Motshwarakgole defends strike suspension

The decision by the leadership of the Botswana Federation of Public Service Unions (BOFEPUSU) to suspend the strike from today has been received with mixed feelings by members.

Some union members accuse the union leadership of taking a unilateral decision to suspend the industrial action without seeking opinion from the general membership first through a congress.

BOFEPUSU announced last week that it has taken a decision to suspend the nationwide public service workers strike, which has been on-going for the past eight weeks. So much is the difference that on Friday disgruntled unionists in Gaborone sent a delegation to the BOFEPUSU executive committee to communicate their displeasure against the suspension of the strike.

A unionist, who wanted to remain anonymous said procedurally, the executive committee should have called a special congress where the general membership would decide whether to suspend the strike or not.

However, BOFEPUSU Labour Secretary, Johnson Motshwarakgole, said the suspension was the only option to curb the escalating level of violence and to avoid further arrests of union members.

Motshwarakgole conceded that there might be some members who are unhappy with the decision to suspend the strike. He stressed that they have been mandated to suspend the strike provided the essential services workers are returned to work.

"Currently we are winning our case because the government is rehiring the essential service workers, which is something we have been pushing for. We found the need to go back and strategise because nobody expected the strike would last this long," Motshwarakgole said. Motshwarakgole allayed fears that industrial class workers might not be re-hired amidst fears that government has already outsourced their services to private companies. However Motshwarakgole emphasised that just like nurses and doctors, industrial class workers classified as essential services would not lose their jobs. Motshwarakgole added that some had already received their letters of appointments. He said they could not ignore the 'minority' who are unhappy with the decision to suspend strike. "We will have to engage those comrades and find a solution in moving forward," he said. He added that even in Kanye some members were not happy with the idea to suspend the strike but had to reason with them to see the bigger the picture.

On Friday, BOFEPUSU president, Masego Mogwera and Motshwarakgole convinced striking workers in Kanye that they have taken a decision to suspend the strike in order to guard against the strike turning violent. Mogwera told the striking public servants that most of them were being arrested for strike related offences hence the violence might undermine the good course of the strike.

For his part Motshwarakgole pleaded with the striking workers that it was not the end of strike but just a suspension of the industrial action until the Special Congress decides otherwise on June 25.