Magama chides Chinese for bad workplace rules

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Thursday February 14, 2008 00:00

Commenting on the budget speech on Tuesday, Magama said the situation of industrial relations in the country is very disturbing, especially that government seems to be interested in attracting Foreign Direct Investment, whilst ignoring protection of employees.

He accused the Chinese companies of employing people on short term contracts to avoid paying them severance pay and gratuity.

Magama mentioned names of several textile companies, who treat their employees like slaves, denying them the right to go to the toilet during working hours. 

He said labour officers never inspect factories since they conspire with managers and get bribes from them. 

But at this juncture, Assistant Minister of Labour, Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri pleaded with members to report any irregularities to his office. 

Magama cautioned that government should formulate an overarching legislation that would spell out roles played by cabinet ministers, Parliament, and Boards of Directors for public enterprises as well as the Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA). 

He said that the current practice could subject the public enterprises ear-marked for privatisation to looting. 

Magama further said that they oppose privatisation as it will result in job losses, as already evidenced by the restructuring of public enterprises such as Air Botswana, Botswana Railways, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) among others. 

The hot potato that is power shortage did not slip the MPs mind and he called for a Commission of Enquiry into what happened to BPC plans 10 years ago to expand power supply after a warning that there would be a shortage in 2008. Magama accused the Minister of Energy, Minerals and Water Affairs, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, of downplaying the situation by just keeping quiet. 

Kedikilwe stood up to say that he was still consulting with stakeholders and he would make a statement some time this week.

On education the MP said that the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government has always wanted to deny Batswana access to tertiary education, which he said stands at 6.9 percent. 

This announcement left Assistant Ministers, Moggie Mbaakanyi and Peter Siele bereft of comment after they confronted Magama earlier. 

Now confident, Magama blamed what he called bad economic policies of the BDP government saying they are reversing achievements of the Vision 2016 goals. 

He said poor BDP leadership has resulted in every Minister of Finance complaining about poor project implementation. However, Minister of Finance, Baledzi Gaolathe defended government saying there is achievement in Vision 2016, citing the second university and a medical school which projects have already started.

Earlier, the MP for Selibe Phikwe East, Nonofo Molefhi had pleaded with government to invest more in human resources and to categorise industries in Botswana to see how many jobs each of them can create. 

He said there is still potential in beef export if government could look for other markets such as Angola, whose restrictions and requirements are not as rigid as those of the European Union market.

After this, Molefhi said, abattoirs of Maun and Francistown would operate and create employment for people there. Molefhi urged government to allow private power suppliers to generate electricity to some parts of the country since the expansion of Morupule Power Station and construction of Mmamabula Power Station would take several years to complete. 

He also suggested that government should resort to solar power. Molefhi lamented that the Botswana Brand is not properly marketed saying up to now he has not seen much of it in government adverts.