All hell breaks loose at BLLAHWU special congress
Oarabile Mosikare | Tuesday March 3, 2015 18:00
The leadership of Botswana Land boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) allegedly called the police to quell dissidents seeking to push a motion of no confidence over the weekend.
The special congress was convened to amend the constitution.
The Gantsi branch had brought a motion to recall the entire Central Committee, but the motion was reportedly left out of the agenda under unclear circumstances.
“The decision to ignore the no confidence motion incensed some delegates who thought the Central Committee was being unfair,” said a source who attended the congress at the Ave Maria Conference Centre in Gaborone.
It is understood that the Central Committee reasoned that the member who brought the no confidence motion should have personally served all the individual Central Committee members.
While union officials refused to comment on the weekend fracas, sources told Mmegi that all hell broke loose when some members realised the motion had been omitted, resulting in acting president Disang Mokwape losing control of the deliberations.
A BLLAHWU member, Matshwenyego Setshego, who was recently co-opted as a vice president, took over as the chair of the meeting during the chaos.
“However, one of the union leaders had called the police to chase away the troublemakers,” another source said.
“Four police officers arrived on bicycles to bring the rowdy meeting back to normal.
“Later, another two members of the Special Support Group (SSG) also arrived in a 4x4 vehicle.” But they did not enter the hall where the congress was held.
Meanwhile, the congress resolved to take the BLLAHWU Burial Society (BBS) to court as part of an effort to take the Society over. The Central Committee wants the BBS brought under the leadership of the union president as chairperson.
Sources in BLLAHWU disclosed that the BBS is worth millions, has several investments and is richer than its parent union. “The leadership reasoned that there is a nexus between the union and the BBS. They said it should not be independent since ‘it is a substructure of the union’.”
Although the proposal won the day, some delegates submitted that members join the BBS as individuals and not as the union.
“BLLAHWU is not a member of the BBS. The BBS has its own constitution and was registered in terms of the Society’s Act. BLLAHWU has been registered in terms of the Trade Union and Employer’s Organisation Act.
“There is no way BLLAHWU can supervise the BBS. That is why the burial society independently holds a separate annual conference and does not declare dividends to BLLAHWU like other subsidiaries,” one delegate said.
Still at the congress, a proposal to employ Ketlhalefile Motshegwa as a fulltime secretary general was defeated.
“This proposal was defeated because delegates felt that the union couldn’t afford to hire the secretary general for a six-year contract.”