Download Botswana

BOTSWANA FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
COUNTRY REPORT
STATE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE BOTSWANA FEDERATION OF
TRADE UNIONS: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDS
Presented at International Training Centre of the ILO
Program for Workers Activities (ACTRAV)
TRADE UNION TRAINING ON INFORMATION MANAGEMENT FOR TRADE
UNION ORGANISATION, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
Course A3-01269. 09 – 25/03/2009.
Monday 9th March 2009.
Turin, Italy.
By
Modiredi Gabonthone
BSc Business Systems
Botswana Secondary Schools Teachers Union (BOSETU)
(Affiliate of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions)
INTRODUCTION
This paper is the country report for Botswana as required for the ILO course on on
information management for trade union organisation, research and education.
It addresses the challenges, opportunities and needs.
Background: Politics and the Economy
Botswana is a completely landlocked country located at the centre of Southern
Africa, sharing borders with South Africa (East and South), Namibia (West and
North), Zambia (North) and Zimbabwe (North and East) (Chipasula and Miti,
1989; IMF, 1973). It has a population of just fewer than 2 million people, mostly
young and growing at about 3.5% per annum, occupying a geographical land
area of 582, 000 km², almost the size of Kenya or France (Dahl, 1981) with a
population density of about 3 persons per square kilometre (CSO, 2005). The
population is concentrated on a 200 km-wide strip of land on the East, the most
fertile or less arid land which is traversed by a single track railway line and a
major road highway that connects the country to its southern (South Africa) and
northern neighbours (mainly Zimbabwe). Much of the area to the West, or twothirds of the total land area, is the Kgalagadi desert (Ochieng, 1981; IMF, 1973).
Administratively the country experienced 81 years of colonial rule as a British
protectorate up to independence on 30th September 1966. The Botswana
political structure is built on democratic pluralism with the Botswana Democratic
Party (BDP) having ruled since independence in 1966. Elections are contested
every five years. The President has executive powers and is chosen virtue of the
party with the highest seats in National Assembly. Cabinet is nominated by the
President from the National Assembly. Labour rights are guaranteed in the
constitution though in a general form.
After the 2004, national legislative elections, the ruling BDP holds 40 of the seats
at the National Assembly (including 4 nominated MPs and three official seats –
the President, the Speaker and the Attorney-General), while the remaining seats
were won by the Botswana National Front 12 and the Botswana Congress Party
(1). The next elections will be held in October 2009.
Following the start of diamond and copper-nickel mining in 1971 and 1973
respectively (Chipasula and Miti, 1989), the growth of government and mining
sectors dominated the economy. Despite some recent progress in diversifying
the economy and generating private sector activity, the diamond sector which currently contributes about 94% of total mining output, 33% of GDP, 75%
of exports, and 45% of government revenue - continues to dominate formal
sector activity” (IMF, 2006: OECD, 2003).
2
This trend of mineral dependence has continued, to the extent that some
economists believe that it is mildly responsible for stunting the growth of the nonmining sectors, especially the privately owned manufacturing sector (a
phenomenon called the “Dutch disease” in Economics jargon), although such
debate is inconclusive (Harvey and Lewis, 1990; Narayana, Siphambe,
Akinkugbe and Sentsho, 2005a; Setlhare, 2005b; Sentsho, 2005c). A 2006 country
report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that “Botswana has not
fully escaped the symptoms of ‘Dutch Disease’ which has constrained growth
outside the diamond enclave. In particular, the persistent tendency toward
appreciation of the real exchange rate resulting from the large inflows of
diamond receipts has hurt the country’s competitiveness as both an exporter
and a foreign investment destination” (IMF 2006: 6).
The mining sector continues to contribute a significant share of GDP but faster
growth of other sectors of the economy, and consequent diversification, will be
required if problems such as high unemployment rates and poverty levels, and
risks associated with external shocks, are to be addressed. It is therefore,
important for the economy to find additional engines of growth. A major
prerequisite for this development is attaining global competitiveness.
Despite high growth rates the economy exhibits jobless growth as shown below.
