Trade Unions in Botswana

Based on Seretse Khama's remarks and opinions in the journal entitled "Botswana Trade Union", the purpose of this article is to criticize whether labor unions should participate in Botswana's political issues or other "party politics" To discuss it. It first tries to define politics and labor unions. The discussion will then critically discuss the argument as to whether trade unions should be allowed to participate in Botswana 's political affairs, as suggested in the text of Sir Sset Khama above.

Botswana and South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia belong to the South African Customs Union (SACU), and free exchange of goods among member countries is possible. Botswana is also a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional organization focused on economic cooperation and integration. Botswana exports a portion of its exports to other southern African countries, but most of its exports are shipped to world markets other than Africa, mainly to Europe. Approximately three quarters of imports come from neighboring countries. Imports include machinery and transport equipment, food and consumer goods that are usually manufactured or served by South African multinational companies. Other imported products from other parts of the world are mainly high-tech equipment

As Botswana's domestic market is small, Botswana exports naturally manufactured products. Since Botswana is part of the South African Customs Union (SACU), it has a very close relationship with South Africa. This is a good thing for Botswana, but South Africa has greatly protected its industry and expressed dissatisfaction that Botswana is about to export products to the South African market (Good 2003b: p6). One suggestion is to invest more in the agricultural sector. Since the diamond industry causes some reduction in the agricultural sector, investment may increase production again. In the case of Botswana, this is particularly important. Most of the population is engaged in agriculture. However, it is only a small part of GDP (Pegg, 2009).