13 Oct 2026

The success of the new Employment and Labour Relations Act will not be judged by its text, but by the tangible experiences of workers in their everyday lives.

This was said by Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe at the opening of the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) annual conference in Palapye on Friday.

Therefore, Mr Gaolathe called for fair and consistent implementation of the Act.

He stressed that transitioning policy into actual practice was vital for advancing workplace justice and protecting the welfare of educators across the nation.

Mr Gaolathe said the Act represented a milestone for Botswana by consolidating various employment and labour relations laws that were previously scattered across separate pieces of legislation. 

This consolidation, he said, offered a historic opportunity to build a coherent framework that simplified administration, bolstered collective bargaining and ensured fair dispute resolution.

“The promise contained in legislation must now find expression in the actual experience of workers,” he said. 

For teachers, he said that was found in ordinary parts of working life, in how grievances were handled, how employment terms were applied and whether workers had confidence that disagreement would be dealt with fairly.

Mr Gaolathe said government carried a particular responsibility because in relation to many educators, it was both policymaker and employer and that dual role required them to hold themselves to the standards they asked of others. 

Addressing teachers concerns, Vice President said where conditions fell short, workers were entirely within their rights to raise them, promising serious engagement within the bounds of the public service framework.

Some of the concerns affecting educators across various districts, he said included accommodation shortage, long commutes, heavy workloads and the uncertainty faced by teachers who had served for extended periods under temporary arrangements.

He explained that weaker diamond revenues and a narrow export base had left the country exposed to shifts in global demand, signalling that the economic model that sustained Botswana for decades was under visible strain.

He called on teachers to help build the future, adding that the future that was built must also strengthen teachers.

“If we expect educators to prepare young Batswana for a technology-driven economy, we must trust them, capacitate them, expose them to new methods and technologies, and create conditions in which their professional growth can keep pace with the economy they are helping us to build,’’ he said, urging that educators must be trusted, capacitate and exposed to new technologies to prepare young Batswana for a modern workforce.

He commended BOSETU for its disciplined commitment to its constitutional processes and recognised the union’s essential role in the whole of nation approach used to develop the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme.

He welcomed the union’s feedback, noting that BOSETU brings critical, firsthand workplace knowledge into the national dialogue including insights that “Government may sometimes find uncomfortable to hear.”

Mr Gaolathe urged both government representatives and organised labour to maintain institutional trust, even during natural disagreements, to ensure that the teacher standing before a class ultimately experienced greater fairness, dignity and professional confidence.

For his part, BOSETU president Dr Winston Radikolo said the new Employment and Labour Relations Act presented a crucial opportunity to shift from policy pronouncements to a genuine culture of implementation, consultation and justice.

“The law must protect workers from unfair labour practices. It must strengthen social dialogue. It must ensure that collective bargaining is meaningful. It must protect workers from arbitrary treatment and discriminatory practices. It must provide an effective framework for dispute resolution and ensure respect for lawful agreements and rulings,” he said.

He stressed that teachers’ labour rights, professional dignity and welfare must be treated as essential rather than optional matters.

He said it required transitioning from policy to concrete practice by ensuring fair remuneration and career progression, timely pay and equal treatment for temporary teachers, respect for collective bargaining and court judgments, recognition of their professional contributions and transparency in educational initiatives.

He also appreciated government’s steps in the education sector, specifically acknowledging that well-designed and properly implemented initiatives like the Education Infrastructure Management Corporation (EIMC) and the HERO projects could improve school infrastructure, learning environments and educational outcomes. ENDS