Saturday, February 8, 2025

Fears Botswana Post may cut more than 200 jobs

More than 200 employees could find themselves jobless at the end of the year after Botswana Post concludes their “Rationalisation exercise”.

In an interview with Sunday Standard, Botswana Post Head of Communications, Lebogang Bok, could not be drawn into revealing the purpose of the rationalisation exercise, only saying that they are still discussing the issue internally with relevant stakeholders.

“Every organisation goes through this kind of process once in a while; it is nothing new,” she said.

Bok, however, could not deny that some of their staff will have to be let go after the consultations.

“We are obliged by the law not to divulge details of internal consultations with a third party until such a time that we would have reached an agreement,” she added.

One of the Botswana Post employees, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity, said they have been holding meetings for the past three weekends and receiving some retrenchment counselling to prepare them for the harsh conditions of unemployment and the inevitable reality of a future loss of income.

She said most of the employees who are expected to be affected by the impending retrenchments are those with Junior and Cambridge Certificates without any post graduate qualifications.
“They want educated people,” she said.

Bok could neither deny nor confirm the allegation still maintaining that she would not discuss details of the consultation process. According to another employee, who also chose to remain anonymous, those who choose to quit will be remunerated with P40 000 while those who opt to be pushed will be given P35 000 with an option of being hired on a contract basis.

“This all seems like a scam to me; they want to cheat us,” said the disgruntled employee. She also added that they had been told that more than 250 staff would have been retrenched by the end of the year which was also corroborated by her colleague.

The Head of Communications could still not open up about the exact number of the employees who will likely be retrenched at the end of the “rationalisation process”. She said the exercise is in accordance with section 25 of the employment act which gives an employer the power to terminate contracts of employment “for the purpose of reducing the size of his workforce”. Bok said Botswana Post currently employs close to 1000 staff around the country.

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