29 Jan 2019

As the nation looks forward to the presentation of the national budget on Monday, trade unions are expecting big things from the finance minister.

In an interview, Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) secretary general, Mr Tobokani Rari said they would like to see the budget prioritising resources on workers,.

He, however, said although funds were never enough, government should point out clearly how unemployment would be tackled.

“We expect government to mirror on creating employment that is not tantamount to producing the working poor as it is currently the case,” he said.

Mr Rari said BOFEPUSU would like to see government allocating more resources towards lessening unemployment, which he said could only be achieved if government allocated more resources towards creation of descent employment.

He said how much a worker took home on a monthly basis matters on the better quality life of the employee. He further said BOFEPUSU was expecting the budget to come up with concrete policies targeting youth to address high rate of unemployment among them, especially graduates who are roaming the streets.

He lamented that the salaries’ negotiation process was not complete, adding that although trade unions had submitted their negotiation paper to government, the latter had not issued its proposal paper to trade unions.

“We are told cabinet would meet soon to seek mandate to give us a proposal paper. 

So if they give it to us, our wish as trade unions is that during the budget speech that which we would have agreed in the negotiation process would be in the budget and be announced during the course of the budget session,” Mr Rari said.

He indicated that they expect the budget to allocate a sizeable amount of increment to the workers to cushion them against accumulated inflation of about six per cent and that over and above that, there should be an increment of about 9-10 per cent.

Mr Rari further explained that inflation had been revolving around 3.7 per cent, which made what government had been offering in the past far less than inflation, meaning that salaries were eroded.

He cautioned that inflation is not increment, but only brings salaries at par with what has been given.

He said trade unions expected the largest share of the budget to be allocated towards the financing of education.

He said the education system had been neglected and marred with a plethora of challenges from inadequate teaching resources, larger class streams, which made it difficult for teachers to reach out to all the children.

On other issues, Mr Rari called for the reduction in the amount of money allocated to armed forces as that was tantamount to breeding corruption, especially that there is no war. He, however commended President Masisi’s administration for its eagerness to fight corruption. He also said trade unions would like to see government acting swiftly to resuscitate the Public Service Bargaining Council.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Public Employees Union president, Ms Masego Mogwera said the union expects substantive and tangible changes, which speak to the lives and welfare of public servants in general. She said it was about time government introduced a living wage in order to achieve decent living conditions.

She said there was need to establish a fund to support workers who are retrenched as a result of restriction, privatisation and restructuring in government and parastatal organisations.

Ms Mogwera further noted that with the advent of neo-liberal policies such as privatisation and the looming restructuring in many parastatal organisations, many workers would be left jobless and exposed to poverty.

“Government must set up a fund to support retrenched workers who lose employment as a result of privatisation, restructuring and rationalisation in government and parastatal organisations to cushion them in the aftermath of such retrenchments,” she said.

Ms Mogwera is also of the view that the BCL mine should re-open, saying the money spent on the liquidation process could have been used to recapitalise it.

“Resuscitation of the mine is good for the national economy as it will increase the tax base of the government from those who are employed in the mine and from the profits realised from the mine,” she said. She concurred with Mr Rari that there should be reduction in military spending and re-channeling of the money to education and healthcare.

“Government must get its priorities in order. There is no imminent military threat to Botswana, hence there is no need to spend heavily on military capacities, rather the poor results in schools present an immediate danger to our society,” she said. ENDS