BOPEU's Mogwera Asserts Authority
Staff Writer | Monday December 21, 2020 15:33
The Monitor is reliably informed that despite being kept away from the premises by a team of bouncers at the behest of her rivals, Mogwera has since announced her victory to BOPEU structures, as well as stakeholders such as Botswana trade unions, the employer (DPSM), banks, and the registrar of a trade union, among others.
The actions appear to have rattled her rivals, who have since filed an urgent appeal at the High Court to stop Mogwera in her tracks.
The Monitor is in possession of the urgent application Rash Sedimo filed as BOPEU secretary-general, in which he is making three pleas.
Sedimo wants the court to spell to him or interpret the recent judgement that declared the events of April 27, 2019 null and void.
According to Sedimo, the judgement by the three judges is overtaken by events and therefore of no effect.
Interestingly, Sedimo does not offer the court any assurance that should it rule against his interpretation or understanding then he and all affected will vacate the space and leave Mogwera and company in peace.
Instead, Sedimo says should the court confirm the ruling their worst nightmare that indeed it installs Mogwera as the leader at BOPEU, then the court should suspend its ruling and have Mogwera and others locked out of BOPEU in the meantime, while Sedimo and his affected colleagues appeal the decision of the panel of judges as a matter of urgency.
In the recent three-judge panel’s judgement, one of the issues that the court had to make a ruling on was the mootness of the issues that is whether the case brought by Mogwera and others had been overtaken by events of December 2019 at the Palapye Congress, where Mogwera and several others were expelled. In their ruling, the panel of three judges concluded that the issues are not moot.
They also went further to find that, “It is common cause that there is a multiplicity of pending litigation in our courts, which have a direct connection to the validity of the meeting of April 27, 2019; the applicant has cited as an example in the cases of Masego Mogwera vs Olefile Monakwe and two others (The Palapye Congress matter), Tshepiso Mbereki and four others vs Olefile Monakwe and BOPEU, Mothusi Mojela vs Olefile Monakwe and BOPEU; This submission has not been gainsaid and I take it that it is the correct position, regarding the pending litigation”.