‘We are not sellouts’

The Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) has vowed to continue engaging the Office of the President in search of favourable work conditions for their members in spite of the accusation that they are sellout.

The union president Andrew Motsamai told members of the Media this week in Gaborone that those who question their engagement with OP do not understand the role of a trade union. Motsamai revealed that they recently met with President Ian Khama on the 23rd of March this year. “We are being referred to in veiled expressions, as sellouts, opportunists and that our union has been infiltrated by government agents,” he said.

President Ian Khama was invited as the guest speaker at BOPEU’s Annual General Convention last year. Khama praised BOPEU at the convention as the most responsible union and castigated other public sector unions as difficult to work with saying they are obsessed with the pursuit of political agendas. BOPEU, Khama said, has proven to be a union which truly represents the interests of workers as compared to other unions. Speaking in Francistown during May Day celebration, Botswana Federation of Public Sector Union (BOFEPUSU) president, Johannes Tshukudu said government has of late been promoting divisions among trade unions and trade union leadership.

He said its support to one union is to weaken the other for political survival. He also accused government of “sponsoring some shortsighted trade union leaders to spy on the activities of their fellow comrades for personal gains against the masses.” BOPEU was not part of the May Day celebrations in Francistown, but had instead gone to Kang. Asked why this was so, Motsamai said that they only received notification a week before the event. “By that time we had accepted to move on and organise our main event in Kang.” He said that in 2015 they suffered from the fallout of the BOFEPUSU congress and being sidelined from meetings.

Motsamai lashed out at what he perceives a “double standard” in the treatment of unions. “When teachers’ unions engage the Ministry of Education and Skills Development on levels of operation or supervision of sporting activities outside the Bargaining Council, it is viewed by the media as a legitimate interaction, but when BOPEU interacts with OP it is selling out,” he observed. He also denied reports that BOPEU is interested in taking over the Government Employees Motor Vehicle and Residential Property Advance Scheme (GEMVAS) from UNIGEM, a company from which they withdrew their shareholding last year November.

The P500million contract which is currently run by UNIGEM following a six months extension by the government is coming to an end this month. Government is currently preparing to administer the scheme. Earlier this year, reports from Ministry of Finance and Development Planning suggested that government was planning to give the scheme to BOPEU before the end of this year as payback for its loyalty.