The ministry is the latest to hop on to this exploitative bandwagon.While we are not opposed to volunteerism, we are concerned at the way government has taken to it in recent times. Amid the recruitment freeze at government enclave, so-called volunteer patrol officers were engaged to complement the understaffed and overworked Botswana Police Service.This was in addition to other quasi-volunteers - special constables - who earn pitiful salaries despite their heavy workload.The tragedy is that there was not much in the spirit of volunteerism about the patrol officers.
These are people who lack the most basic economic opportunity. Some of them have been hunting for a job for more than a decade. They are left with no option but to risk their lives to 'volunteer' for government with the hope that one day they will catch the eye of those mandated with recruitment.We are further informed that government also has volunteer wildlife officers who partner with anti-poaching soldiers and wildlife personnel on dangerous missions in the wilderness. All these so-called volunteers are not covered by any insurance. Neither do they enjoy any job and social security.With unemployment constantly on the rise and companies closing down for economic and political reasons - read mysterious deportations - volunteerism has become a form of modern-day slavery.The government is unfairly taking advantage of the swelling ranks of the unemployed to benefit a few people.At the rate at which the trend is growing, we cannot put it past this government that soon people will be asked to volunteer in government-owned farms and factories.
