she said. At the time of going to press, Mmui could not be reached for comment.