FOREIGNERS’ PARADISE Botswana’s agriculture sector attracts more foreign employees
Education sector foreigners face ill-treatment
Amajority of non-citizens with work permits in Botswana are in the agricultural sector. This is according to the June 2021 report by Statistics Botswana, which reveals that there are 3 458 work permit holders in the country. Agriculture accounts for 25 percent of these, followed by Education with 14.5 percent and Construction with 13.9 percent.
In the category of self-employed work permit holders, Wholesale and Retail Trade is above other industries, recording 27.0 percent of work permit holders, followed by Real Estate and Manufacturing at 13.9 percent and 10.7 percent respectively.
South Africa recorded the highest number of self-employed persons at 29.7 percent as compared to other countries, while Zimbabwe has the highest number of foreign nationals who are employees in Botswana at 50.7 percent. Regional program coordinator at the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa, Baitse Podisi, says this is because foreigners do not mind taking labour intensive jobs compared to locals.
“Some are educated in the field but most of them go on to work in the fields as herdsmen, as long as it puts money on the table, they take it up,” he said. Secretary General of the Botswana Sectors for Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) Tobokani Rari said private education institutions are responsible for the majority of foreigners who are employed in the educations sector.
“The public sector does not hire many non-citizens. The private sector mostly hires foreigners even though there are many unemployed Batswana teacher graduates in Botswana.” “There are many reasons leading to that, one of them being that there is no job security in the private sector. Some of these private institutions are well-known for their tendency to fire and hire with frequent regularity, leading to locals staying away,” said Rari. He added that some private institutions also underpay staff and often get away with it, adding that BOSETU is often unable to protect foreigners from the abuse as they are easily intimidated by employers not to affiliate with BOSETU.
“Most of them are scared and forced to stay away from unions or else they would be seen as trouble makers. We go on to bring them on board but they easily pull out, meaning even if work conditions are not favourable, they stay and get exploited,” Rari said.