There is no doubt that the tragedy that befell the nation in the past two weeks has brought excruciating pain to the relatives of the three deceased Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) employees. Losing any life is highly regrettable and Botswana Teacher’s Union (BTU) is equally saddened by this scenario and would like to express its deepest and sincerest sympathy to the affected families. At such a difficult moment, our eyes can only be directed to God Almighty to sooth our hearts. Our hope and destiny only lies within the hands of our omnipotent and omnipresent God. As registered in the book of Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” ┬áCertainly at some point our flesh succumbs to death but our words of encouragement emerge from the fact that God remains the strength of our hearts and it is God who gives us the courage to forge on with life despite our loss. As BTU, we would like to call upon those directly affected by this dark cloud as well as the nation at large to walk in faith and in good courage knowing very well that our hearts shall be strengthened by our King-the Almighty Supreme God.
 Let me also hasten to commend our Armed Forces (Botswana Defense Force (BDF) and Botswana Police Service (BPS) for the excellent job they did by remaining focused on the search even when making a breakthrough proved to be a giant task. Their commitment and diligence in pursuing this rescue mission cannot be compared to anything. Our gratitude and salute goes especially to Mr. King Tshebo, The Station Commander of Old Naledi, who led the rescue mission with utter commitment and tirelessness. We are so proud of our men and women in uniform and we pray that God may continue prospering and sustaining them and their families. The call for Armed Forces is never an easy one but we trust as BTU that the state will continue providing all the necessary amenities to the Armed Forces so as to anchor their operations. Bravo for a job well done!!
Finally, I will be failing in my duty if I cannot register my appreciation to the community especially the church leadership across the country for having faithfully kept the bereaved families comforted through prayers and messages of hope and faith. One lesson we can learn from this as Batswana is that through unity and solidarity we can move mountains. The beauty and strength of any democracy becomes evident during hard times when people can bring their heads together and give each other a shoulder to lean on during difficult and challenging moments. BTU is convinced that any problems plaguing our democracy can be resolved through unity, solidarity and democratic dialogue and the tragedy which befell us as a nation at Gaborone dam provides the evidence that as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder as Batswana we can conquer. As a nation, we should never lose nor detach ourselves from the value of dialogue and engaging one another democratically in all our socio-economic and political spheres. Our victory is born from unity and solidarity. Together we can overcome. 
(Ibo Nana Kenosi is the Secretary General of Botswana Teacher’s Union-BTU)
