Amicar Cabral profoundly stated that in any struggle, it is of fundamental importance to define clearly who we are, and who is the enemy, Vladimir Lenin stated that without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. We are the friends of labour, and our enemy is capitalism and all its manifestations that causes exploitation, manipulation and sufferings of workers. We continue to support political education of workers to be armed with necessary revolutionary theory to build a strong movement to advance their course for workers’ rights are human rights.
We at BNF join multitudes of workers throughout the country in commemoration of workers day, a very important day in the calendar of labour movement. This is a day to remember the struggles of workers, to remember those who suffered in the trenches of the struggle and a day for workers to generate solutions to their challenges. We at BNF embrace the role played by the labour movement through BOFEPUSU, BFTU and their affiliates. You play a critical role in the industrial relations of this country in protection of workers’ rights, collective bargaining, dispute resolution and generally social dialogue at both bo-partite and tripartite level.
In the history of BNF ‘s solid contribution to promotion of the rights of workers, the party advocated for labour reforms like increment in maternity leave, made advocacy for Labour Day commemoration, 8 hours a day through the activism of the likes of Cde Frank Marumo and Cde Klass Motshidisi.
Let us once more hap on and reiterate this message about the character and aspirations of BNF, as enshrined in our Social Democratic Programme (SDP) of 1994, Strategic Plan of 2023, and BNF Policy document of 2024. The BNF ideological orientation and values are based on inter alia pursuit of liberty, promotion of civil rights, economic empowerment of the people. The central focus of policy framework of the party is to address of socio- economic disparities in communities for equality and social justice.
We wish to assure and commit that the UDC Government will ensure that workers and trade unions rights are respected, establish industrial councils, protect and enrich freedom of association and collective bargaining, for employers to engage with workers and trade unions for their issues to be resolved. Our efforts will be in building good industrial relations in the workplace, build industrial peace towards productivity in the public service, parastatals and private sector, by so doing build a culture of industrial peace and effective service delivery.
A great improvement needs to be made on social dialogue in Botswana (processes and institutions, bipartite and tripartite social dialogue structures, negotiation and collective bargaining. Further improvement needs to be made on dispute resolution in the workplace (handling grievances, handling disciplinary processes, labour inspection, mediation and arbitration).
It is our believe that Union leaders play a critical role in the economy through their organisations, and therefore UDC Government will continue to hold them in high regard.
We hope for the unity of workers, for workers and trade unions to remain committed to their mandate and work with Government for industrial harmony.
Yours in Justice
KETLHALEFILE FC MOTSHEGWA SECRETARY GENERAL
