Mogwera Back In Undisputed Power
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Tuesday December 14, 2021 06:00
Mogwera’s legitimate claim to power also installs all her preferred teammates on her slate. The congress decision means that factional wars in the BOPEU National Executive Committee will now be a thing of the past.
The last three years, since the BOPEU Kasane congress, had been characterised by leadership instability. A rival faction that had secured seats at the 2019 congress undermined the returning president.
It later transformed into a rival faction led by Olefile Monakwe, it would topple Mogwera, the president, and install itself at the helm for more than 26 months, as countless court battles from both camps ensued.
Mogwera eventually triumphed in a series of High Court and Appeal judgments. By the time the last court judgment confirmed her victory, hardly three months were left before the union was due for its next elective congress with questions as to whether Mogwera and her team stood any chance, with so little time left in office abound.
Unbeknownst to her, however, the Monakwe faction had by this time also experienced its own unique challenges. They were not only facing the problem of being evicted from their seats of power as a result of the Court of Appeal and High Court judgments.
Equally, the Monakwe faction had fragmented into pieces and sub-factions, a situation that left Monakwe literally on his own. He found himself in need of a fresh start, yet so late in the game.
His lieutenants, including his then first deputy president, his second deputy president, his treasurer, had all abandoned him. A new rival force had crystallised into former ally, Scaba Khupe, where Monakwe’s former first deputy Donald Mekgwe joined her and Matilda Masame as her second deputy.
Another former ally, candidate for president at the Kasane congress, Isaac Marobela was pulling in a different direction, while the treasurer Panama Dipatane also stood as an independent.
The election results would later prove that Monakwe was really not a factor; the real faction had snowballed around Khupe, although her 175 votes, against Mogwera’s 265, still looked like a mismatch.
Mogwera’s popularity amongst BOPEU members are cemented by the fact that even if all the rivals’ votes were tallied together, she would still have emerged as the popular choice.