Remembering the historic 2011 strike
Friday, April 29, 2016
Power in the people: Workers during the 2011 strike
On April 19, 2011 the second day of the strike I joined three union leaders who were assigned the duty of assessing the effect of the strike in the Central and North East District. I got a lift from Botswana Land Boards Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAWHU) secretary general Ketlhalefile Motshegwa.
On this mission he was accompanied by Botswana Public Employees Union national organising and international relations secretary, Pambana Masame and National Amalgamated Local and Central Government and Parastatal Manual Workers’ Union (NALCGPMWU) deputy chairperson, the late Sammy Sithole [May his revolutionary soul rest in peace].
Our weekly edition carries painful articles of people being murdered. Whilst some are classified as Gender Based Violence (GBV), there are still a large percentage of murder cases, which often happen at drinking spots, after people are heavily intoxicated. We have in the past carried articles where an individual was murdered because they refused to give someone a cigarette, and sadly this is where we are at now!In this very edition, there is an...