BOPEU in total disarray

Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) President Masego Mogwera and her executive team have been dragged before the high court by a rival faction.

Botswana Guardian can reveal that by end of business on Wednesday this week some of BOPEU National Office Bearers (NOB) were served with court papers by National Executive Committee (NEC) who appointed themselves this past Saturday during a controversial meeting.

In a heated meeting which resulted in some members of the NEC walking out, the committee resolved to suspend five of its office bearers being Mogwera, first deputy president Martin Gabobake, General Secretary Topias Marenga, Deputy Secretary Kethapeleng Karabo and Treasurer General Aba Gabaikhe for failure to observe Articles 53.1 and 53.2 respectively, which speak of the secondment and remuneration of office bearers (president and treasurer general) as well as sanctioning the implementation of the new BOPEU structure.

The NEC has since resolved to appoint Philemon Zibani as the interim president, Ogaufi Masame as First Deputy President and Mosalagae Tlhako as Treasurer General pending investigations. Mogwera’s team has also in turn declared a state of emergency and suspended Zibani and crew. Zibani has however indicated that they could not be suspended by people who are on suspension.

A stalemate has been reached by the two groups over who is at the helm of the union. Currently Mogwera and team are occupying the leadership seat and Zibani and colleagues want to remove them through a court order.
Zibani confirmed to this publication that they have filed and served their colleagues with court papers but declined to comment further on the matter.

This publication understands that by Wednesday night some of Mogwera’s team members were served. Information gathered by Botswana Guardian indicates that Zibani’s team wants the other party to be ordered by the court out of the union office.

They also want Mogwera’s team to avail all the documents among them minutes that authorised the implementation of the secondment of the president and treasurer general and the new pay structure. It has since emerged that effort to obtain information that states how much the president and treasurer general are being paid following the implementation of the new pay structure and their secondment did not bear fruit.

This is why Zibani and team want the colleagues to be compelled to avail such information. The information is expected to be used in an investigation that the union under the leadership of Zibani as acting president would undertake. The case was expected to be heard yesterday (Thursday) or today (Friday) depending on whether all the parties have been served.

Prior to the controversial meeting the union NEC is said to have expressed concern about a variation of P225 000.00 which cumulatively went up to P1.8 million. This is said to have been raised in a recent NEC meeting in Palapye. It has been revealed that this variation shows that something was implemented with cost.