Botswana Federation of Public Sector Union (BOFEPUSU) has launched a campaign against Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s bid for the Botswana Democratic Party Chairmanship.
The campaign, which was announced Friday, is part of a bigger plan by BOFEPUSU to stop Masisi from ascending to the presidency of Botswana because the union believes he would become Botswana’s worst president. Top on Masisi’s charge sheet is that he is the biggest champion of a plan by government to withdraw the multi-million Pula GENVAS Scheme from workers’ unions. In 2010, government agreed to outsource to trade unions the government motor vehicle scheme that also offers loans to civil servants to enable them to buy houses.
The scheme that was run by government before 2010 was then outsourced to trade unions. The scheme was administered by UNIGEM a company that was formed by individual trade unions.
Trade unions are accusing Masisi of masterminding the plan to take away the scheme from trade unions by the end of May. Addressing a press conference on Friday the federation’s labour secretary Johnson Motshwarakgole said Masisi was behind all the negative developments that affect the working class and the nation at large.
“This is a warning, if we are not careful, a cruel government led by the Current Vice President Masisi is looming. This kind of government coming is the worst as compared to that of President Khama,” he said.
Motshwarakgole said “all negative developments affecting trade unions s are spearheaded by Masisi, we have all the information and we know what is going on.” Motshwarakgole emphasized that if there is ever going to be a government more cruel than that of Khama then the nation should “ask itself as to where the country is heading and where will it will be after Masisi takes over.”
“This means we have to stand for ourselves. If we are going to allow Masisi to win the BDP chairmanship then we are walking towards a danger zone. BDP is the party “We call on all members of the BDP who love peace to help in denying Masisi the chairmanship position. We already have a problem and we do not want to escalate it by allowing Masisi to be BDP chairman and president of Botswana.
The federation further said it is important to nip the problem in the bud hence the move to block Masisi to ascend to presidency. They said the first move is to block him from winning the party chairmanship. “We have to deal with these issues while they are still fresh, we believe that Masisi will bring nothing new as the president but will only make the current bad situation worse.