Figure 1: Real GDP Growth v Employment Growth 1998 – 2008
10
9.2
8.6
8.1
8
7.8
Real GDP Grow th
Growth Rates (%)
6.6
6.4
6
6.2
5.7
5.3
5.0
4.1
4
2.7
2.6
2
3.3
3.2
3.0
2.1
2.0
2.4
2.1
2.2
Employment Grow th
0
-0.8
-2
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
Years
Years
3
TRADE UNION STRUCTURE, UNIONISATION, ORGANIZATION AND CHALLENGES
FACING THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
Overall membership and trade union density is still low in the country. Although,
there are no conclusive official statistics, recent reports show that there about
60,000 - 70,000 unionized workers out of the total 306, 045 (CSO, 2008) formally
employed work force. This represents an estimated national union density of
about 20%. Though still restrictive, the current legislative framework now provides
a framework for increased participation in organizing and collective bargaining.
The changes to the Employment Act, the Trade Unions and Employers
Organization and Trade Disputes Act can be said to have brought some of the
Botswana labour laws in line with some international conventions.
The 2005/6 Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimated that 790, 000 Batswana of
working age (12 years and above) are economically active, out of a population
of about 1.7 million. The remaining 54% of the population are children, students,
sick, retired and old age persons. Official unemployment rate is 17.5%, excluding
discouraged job seekers who make up 17.1%.Based on these figures the
potential for Union membership is about 650, 000, a figure which reduces by 13,
000 since section 20(1) of the Trade Unions and Employers’ Organisations Act
(TUEOA) bars persons below the age of 15 years from belonging to a trade
union. Most of those employed are engaged in subsistence agriculture and
private households, in conditions less favourable than what the ILO would
describe as decent work. For instance agricultural workers earn an average of
P366 (US$ 45) per month, according to the 2005/6 LFS, which also placed
informal sector employment (including domestic servants) at 157, 000 or 20% of
the total labour force.
Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) was formed in April 1977, replacing
the Botswana Trade Union and the Education Centre, its predecessor. Five
Unions, Botswana Worker’s Union, Botswana Bank Employees Union, Botswana
Commercial and General Workers Union, Botswana Constructions Union and
Botswana Railways Workers Union, worked tirelesly towards the establishment of
the BFTU. The mission of the BFTU is to actively promote the interest and welfare
of workers, individuals citizens and to create a free and prosperous society for all
Batswana. It advocates for sustainable economic growth, equitable income
distribution, stable prices, full employment and maximum economic security and
social welfare. (BFTU, 2004: FES, 2003).
Available statistics indicate that there are 51 registered in Botswana. BFTU, an
affiliate of ITUC, with 31 affiliates remains the National Trade Union Centre,
though a new federation has emerged at the end of 2008. After the 2004
changes in labour legislation that allowed for freedom of association, there has
4
been some proliferation of trade unions. BFTU represents about 63% of all the
legally registered trade unions in the country. About 10 unions are dysfunctional.
The structure of the BFTU is that the principle officers of the Federation are the
President ,Vice President, Secretary General, Assistant Secretary General ,
Treasurer and five additional members elected by the Congress .This constitutes
the Executive Board. The triennial delegates’ congress is the highest organ and
authority. The Secretary General is a full time official.
The Manual Workers Union and the Botswana Public Employees Union, two
major public service workers organizations, who represent approximately 10-15%
of the formal workforce, are not affiliated to the BFTU. The two unions have
registered a new sectoral federation, BOFEPUSU. Administratively the new
federation only operates in the public service. However, politically, there are
indications that it is a rival federation to BFTU and seeks to replace BFTU as the
more representative national centre in Tripartite structures.
The main challenges facing the Unuion movement in Botswana are:









Strong anti-union sentiments in national political culture and entreprises level.
Lack of institutional support from government systems e.g. state funding of
labour education projects.
Capacity contraints at BFTU: lack of qualified staff for specialised areas such
as research, education, organising etc.
Weak leadership which fails to grow the movement using current potential.
Fragmentation and proliferation of in-house unions.
Absence of Union consciousness and solidarity and the dominance of
business unionism, which leads to divisions.
Restrictive legislative framework which outlaws secondary strikes and crossindustry organising, elaborate strike procedures and weak dispute resolution
mechanisms.
Weak trade union education programmes.
Poor structural linkages and networking between afiiliates.
