07 Aug 2019

The Alliance for Progressives (AP) has called upon its members and the nation to stand in solidarity with public sector unions to secure a fair deal for public servants in the ongoing negotiations with government.

AP leader, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe told a media briefing in Gaborone on August 7 that AP believed that the quantum of demands by unions were reasonable and fell within recommendations of the PEMANDU report.

He said his party wants an ecosystem that would build a motivated personnel and inspire the nation towards a new Botswana.

Mr Gaolathe said he studied the PEMANDU report and believed that the public sector unions’ demands were possible in an effort to develop an effective public service.

“The PEMANDU report is based on benchmarks of civil services around the world and it is feasible,” he said.

He said AP was of the view that public servants had endured unfair treatment over an extended period, the effects of which would remain for many years.

“We are sympathetic to most of the demands advanced by the unions, which many of them are compatible with the findings of the PEMANDU,” he stated.

Mr Gaolathe said AP demanded increments of the scale and quantum suggested by the unions, demands for overlapping and stretching of bands that would accommodate consistent and sustained increments even without promotion.

Other demands by AP, he said were a commission focused on remuneration reviews, demands for a specific, implementable performance regime, independent of inflation adjustments, conversion of  certain allowances into permanent pay.

He said the party also  demanded for due consideration for professions such as teaching and nursing and all others that entail long and unsocial working hours and a more elaborate system to manage and realise better conditions of service.

He further said AP desired a civil service that was well positioned to assist to attract and retain talent, provide quality services for all Batswana as well as to be well positioned to assist double the economy within six years.

Mr Gaolathe further said AP believed that public service employees should be well placed to implement, within cost and a time frame, large complex infrastructure projects that are a blue print of the New Botswana that AP seeks. ENDS