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6 October, 2008
The ICEM was saddened to learn of the death, 22 September, of Golekanye Mogende, President of the Botswana Mine Workers’ Union (BMWU). Mogende, 56, passed away unexpectedly in his home in Kopong.
In March 2008, he was elected to head the prominent union, which represents miners at several enterprises, including the joint diamond-mining venture between the government and DeBeers called Debswana, and BCL, a copper, nickel, and cobalt company formerly called Bamangwato Concession Ltd.
In fact, after joining the BMWU in 1995, it was at BCL where his union career was started. As BMWU chairman of the Selebi-Phikwe branch, a post he was elected to in the year 2000, he and three other bargaining committee members were sacked by the Botswana-based company in July 2004. Their crime: possession of financial information on the company, a common practice for any trained union negotiator and one essential for effective workers’ representation at the bargaining table.
Two months later, his integrity still intact, he was elected Deputy National Chairman of the BMWU. In 2006, he became the full-time chairman of the Salibi-Phikwe branch and was elected the peacemaker President in a fractious BMWU national election at last spring’s congress.
He was remembered by thousands of mourners, including Botswana Federation of Trade Unions President Japhta Radibe, in a memorial on 27 September.
“We understood Comrade Mogende to be a dedicated trade union leader, with an honest and direct approach to matters between labour and management that gave mineworkers – indeed, all workers in Botswana – earnest representation and a sincere commitment to workers’ rights,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, in a tribute letter to the BMWU .
He is survived by his wife and two children.