Botswana’s government deployed heavy security in the capital Gaborone for the second day on Friday as despairing union leaders announced a suspension of a seven-week civil service strike that has driven the peaceful nation to the brink of full-scale violence.
Armed police backed by the paramilitary Special Support Group (SSG) and a helicopter were out in force on Thursday to prevent the striking workers from engaging in acts of violence and destruction that have accompanied the strike.
The SSG in anti-riot vehicles surrounded the strike's main hub at the Gaborone Secondary School sports ground as other security officers armed with batons farmed out on foot with the helicopter roaring above the city.
http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1178528/-/hnbplvz/-/
Union plans "phase two" and threatens a "no pay, no work" policy.
However, he stated that as workers go back to work the principle of No Pay No Work should be applied in retaliation to No Work No Pay imposed by the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM). He urged the workers not to undertake backlog w ork created by the strike as they have not been paid for it.
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=1524&dir=2011/June/Friday10
Even as civil servants are being harried by armed goons and helicopters, The proud "African," Nicky Oppenheimer, co-owner of deBeers, regales his fellow billionaires on the Council on Foreign Relations on the merits of globalization:
So in the hope that we can learn from the past I have some points which I think are relevant for the future of my great continent. Firstly we need to guard more and more against an insidious line of thinking that has come out of the world economic crisis. As the great economies of the world battle to assert the fiscal discipline necessary to bring spiralling deficits under control there are siren voices querying the need for an open world economy? This is something we all need to reject most particularly if you live on the African continent. Without an open world economy there is little chance that Africa will be able to grow at the rate required to provide employment and growth for its population. Globalization remains a powerful force for good.
Yes, insidious.
http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=36029&ArticleTitle=Oppenheimer+Addresses+Council+on+Foreign+Relations
