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 Justice Letsididi dismissed the application with costs but reserved the reasons for the dismissal until next Thursday. The dismissal of the application by Justice Letsididi means that last week's judgement made by Gaongalelwe still stands. Among other things, the ruling ordered the respondents to hand over the union documents and funds to the NEC within five working days, failing which they risked jail. Justice Gaongalelwe stated in his judgment that the current NEC is lawful and in charge of the affairs of the union. Their lawyer, Mompoloki Mogobe, drew the court's attention to the fact that section 21(1) that the respondents produced to challenge the legitimacy of the expelled NEC officials was amended in 2004 and the section was deleted from the Act. Justice Gaongalelwe maintained that the argument by the respondents that any member who fails to pay monthly subscriptions for three consecutive months shall be suspended from membership gives rise to a situation where a vacuum would be created in the committee. "It would not only create a vacuum but it would cause an absurdity more so that there is no provision stating how that would be remedied. The rule of interpretation is that a meaning which would cause an absurdity or hardship is to be avoided." Justice Gaongalelwe stated that he is persuaded to accept the submission that the requirement of paying subscriptions does not apply to members of the NEC. He further stated that the merits of the affidavit that the respondents produced on the rule nisi granted in November last year and January this year were not framed like an affidavit to show cause and they were vague. He said there was no attempt to substantiate how the order was complied with. The judge concluded by ordering the respondents to hand over all the properties and assets as well as documentation belonging to the applicants including the motor vehicle, cheque books held at Selebi-Phikwe Branch, all files, laptop, payment vouchers, statements from vendors and all official documentation that are necessary for the proper functioning of the union. Respondents were also ordered to stop representing themselves as office bearers of NEC and were directed to cease and desist from calling any meetings, signing and dealing in any manner with any documents in which they purport to represent themselves as NEC members. They were ordered to transfer all the money to the national account and also to account fully to the applicants as to how they used the money including subscriptions they received on behalf of the union since July last year. According to the judgement, no money or subscriptions received from members of the union should be deposited into any of the individual branch accounts. In regard to the second application in which the Assistant Secretary of the Phikwe Branch and 13 others were the respondents, Gaongalelwe ruled that their committee is not an organ of the BMWU and that they are barred from arranging any congress purporting to be a meeting of members of the union. They were judged to be in contempt of court by having disobeyed the court order granted in November last year. As such, they are committed to a prison term of six months and remain so until they comply with the order. The order of committal to prison was suspended for a period of five days on condition that they comply. The five days elapsed yesterday. If upon the expiration of the period the respondents would not have complied with the order, the registrar will issue the necessary warrants for committal of the respondents.
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