BLLAHWU power struggles far from over
An elective congress was successfully hosted this past weekend in Francistown despite a pending court case challenging the legality of the 2021 approved constitution of Botswana Land Board and Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU).
Hunted union president, Thatayaone Kesebonye has retained his position as president after standing unopposed during election.
Kesebonye and Union Secretary General Ketlhalefile Motshegwa are two men who former union treasurer Baone Seloka and Letsatsi Modise are currently gunning for.
In Seloka and Modise’s application that has been submitted to court, they want clarity on the Constitution that the union should use.
They say that there is one constitution that was approved in 2015 then there is one which was recently amended and approved in 2021.
They are not happy with the 2021 constitution as they believe it was specifically amended to pave way for Motshegwa as Secretary General.
They also believe that the recently amended constitution was done to defeat the ends of justice.
Under the old constitution, union Secretary General is appointed by voting at the Congress whereas the amended constitution says the SG is appointed by members of the executive committee.
After the constitution was amended in 2021, the Kesebonye-led committee re-aligned Motshegwa’s contract with the new constitution.
Baone, who is former union treasurer was expelled from the union after he disagreed with other members of the executive committee on the contract renewal of Motshegwa back in 2020, saying it was unconstitutional.
But through a committee vote, Motshegwa’s contract was renewed.
Aggrieved, Seloka and two other members of the executive committee,
Nicholas Mothelesi and Boemo Bato took the matter to court.
After fighting for a long time, they finally won the case through the Court of Appeal in November 2022. Court ruled that the decision to renew Motshegwa contract be set aside.
However, a lot had already happened by the time judgement finally came out this year, the contesting committee members had been expelled, the constitution amended and Motshegwa hired through the new constitution.
With that, Kesebonye and Motshegwa ignored the COA ruling saying with the 2021 constitution, the appointment of Motshegwa was no longer handled through voting at congress.
Aggrieved by the turnout, Seloka and Modise now want court to instruct the Registrar of Societies to state which constitution is applicable.
They believe that because COA ruled in their favour regarding the appointment of Motshegwa in 2020, all decisions he took or union activities he took part in should be declared null and invalid.
These include his signatures on the amended 2021 constitution. The case is before Gaborone High Court Judge Tshepo Motswagole and is expected to resume next year March with the Registrar of Societies filing its affidavits.