Calls to sack Johnson Motshwarakgole grow louder

Manual Workers concerned group seeks legal action against the union over SACOS subscriptions

Plans to push for the sacking of Manual Workers Union Chief Executive Officer Johnson Motshwarakgole and for National Executive Elections to be held immediately as the mandate of the current office bearers have elapsed, continues to gain momentum.

Manual Workers Union Concerned group last week started touring the country to get signatures of two thirds of the membership to sign a petition which was launched early last week.

The first meeting held in SelibePhikwe last week nearly ended in a fist fight as two warying factions - the one belonging to the concerned group and the other supporting the current National Executive Committee ( NEC) - exchanged words on who mandated the meeting.

The Concerned Group Secretary Mmaophala Mokgosi says they are disturbed by the status and the modus operandi of the union. She said the union has lost focus and is running a risk of being irrelevant.

She stated that they want to sensitise the general membership of the union about certain issues pertaining to their union and encourage them to stand up and take their full responsibility as enshrined in the constitution.

“Manual workers union is on a sickbed. The union needs the membership intervention to save it. The main problem with the union is that the constitution is not followed.

“According to the constitution, the mandate of the National Executive Committee ( NEC) is to run the affairs of the union on daily basis.

“That means the NEC should make sure that all the resolutions taken by the congress and conferences are implemented by the union secretariat.

Precisely, the duty of the secretariat is to implement the resolutions as directed by the NEC,” revealed Mokgosi.

Motshwarakgole has indicated that he would be removed from office through the laid down processes and procedures. He explained that due to COVID- 19 regulations and protocols, it would not be possible to hold the elective congress.

The concerned group has now turned on the heat to demand for their money derived from their subscription to the Local Central Government Parastatal Workers Savings Cooperative Society ( SACOS).

The society has since been liquidated. The concerned group has decided to engage Jarome Matomela to take legal action against the union leadership to demand payback for their subscriptions.

In a report seen by this publication it is argued that membership deduction code since 2016, all subscription money of all councils has never reached the cooperative society account and the money is kept at Manual Workers Union.

“The society has membership at Water Utilities Cooperative and their contributions and subscriptions have been processed where the society has taken gadgets such as cellphones and laptops from Botswana Telecommunications society, which have not been paid for as Water Utilities Cooperative ( sic) instructed to stop the payments,” reads the document seen by this publication.

The concerned group has since formed a WhatsApp group where it lures members to join them in the fight against the NEC and CEO. At the platform members discuss strategies to be applied to pile pressure while the NEC on the other hand is touring the country to gain control and counter the petition efforts.