By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK A historic international cooperation agreement was this week formally signed between the Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN) and the Botswana Secondary School Union (BOSETU). The two teachers’ unions are non-political, independent entities representing the professional interests of teachers in their respective countries. “TUN is very delighted to be associated with a like-minded teachers’ trade union, BOSETU, from our neighbouring country, a tangible indication that we in TUN are not at all alone in our line of thinking. The southern African region can benefit from the two unions’ interaction and socio dialogue,” said Gert Jansen, the TUN president, in a speech during the signing ceremony in the capital. A 15-person delegation from BOSETU paid a one-week visit to the country. “This agreement will pave the way to setting up mechanisms to address the plight of independent trade unions in SADC countries. The migrant teachers issue – a serious concern for all of us – will be addressed through this agreement. This accord will also enhance both non-political unions to open-mindedly address HIV/AIDS and other related issues because presently Namibia and Botswana top the list of infected and affected HIV/AIDS cases in the sub-Saharan region,” Jansen said. He expressed the hope that both unions would work closely together to enhance the many social and economic challenges faced by the two countries. “We will strive to promote harmonious labour relations and social dialogue in our two respective countries, and thereby pave the way for a successful tripartite system on national and regional levels. In this regard, we have already received other important cooperation invitations from two South African teachers’ unions that share our views in our representation of the interests of teachers,” he said. The president of BOSETU, Eric Tidau, warned African governments with totalitarian tendencies to allow workers – in particular teachers – to function freely and without being suppressed. “BOSETU has tried to make formal contact with the official government-recognized teachers’ union in Namibia, which in turn presumptuously denied us an audience by referring us to the Botswana Teachers’ Union. We realized that a mind game was being played, and we decided to go broader than NANTU in our quest to find out more about the independent trade union sector in Namibia,” Tidau, whose union has more than 8 000 members from a total of 30 000 teachers in Botswana, said. His union’s specific field of interest during its delegation’s visit to Namibia is the social welfare of teachers and service conditions. “In this, we have achieved our goals, thanks to the Teachers’ Union of Namibia. We have learned quite a bit from this union in preparing ourselves for a possible merger of the four teaching bodies that exist in Botswana. We prefer working with independent and non-political teacher bodies such as TUN from whom we have learned to henceforth open our membership to all teachers in our country instead of only secondary school teachers,” Tidau concluded.