22 Jan 2020

Botswana Transport and General Workers Union (BTGWU) general secretary says a regulatory body should be established to ensure adherence to operational and safety regulations at Botswana Railways (BR).

In response to whether the existence of an oversight entity would curtail allegations of non-compliance to regulations, BTGWU, Mr Thapelo Molefe agreed that there was need for an external regulator to monitor and ensure compliance.

Mr Molefe, who was testifying Tuesday before the board of inquiry set to investigate circumstances surrounding December 10 train accident, said while awaiting the setting up of such a regulatory body, the BR safety department could, in the interim, be tasked with the responsibility to ensure that the company complied with regulations.

Regarding the general disregard, particularly for safety, at BR, Mr Molefe said the union, under which the company’s employees fell, had raised alarm several times and had on numerous occasions tried, albeit in vain, to seek audience with the transport and communications minister.

Furthermore, the unionist faulted the BR board of directors for what he termed failure to discharge the mandate for which it existed. “Many accidents have happened, and the board has not done anything. We feel the board is not serving its purpose,” he said.

The union’s president, Ms Gaebepe Molaodi, who is also a dispatch clerk at BR, concurred with Mr Molefe that the union’s pleas to engage with management particularly of issues of workers’ safety had not borne fruit and that efforts to meet with the responsible minister had indeed hit a brick wall.

The union boss lambasted BR for putting the safety of its employees at stake by making them assume certain duties without having been taken through induction courses.

As an example, Ms Molaodi said the company recently hired track workers and made them work on the tracks without having been inducted.

Making the employees work prior to inducting them was wrong and the fact that they were hired from within the company’ staff complement did not mean that they had knowledge of what was expected of them in their new roles, she noted.

Ms Molaodi also accused management of being wasteful, saying BR was in the habit of procuring equipment and different types of materials which it later piled up in its workshops without putting them to use. ENDS