Botswana Sectors of Educators Union (BOSETU) president Winston Radikolo is set to unveil P10 million worth of residential plots in Gaborone to union members.
This happens a few weeks ahead of the elective congress where Radikolo will be seeking a new term.
The 40 units, bought around Ledumadumane in Gaborone, will be the first of many to come through which BOSETU is deliberately encouraging home ownership among its members. According to Radikolo, the plots are purely for BOSETU members and will not be sold at a profit.
In an interview this week, Radikolo, who ascended to the BOSETU presidency in 2017, says the residential homes initiative is one of BOSETU leadership’s answer to longstanding questions from members who yearn to see their trade union plough back to them. The home ownership initiative will see initially 40 members benefiting through a raffle. He said BOSETU will help the beneficiaries secure funding and friendly payment terms with no interest charged on the purchase price.
“BOSETU will not be making any profit on the purchase value; that way it will be much more affordable to members,” Radikolo explained.
The plots were acquired via BOSETU business wing, which also runs a micro lender called PEUBO, which is likely to be the transacting vehicle for the assets.
“The 40 plots is just the beginning, we are just starting the rollout; you should recall that since I was elevated into this position in 2017, BOSETU membership has grown exponentially from about 15 000 to over 23 000 members to date; we have huge membership, but their yearning is clear, they want a trade union that invest in their lives, that ploughs back into their lives, and it is our duty as leadership to respond accordingly, even though we recognise that, as the saying goes, Rome was not built in one day. This home ownership initiative, despite its costs we will continue to roll it out, periodically, like we have successfully done with the annual bursary scheme, which has benefited over 2 000 members and their dependents, since 2018 to date,” he said.
Radikolo says when he launched the bursary scheme for members back in 2018, naturally the initiative had its critics who argued that teachers should be paying back these funds, but the initiative has continued despite all the challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, because it is meant to alleviate teachers and their dependents from such financial pressures.
Radikolo estimates that since inception seven years ago, the bursary volumes have now eclipsed P13 million.
“P13 million is quite a lot of money; we recognise that such expenditure is enough to sustain an in-house training institute, and consequently, we have entered in a memorandum of agreement with the Philippines University to collaborate and open campus in Botswana where BOSETU will be a partner; as a partner the derivatives would be galore, but also it would mean we can offer more of our members, scholarships through the university partner,” Radikolo enthused.
The BOSETU president says one other way of ploughing back to members had been the acquisition of a 197-hectare farm in Palapye, through which BOSETU will be promoting entrepreneurship among its members.
The farm, which is to be unveiled before the BOSETU Congress in August, is equipped with three boreholes, each with handsome yields and Radikolo says teachers will have the opportunity to lease portions of the farm to produce various in-demand vegetable varieties, poultry, small stock, and tap into the already ready market of the ever-growing Palapye town, and even beyond.
“We are not only satisfied that we have launched a cash payback programme for retiring teachers, where we gift each one cash upon retirement calculated at P500 for every year served; for example if a member has been a teacher for 25 years, at retirement BOSETU gifts him with a P12 500 handshake, and this we distribute every year to our retiring members, but we continue to look beyond this cash back initiative, and come up with multiple solutions that are truly life changing, because the members want their trade union to do more for them”.
This happens a few weeks ahead of the elective congress where Radikolo will be seeking a new term.
The 40 units, bought around Ledumadumane in Gaborone, will be the first of many to come through which BOSETU is deliberately encouraging home ownership among its members. According to Radikolo, the plots are purely for BOSETU members and will not be sold at a profit.
In an interview this week, Radikolo, who ascended to the BOSETU presidency in 2017, says the residential homes initiative is one of BOSETU leadership’s answer to longstanding questions from members who yearn to see their trade union plough back to them. The home ownership initiative will see initially 40 members benefiting through a raffle. He said BOSETU will help the beneficiaries secure funding and friendly payment terms with no interest charged on the purchase price.
“BOSETU will not be making any profit on the purchase value; that way it will be much more affordable to members,” Radikolo explained.
The plots were acquired via BOSETU business wing, which also runs a micro lender called PEUBO, which is likely to be the transacting vehicle for the assets.
“The 40 plots is just the beginning, we are just starting the rollout; you should recall that since I was elevated into this position in 2017, BOSETU membership has grown exponentially from about 15 000 to over 23 000 members to date; we have huge membership, but their yearning is clear, they want a trade union that invest in their lives, that ploughs back into their lives, and it is our duty as leadership to respond accordingly, even though we recognise that, as the saying goes, Rome was not built in one day. This home ownership initiative, despite its costs we will continue to roll it out, periodically, like we have successfully done with the annual bursary scheme, which has benefited over 2 000 members and their dependents, since 2018 to date,” he said.
Radikolo says when he launched the bursary scheme for members back in 2018, naturally the initiative had its critics who argued that teachers should be paying back these funds, but the initiative has continued despite all the challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, because it is meant to alleviate teachers and their dependents from such financial pressures.
Radikolo estimates that since inception seven years ago, the bursary volumes have now eclipsed P13 million.
“P13 million is quite a lot of money; we recognise that such expenditure is enough to sustain an in-house training institute, and consequently, we have entered in a memorandum of agreement with the Philippines University to collaborate and open campus in Botswana where BOSETU will be a partner; as a partner the derivatives would be galore, but also it would mean we can offer more of our members, scholarships through the university partner,” Radikolo enthused.
The BOSETU president says one other way of ploughing back to members had been the acquisition of a 197-hectare farm in Palapye, through which BOSETU will be promoting entrepreneurship among its members.
The farm, which is to be unveiled before the BOSETU Congress in August, is equipped with three boreholes, each with handsome yields and Radikolo says teachers will have the opportunity to lease portions of the farm to produce various in-demand vegetable varieties, poultry, small stock, and tap into the already ready market of the ever-growing Palapye town, and even beyond.
“We are not only satisfied that we have launched a cash payback programme for retiring teachers, where we gift each one cash upon retirement calculated at P500 for every year served; for example if a member has been a teacher for 25 years, at retirement BOSETU gifts him with a P12 500 handshake, and this we distribute every year to our retiring members, but we continue to look beyond this cash back initiative, and come up with multiple solutions that are truly life changing, because the members want their trade union to do more for them”.
