BFA date shift offers hope for suspended members
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday August 21, 2020 14:01
The assembly was originally scheduled to take place tomorrow in Francistown but has been moved to later date because of COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, currently set at a maximum of 50 people.
The suspended committee members are also waiting for a new date of their hearing from the BFA Disciplinary Committee (DC). They have been on suspension since 2018 pending a disciplinary hearing over allegations that they failed to account for nearly P70,000.
The matter was supposed to be heard two weeks ago, but could not take place after the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force imposed a two-week lockdown on the Greater Gaborone zone. The lockdown followed a surge in the number of local coronavirus transmissions in Gaborone. The suspended chairperson, Mpenzeni Sambandawe said they were hopeful that a new date will be set so that their matter can be dealt with especially since it is an urgent one.
“We are hopeful that this issue will be concluded before the general assembly, Sambandawe said.
The suspended FDN members recently had their suspensions lifted after they approached the BFA DC arguing that they have been unfairly side-lined for two years without a hearing.
That was, however, before the BFA appealed the ruling and succeeded after arguing that the decision was taken by DC chairperson, Martin Dingake alone.
The appeals committee ordered that the matter be heard again before a fully constituted DC. Sambandawe said after the initial ruling by the DC which reinstated them, they sent names of those that will represent FDN as delegates at the assembly. He also said they later learnt that the interim committee also sent names afterwards even though at the time, the interim committee’s term had lapsed as per the DC ruling.
The suspended chairperson said constitutionally, the interim committee members cannot attend the assembly.
“Whether we would have attended the assembly before the matter has been concluded I cannot say, but what I know is that the interim committee cannot go to the assembly and take decisions on our behalf. This is simply because they are holding the office on an interim basis,” Sambandawe said.
He said if the association was to follow the rules, then the interim committee members should not be allowed to attend the assembly.
Sambandawe said after the order from the appeals committee, they sought clarification on what a fully constituted DC means.
“We wanted to understand whether they meant all members of the DC should be present during the hearing or whether they meant that they should form a quorum. It has since been clarified that the DC members should form a quorum when they preside over this matter. We are now waiting for a date for it to be heard,” he said.