Hosseini foils BPC recruitment drive

 

Francistown Industrial Court Judge, Galesite Baruti on Monday ordered Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) not to hire or engage anybody for the position of Chief Operations Officer (COO) pending trial completion.

Jonathan Raheem Hosseini who was expelled from the position under controversial circumstances appealed to court citing the Corporation and its outgoing Chief Executive Officer, (CE0) Dr Stefan Peter Schwartzfischer as first and second respondents respectively.On Monday Hosseini’s efforts paid the first dividends as he successfully registered a victory in his first open court appearance in the matter in which he is challenging as unlawful, the manner in which outgoing CEO - Schwartzfischer and others pushed him out of the Corporation.

The Industrial Court issued an order against both the BPC and Schwartzfischer interdicting and restraining BPC and Schwarzfischer from taking any action that advances or attempts in any manner  whatsoever to hire, employ, engage and, or fill up the position of Chief Operations Officer.

The position has been advertised in both Mmegi newspaper edition of 8th March 2019 and in the Sunday Standard Newspaper dated 10th to 16th March 2019. The court interdicted the corporation from advertising the post or any other subsequent recruitment method in whatever form, pending the outcome of the applicant’s case filed at the Industrial Court of Botswana at Francistown under case number ICF 232/18.

The case has been set for hearing on 16 May 2019.  If Hosseini is successful, the court could order that, he be reinstated as COO of BPC. Speaking to Botswana Guardian Hosseini said Monday’s court order shows that there can be no effort by anyone in BPC to pre-empt the court’s eventual ruling.

“As you know, an independent disciplinary panel appointed by the BPC Board itself found me not guilty of the charges that were thrown at me. BPC’s subsequent action was misguided and unlawful, and I am confident that the court will confirm this fact and correct the injustice. I look forward to returning to BPC and completing what I started.”

In the matter, Justice Baruti appeared together with C. T Morapedi a nominated member of the Union and P Kelailwe a nominated member of Business Botswana. Hosseini was represented by Attorney Mere, while attorney Tango Rubadiri appeared for BPC.