BOPEU not worried by splinter union
Botswana Public Employees ( BOPEU) President Masego Mogwera says they are not threatened by the formation of a new union by former colleagues at BOPEU.
Some former BOPEU leaders in various structures have established a new union called Botswana Public, Parastatals and Private Alliance Workers Union ( BOPPPAWU).
The union was formed in July this year and was registered in October 2022. Its interim President is Donald Mokgwe former BOPEU member of the National Executive Committee ( NEC).
Mogwera revealed this week that BOPEU remains intact and her NEC is working well with the membership to execute its mandate. She explained that some of the executive committee members of the new union were delegates to BOPEU’s Central Executive Committee ( CEC) meeting which is scheduled to be in Palapye from the 4th to 8th December 2022.
“Our belief is that the new union is just a sister union to us. As the National Office Bearers ( NOB) we engaged with our fellow comrades and notified them that they cannot be delegates to our meeting while they are also in the executive of another union.
“This means as things stand, they are competitors. We do not have a problem with dual membership but we cannot have someone being in executive positions of two unions. It would be unlawful,” Mogwera said.
Most of the interim committee of BOPPPAWU were part of the faction that was fighting with Mogwera’s faction over the running of BOPEU.
The anti Mogwera team lost all its court cases which ran for years. She stated that they have agreed with the colleagues on the matter and they have obliged without any problems.
According to Mogwera, delegates are drawn from across structures of the union and these include; members of the national structures, representatives from regions, branches and workplaces.
“We expect about 400 delegates in accordance with our constitution. CEC is an annual event and therefore the programme of the day is fairly standard as it is a constitutional imperative for the CEC to convene annually.
The CEC therefore meets to consider the Annual Reports from National Executive Committee; Audited financial Reports that will show the financial position of the union; Board of Trustees Report; Consideration of the Annual Budget; and any other report,” Mogwera told a press conference on Wednesday this week.
Mogwera said the CEC will be held under the theme, ‘ Building the 21st Century Labour Movement through Decent Work and Effective Workplace Structures’.
The BOPEU President said they recognise that this year’s CEC will be held within the 16 days of Activism against Gender Based Violence ( GBV) which is a period between the 25th November and the 12th December 2022.
“We also recognise that more than 50 percent of BOPEU members are women who are mostly the victims of GBV, therefore the CEC will hold a match Against Gender Based Violence on the 5th Dec 2022 in the afternoon”.