In firms and safari lodges across the country, the workers are subjected to the most humiliating treatment one could ever imagine. The local media is littered with cases of abuse, insults and sometimes beatings that the workers have to endure in the hands of former Rhodesian Selous Scouts and Apartheid South African fascists of all sorts. Such abuse includes instances where workers are watched even in private places like toilets. In some factories, employees work under lock and key. This puts their lives in danger in case of emergency fire outbreaks. It is also not uncommon to hear of female workers being searched and harassed by male security guards in some companies. In this shining democracy, workers work long hours without overtime payment.
When it comes to payment, Batswana workers are paid slave wages. With the ever escalating consumer prices arising from the pula devaluation, high petrol cost and so on. the slave wages hardly meet the cost of transport, food and the worst accommodation available. The biggest beneficiaries of the plight of workers are the Cash Loans (Bo Machonisa) and Metshelo. The workers in this country are dangerously indebted to these two industries.
