Ruffling features

kealeboga Dihutso | Wednesday August 21, 2013 00:00

BDP will win the elections with consummate ease and opposition will be left licking their wounds, remonstrating and regretting what might have been if they had gotten their act together. So well in advance we can predict the wailing and gnashing of teeth in opposition ranks. They deserve it. They only have themselves to blame, so no point feeling sorry for them. Not feeling sorry for them however should not distract us that the ruling party will have attained yet another overwhelming mandate to run the country for another five years.

If there is a segment of society that should get very worried about the very predictable results of the 2014 general elections, it is the labour movement in Botswana. Unions should be worried, very worried about a BDP victory.You see, after the BDP congress in Maun, there were muted reports that some members of the BDP inner-circle mumbled something about Unions being a little too full of themselves.The sentiments expressed that unions were getting a tad too big for their boots, that they were forgetting their place. In the words uttered, 'they were forgetting that they were not given the mandate to rule'.

A call was made for tougher laws to enact laws that will rein in the unions and make it tougher to function. We are told the idea was shot down almost as soon as it was suggested.Unionists and their sympathisers probably breathed a sigh of relief. If indeed they did, then the relief was a little too premature.The detractors of that idea were a little more tactical than the alleged mover; an erstwhile BDP strongman who has yet to fully come to terms with the reality that he was no longer powerful.The detractors were all too aware that an open war of attrition with unions so close to general elections was a bad idea. They had a more immediate battle to win at hand.

Unions will be taken care of as soon as the matter of burying the hapless opposition was out of the way.That taken care of, then the ruling party can leisurely tear piece by piece the labour movement.With no credible opposition in sight and a disjointed labour movement that has yet to see the bigger picture coupled with a nonexistent civic society, the destruction of the union movement will be done with consummate ease.Unions will wail and gnash their teeth to no avail! Like Opposition parties, they created the platform for their own downfall.Petty politicking and personal egos are largely responsible for the failure of the labour movement to function effectively.

They are a divided lot and sadly not on ideological issues but on issues of who did what degree where and when and who belonged to what association before the growth of the labour movement.Childish stuff really. Because they 'missed the substance and grabbed at the shadow' they will be an easy foe for a BDP fresh from a landslide.It is not like this is a party that has shown commitment to workers' rights.There is enough malicious, heavy handed and punitive measures that have been taken by this government against unions to show that they are not labour friendly. There is no reason to think fresh from a win this attitude would mellow down.

It is likely to worsen and if unions do not set themselves up for the long battle ahead, then in no time the unions will be feeling sorry for themselves in much the same way that the opposition parties will be soon after the General elections.Unions need to realise that tough times are ahead and as I have posited before on this blog, unions represent potentially the best chance for influencing change in Botswana.The BDP is all too aware of this and in typical BDP efficiency and ruthlessness, they'll deal with the threat.The best weapons unions have going forward is to put aside petty squabbling and form a united front. Unity and Solidarity are the only effective weapons possessed by unions.