Last week a very unprecedented event happened in the history of organised business in Botswana.
Instead of electing its leadership and deliberating on policy options on which to engage government, a general meeting organised by BOCCIM which is a flagship confederation of organized business degenerated into fist fights.
On the one hand was BOCCIM President and his supporters, on the other was the BOCCIM Council and the Chief Executive Council.
The Council wanted the President out, while for his part the President would rather have the CEO out.
In short, a very important national institution has been paralysed and rendered dysfunctional by petty squabbles which even the protagonists themselves are not able to articulate.
Perhaps to underscore the intensity of disagreements the meeting had to be postponed.
While BOCCIM paralysis is in many ways a symptom of the times, where as a country we seem unable to produce anything that is working, it is our view that BOCCIM should not be allowed to die.
We are not a big fan of BOCCIM.
But because the organization has always represented order and unity across the private sector, our view is that it has served an important role, especially that role of restraining and balancing the power of a government which is always too quick to impose its way by taking advantage of disunity among pressure groups.
Put in a proper context, as a country, Botswana has never needed BOCCIM more than is the case today.
As a most diverse representative of the private sector, BOCCIM has a very big role to play.
This role goes far beyond just organizing the private sector.
It also includes networking with government and influencing the country’s national economic policy.
We hope the BOCCIM leadership will after what happened mid-week reflect and pause to think of their actions and how their infighting is likely to play into the hands of the government.
Without BOCCIM, Botswana government will have an excuse to disregard the voice of the private sector.
And we must point out that even with BOCCIM, the voice of the private sector in Botswana is not yet where it should be in terms of influencing and directing the country’s national economic policy.
These are very difficult economic times for Botswana.
Since time immemorial, BOCCIM has enjoyed the prized position of being a quasi-advisor to government on economic matters.
The same, however, cannot be said about the labour union movement, which owing to its historical disunity, internal fighting, fragmentation and many other structural weaknesses has never really been taken seriously by Botswana government.
In fact in the tripartite relationship, the labour movement has been by far the weakest.
Botswana Government has always sought to portray organized business as not only orderly but also mature, level headed, patriotic and worth doing businesses with.
The opposite has been the case in governments dealing with labour.
But what happened during the week, where a meeting that was supposed to elect leadership of the country’s biggest private sector organization descended into chaos with some of the country’s most respected business leaders joining the fray is surely disappointing.
If organized business cannot even run their own affairs, how then do they hope to influence and advice government on national policy?
To its credit, government has, through the High Level Consultative Council, allowed the private sector a significant say in the direction of the country.
Chaired by the Head of State, HLCC is a very important forum where big decisions that influence national policy are taken.
At this particular forum, BOCCIM leadership and representatives are always given a lion’s share of time to state their case.
We note with dismay that the same preferential treatment enjoyed by BOCCIM at this very important forum has not been extended to the labour movement.
But as was so amply demonstrated during the week, BOCCIM and trade unions are not much different.
Government’s hitherto exalted view of BOCCIM is not only unfair but wrong and exaggerated.
The only thing that all of us should readily admit about BOCCIM is that unlike the labour movement, it has money and has a much bigger base of international contacts and networks from their contacts.
BOCCIM is first and foremost a private sector organization.
It is supposed to be apolitical.
But it cannot be a coincidence that almost all past BOCCIM leaders are directly linked with the ruling party.
As it is BOCCIM is nothing much more than a business wing of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party.
This proximity between BOCCIM and ruling BDP unfortunately does not only repulse other business people who are not ruling party followers, but it also blurs the lines between the private sector and public sector.
There has to be some detachment, and that detachment is lacking.
All the fights that we saw midweek at BOCCIM have all the hallmarks of factional fighting that will be repeated next week at the BDP Congress in Maun. And that is not right.
What the country needs today are robust people who will tell political leaders what the private sector views are to turn the economy around.
We cannot, therefore, have people who at night wear ruling party colours making policies with which to advise government and in the morning wear a different hat as BOCCIM and start pretending they are making policies for the private sector to advise government.
