Gaborone (Botswana) 30 August 2022 (SPS)- The leadership of Botswana Land Boards Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU), paid a solidarity visit to the Saharawi Embassy in Gaborone to get detailed briefing on the last developments in Western Sahara and reiterate its principled and firm support to the Saharawi people’s legitimate struggle for freedom, dignity and independence.
Led by the President of the Union, Mr. Thatayaone Kesebonye, BLLHWU delegation was composed by Secretary General, Mr. Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, International Relations Officer, Ms. Kitso Makute, and Industrial Relations Officer, Ms. Game Mako.
The delegation was received by Saharawi Ambassador to Botswana, Mr. Malainin Lakhal, who briefed his guests on the general situation in Western Sahara, emphasizing that Saharawis are not only fighting for their legitimate right to self-determination and independence, but also for every single people’s rights to freedom and dignity.
He stressed that struggling for the rights of all peoples to self-determination and to safety from foreign aggression and expansionism is not the duty of Saharawi people alone, but that of all peoples and all active citizens in the world.
He further praised the principled and historical position adopted by the successive governments of Botswana in support to the strict respect of international law in the resolution of the conflict in this last colony in Africa. He especially expressed gratitude to the current government, under the leadership of President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who had been very outspoken these few past years in voicing the progressive position of the country on the legitimate right of Western Sahara to freedom and independence.
The members of the Union’s delegation on their side presented to their host briefings on the main issues BLLHWU is struggling for in Botswana, stressing however that as an active Union it is also attached to its responsibilities of solidarity with other nations’ legitimate struggle within the framework of African and human solidarity.
In this context, Secretary General, Mr. Ketlhalefile Motshegwa emphasized in particular his union’s attention to international and African solidarity, indicating that besides their local struggles for workers’ rights, the trade union must also stay sensitive to African and international struggles, especially in Palestine, Western Sahara and Eswatini, to name only these cases.
President, Mr. Thatayaone Kesebonye, affirmed the trade union’s stance on Western Sahara and the awareness among members of the Central Committees of the need to keep the support.
The two sides also discussed technical issues related to an invitation received by BLLHWU to attend a Forum that will be organized by the UGTSARIO in the Saharawi refugee camps.
BLLAHWU is a militant, radical Trade Union that subscribes to the notion that Trade Unions have a role to play in socio-economic and political matters including at international level. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)