28 Aug 2022

This year’s nurses’ day and awards celebrations, which was slated for August 25 in Maun, was called off at the eleventh hour.   

  The cancellation followed a court order, resulting from an urgent application by three unions namely, Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities, Health Workers Union, (BLLAHWU) Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) and National Amalgamated Local Central Government and Parastatal Workers Union, interdicting the celebration and awards. 

The application was filed before Lobatse high court on August 24. The concerned unions argued that they were not consulted and took the matter to court.

Assistant minister of Health, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe, who was supposed to officiate at the event, expressed disappointment at the turn of events, noting that they had invested a lot of resources to prepare for the activity, but ‘unfortunately things did not go as planned.’ 

Mr Lelatisitswe however, urged the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) to respect the court order.

He apologised to the nurses and dignitaries who had graced the occasion and officially declared the event cancelled as per the court order.

Meanwhile, BONU decided to turn the event into a Nurses Pitso, to discuss issues pertinent to their profession. The unions’ president, Mr Peter Baleseng  accussed sister unions of undermining nurses by cancelling  their event at the last minute.

However, he urged nurses to respect the court order and instead they should  take advantage of the day to discuss issues of concern and map the way forward.

 “We are not going to rest because sister unions have declared a war and this issue is also political. We are going to pull out from Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU), with immediate effect,” he said. 

Mr Baleseng said the bone of contention  was membership, saying sister unions were against nurses’ decision to terminate their membership and join BONU, which is a specialised union.

According to Mr Baleseng, the unions wanted to The unions,  to be part of the celebrations, hence their action. 

He said the difference was that other unions viewed the celebration as a labour day, while BONU insisted that it was a day specifically set for nurse  professionals. 

Mr Baleseng however, appreciated the health ministry’s efforts in preparing for the event and in addressing some concerns faced by the nurses.  

He said the ministry  was committed to invest in the profession, as they saw some of their members going for further studies, while some were recognised for their contribution towards service delivery.

On the part, some BONU members of BONU called for the union to introspect and called on the leadership to consider introducing a system to assist members affiliated to sister unions to terminate their subscriptions, adding that members were losing a lot of money because of dual membership.

President of East, Central and Southern Africa College of Nursing (ECSACON), Ms Keoagetse Kgwabi motivated nurses to be proud of their profession.

ECSACON is the profession body for nurses and midwives in the East, Central and Southern Africa region, established in 1990 to foster strategic collaboration for professional excellence.

Meanwhile, this year’s theme was: “A voice to lead-invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health”. 

The theme focused on the need to invest in nursing and respect the rights of nurses in order to build resilient, high quality health systems to meet the needs of individuals and communities now and into the future. ends