Manual Workers drop first bomb
Bame Piet | Friday July 4, 2014 06:59
The union, officially known as National Amalgamated Local Central Government and Parastatal Workers Union, on June 30, succeeded in an interlocutory application before Lobatse Justice Michael Leburu as Friend of the Court, in a case in which the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) was suing the Sunday Standard newspaper.
In the court papers, the national organising secretary Johnson Motshwarakgole states that:
“One of the fundamental principles which trade unionism rests on is the right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in Section 12 of the Constitution. This right to freedom of expression includes the right to receive information”.
He states that the Manual Workers Union has a duty to ensure that its members receive information on matters that have direct impact on their rights and interests such as corruption by senior government officials. Corruption impedes development of the country, and has a negative bearing on the ability of the government to pay the Applicant’s members the wage increases that they deserve”.
Motshwarakgole argues that it is not the first time the union has advocated strongly against corruption.
“In fact, the word corruption was first used publicly to express disdain at the conduct of a senior government officer, by the Applicant in 1970.
It was used by the then chairperson of the applicant, Rex Ndzinge to express disapproval of the then Minister of Transport and Works Jimmy Haskins’ conduct in selling vehicles, through his corporate entity, Haskins and Sons, to Central Transport Organisation, an organisation that he was overseeing”.
Motshwarakgole is adamant that his movement will continue to support the fight against corruption through the process of naming and shaming.
The applicant has also attached a green booklet called “Two years to Vision 2016, Yet Too Far Away” in which it details what it terms as the level of corruption in the country.
The main purpose of the ‘green book’ is to sensitise members, and the public in general about the level of corruption in Botswana.
Motshwarakgole further argues that the constitutional validity or otherwise of Section 44 of the DCEC Act, is a matter that the Applicant has an interest in, because it may affect its strategy of naming and shaming those who have been investigated by DCEC.
It is a matter, which the Applicant wants to be heard on, he says in this affidavit adding that the Applicant’s members have been involved in many of the corruption exposes.
“The Applicant also wish to bring to the Court information to demonstrate that the docket that the Attorney General wants returned to it, is in respect of an investigation that has long been shelved and that has been gathering dust.
The Applicant wishes to be given an opportunity to demonstrate to the Honourable Court that there is no public interest objective served in concealing the investigation, which is the subject matter of the application.
“Further, the Applicant has part of the information that is said to be contained in the docket concerning Mr Isaac Seabelo Kgosi and is desirous of circulating it amongst its members and the public at large, as part of the discharge of its constitutional obligation to educate members and to promote intellectual interests of its members. The relief sought may well affect the Applicant and its office bearers, unless attitude taken by the Attorney General is that she is only opposed to publication by the second and Third Respondent”.
Motshwarakgole states that the Manual Workers Union is more vocal than any other civil society group, on the evils of corruption and it recently issued a statutory notice against the DCEC, calling upon it to deliver the docket concerning Kgosi to the DPP.
“We have no response to the notice. For all the above reasons, the Applicant has a substantial interest in being joined as a respondent to the main application, or at the very least as a friend of the Court”.
The case resumes this morning at the Lobatse High Court.