This is after the trade union hosted all political parties at Woodland Hotel, Riverwalk, to present the BOSETU’s position paper. The paper is titled, “BOSETU national policy advocacy strategic intent for the 2024 General Election”, which details revolutionary education policies, and general labour policies the parties should have as their elections promises. Presenting on the proposed advocacy issues, BOSETU secretary-general, Tobokani Rari, said the aim of the conference was to impress on the various political parties to include education policies in their General Election pledges, adding that BOSETU had consistently lobbied parties to include education policies in their manifestos, in the past two General Elections. Rari said one of BOSETU’s policy proposals is to have education as a right, as well as to have 12 years continuous learning up to form five, as a right, and to move away from the current policy that only commit to nine years education, up to junior certificate. The resuscitation of the bargaining council also made it to the list of BOSETU 12 strategic points in the document.
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) vice chairperson, Labour Committee, Raymond Malinga said his party under President Mokgweetsi Masisi has lived up to its promises to reign in a new era of warm relations with the trade union movement in the country. He said as a result of this stance by the President, a lot has been achieved and a lot more to come, sighting the promulgation by Parliament of education as a right, the right to organise and strike. Malinga said as the BDP, they take the BOSETU conference seriously as demonstrated by the active presence of the BDP Labour Committee structure, the Secretariat and the Communication committee structure, which will take up the issues raised to the highest level. The Botswana Congress Party (BCP), represented by MP Carter Hikuama, spokesperson, Mpho Pheko, rallied behind BOSETU’s submissions and said they were the best partner to be entrusted with the envisaged policy directions. MP Hikuama also dismissed government Reset Agenda and Mindset Change philosophy as just a gimmick. The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) chairperson, Patrick Molotsi, dismissed the ruling party saying they have failed education despite billions of funds going into education every year. Molotsi hailed the UDC saying it continues to work actively with BOFEPUSU, and have slots in their parliamentary seats.
His colleague, Philip Bulawa, lashed at BDP government saying their implementation of the multiple pathways model lacks direction. However, Hikuama said regarding the Public Service Bargaining Council the solution lies with the trade unions themselves as they are failing to accommodate one another into the bargaining council, hence the stalemate. A member of the BDP secretariat, Lesedi Dintwe, said the problem is that big unions are trying to force smaller unions to participate in an exercise that will kick them out of the bargaining council, and asked BOSETU to specifically detail the nature of the impasse that have stalled the re-organisation of the bargaining council since 2018. In his response, Rari said the big unions are of the view that entry into the bargaining council should be by a certain threshold, which was reduced from 80, 000, to 35, 000, to 20, 000, and lastly 10, 000, but the small unions are refusing this model and just want to participate without any audit.
Rari blamed the director of Directorate of Public Management (DPSM) for the lack of progress since the matter was taken for arbitration where it was resolved that the bargaining council should be registered, but the DPSM still refuses. Rari said the small unions could still go to courts of law if aggrieved by the registration of the bargaining council, where the big unions would be ready to defend their position to protect speaking for the workers with one voice, rather than scattered voices.
