Internship programme is outdated and flawed

*DITHAPELO KEORAPETSE | Friday May 17, 2013 00:00

 

According to a press release from the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs dated May 10, 2013, all interns who have been in the programme will continue to earn an allowance of P1, 800 while P200 will be saved and paid up upon completion of service. According to the same communiqu, all those who joined the programme on the April 1, 2013 will earn P1, 420 and an amount of P1, 320 will be paid directly into the interns' accounts and P100 will be saved for interns and will be paid upon completion of service.

The BCPYL is of the view that the decision to reduce the allowance is irrational, untenable and inconvenient. The past few years spike of inflation has pushed low-income earners in Botswana into miserable poverty. The price level of goods and services remains very high and still rising, implying continuously higher cost of living for graduate interns in particular and workers in general.  The high cost of living has had a deleterious impact on the quality of life and the well-being of the low income, including the interns.  For that reason, government should be coming up with better ways to cushion the effects of rising costs on this category of people rather than exacerbating their already dire condition further.

The BCPYL believe that Graduate Internship is the most awful form of underemployment.  It is a simple admission by the ruling party that it is bereft of ideas on employment creation. We are of the view that unemployment in Botswana is ascribed to the undiversified and mono-mineral lead economy, neglected mineral beneficiation, disregard and subsequent collapse of the agricultural sector, failure to harness tourism and failure to support manufacturing industry. The leadership is also incompetent to address the issue of education and its role in the cycle of unemployment and underemployment. The inference is obvious in the rate of unemployed and underemployed graduates. Youth in Botswana also lack access to business and/or economic opportunities.  This is aggravated by refusal to enact a law on citizen economic empowerment and the continued lack of access to land and credit by the young people.

The league regards Graduate Internship as the worst form of underemployment; graduates in this programme are improperly employed and exploited under the guise of 'transition from higher education to the world of work'. Graduates with certificates, diplomas, and degrees experience exploitation by government and the private sector.

Instead of hiring these graduates, avaricious companies in various sectors simply get almost free labour from interns. Graduate interns are unacceptably exploited in the worst possible way under the watch of the government. The BCPYL contends that this programme has polluted the labour market and the country's economic activity. Consequently, it must be evaluated and overhauled.

*Dithapelo Keorapetse is president of the Botswana Congress Party Youth League (BCPYL)