(FES Country Report 2008; Interview with trade unionist)
5
THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE BOTSWANA LABOUR MOVEMENT:
CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDS AT FEDERATION AND INDIVIDUAL
UNION LEVEL
The general purpose of information technology in the trade union movement is
to support Trade Union Research, Education, Collective Bargaining, Trade Union
administrationa nd finnaces and Organising (recruiment campaigns, mobilising,
building Union structures etc).
Challenges, Opportunities and Needs
The major challenges faced by the labour movement are:












There is no affiliates’ database which can inform BFTU, government and
researchers about membership data such as characteristics of union
members: gender, age, education level profiles etc.
No systematic collective, coordination and storage of information to support
policy advocacy and lobbing. Therefore ICT is not used to inform trade union
strategies.
Absence of fulltime research office (BFTU research is ad hoc/part time). Lack
of research capacity mainly caused by lack of funds. Affiliates are more
independent from the Federation and do not fund BFTU research capacity,
although affiliates have more money than BFTU.
Access to IT, PC, Internet, Intranet and data at workplace level. Botswana as
a developing country has a challenge in network connectivity, access to PC
- cellphones are more accessible than PCs due to prohibitive market
structure and pricing, which limit access to connectivity.
Quality of access. People do not know what they can do with PCs except
using simple applications like MSWord and playing computer games due to
lack of education.
No website for Unions and no effective interaction of Unions and their
members through intranets or networking. Lack of Trade union consciousness
and inhouse unionism also places limitations.
No outlined trade union education.
No link between research and collective bargaining especially national and
regional macroeconomic data .
No link between ICT and Labour Education (information and knowledge
base) and ideological orientation of union representatives.
Filing is another problem in trade unions. Manually filing leads to shortage of
space.
No generic software Accounting Packages used.
Few well resourced trade unions since many are small in-house unions. Big
unions have inappropriate structures for optimising ICT.
6

Leadership has poor ICT skills and a poor appreciation of the role of ICT in
trade union work. Leaders still using manual systems to run unions e.g. for the
few unions with websites the website is a way of showing pictures of their
leaders to the public, are seldom updated and have no valuable research
data.
CONCLUSION
Throught this information management course BFTU will develop a training
course outline for training trade unionists on the use of ICT in trade union in
supporting core trade union activities especially Union administration, research
and education.
7
REFERENCES
1.
CENTRAL STATISTICS OFFICE. (December 2004). Household Income and
Expenditure survey 2002/3. Republic of Botswana, Gaborone.
2.
. (February 2008). 2005/6 Labour Force Survey. Republic of
Botswana, Gaborone.
3.
CHIPASULA, J.C. and K. MITI. (1989). Botswana in Southern Africa. What lies
ahead. Ajanta Publications, New Delhi.
4.
DAHL, Hans-Erik. (1981). Economic and Social Development in Botswana,
in “Papers on the Economy of Botswana”. Harvey, C. (Ed.). Heinemann
Educational Books Ltd, London, pp 1-13.
5.
FES (2008) Trade Unions in Botswana: Country Report
6.
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. (1973). Surveys of African Economies,
Vol. 5, pp 88-96.
7.
. (2006). IMF Country Report No. 06/66, Botswana: 2005 Article IV
Consultation, February 2006, IMF, Washigton, D.C.
8.
Interview with Edward Tswaipe, BFTU General Council member (February
2009)
9.
KALUSOPA, T. and TSWAIPE, E. (2008). Employment Issues and Policy in
Botswana: Country Report For Actrav Course On Trade Union Training On
Research And Youth Employment Policies. 19th May 2008. Turin, Italy.
10.
OCHIENG, E.O. (1981). Botswana’s trade structure compared with those of
other small countries, in “Papers on the Economy of Botswana”, Harvey, C.
(Ed.). Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, London, pp 115-130.
11.
OECD, Country Report, African Economic Outlook, 2003.
12.
SENTSHO, J. (2005). Growth and performance of the mining sector, in
“Economic Development of Botswana: facets, policies, problems and
prospects”. Siphambe, H.K., N. Narayana, O. Akinkugbe and J. Sentsho
(Eds). Bay Publishing, Gaborone, pp. 138-148.
8