BOFEUSU postpones elective congress

Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) has postponed its elective congress to a yet to be announced date.

BOFEPUSU President Johannes Tshukudu revealed that the decision was arrived at due to the delay in completion of audited Financial Statements and the Executive Report. The current federation leadership got into office on the 14th of February 2015 and was expected to leave office this month. Tshukudu stated that they are busy working on these two key issues so that preparations for the congress could be underway. “Once the audited statements and executive reports are ready then the executive would decide on the date of the elective congress.  “The process is still ongoing and we had to postpone from February to a date to be communicated with members. The power is in the executive to decide the dates,” said the federation leader.  He said it has been accordingly communicated to the members regarding this development. The last elective congress of the federation was marred by controversy which resulted in one of the affiliates Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) withdrawing its membership. BOPEU took a decision in 2015 during its congress in Palapye to ditch the federation.

The meeting noted that BOPEU joined the mother body through a congress resolution; therefore it should also move out of BOFEPUSU through the same route.  It was then agreed that an election be held, of which the withdrawal vote won with 226 against 36, and 11 abstaining from voting. BOPEU mentions the issue of audited financial statements in its 2016 booklet titled ‘Why BOPEU left BOFEPUSU’ as one of the contributing factors.  The federation is also accused of delaying the congress which was to be held in August 2014 without any valid reasons. BOPEU indicates in the booklet that BOFEPUSU Executive and Secretariat failed to present to Congress Audited Financial Report which is in violation of its own constitution.