BSA�s bid to remove Chief Commissioner fails
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday March 8, 2016 14:43
The members, who had temporarily through a court order interdicted Morgan Letsholathebe from holding office as their Chief Commissioner, had their application dismissed by Justice Zein Kebonang.
This follows a leadership crisis that culminated at the association that has President Ian Khama as its patron. They had wanted to remove Letsholathebe following a motion of no confidence and Tshepang Mabaila was voted as the next Chief Commissioner.
Justice Kebonang said there existed doubts that the Annual Council Meeting (ACM) was ever conducted.
He explained that in such incidents the applicants should have provided substantial proof that indeed the ACM was held.
“The respondents are denying that an ACM was ever held. It is understood that it has powers to instruct but where there is doubt that it was either held or not, there is no way a final interdict can be granted,” he said.
Kebonang said the applicants in their submissions did not indicate any existing clear right that they deserve the final interdict.
He pointed out that even the resolutions that had been taken by the ACM did not have full details and a clear right to remove any person in office.
“The applicants argued that the decision to remove Letsholathebe from office was an administrative issue, but in their papers they have failed to demonstrate that it was substantive. They should have filed an answering affidavit in support of such,” he said. On the argument that one of the members had no right to postpone the ACM, Kebonang maintained that the applicants had failed to show why this was so because they had only complained when he postponed the meeting. However they did not complain when he called the meeting in the first place.
“As such the interdict is refused with costs,” he said. The applicants through their lawyer, Uyapo Ndadi, had last week maintained that Letsholathebe could not keep holding the fort as the leader of the association because he had long been removed through a motion of no confidence where he was voted out.
They explained that the vote of no confidence was an administrative act, therefore it exists and has legal consequences that Letsholathebe should not ignore by holding himself out as the Chief Commissioner.
Meanwhile Letsholathebe’s attorney, Phenyo Sekape, said his client was still within his rights to hold the office because a meeting that was convened and resulted in his removal from office was not properly constituted and therefore was a nullity. Sekape said the national executive committee (NEC) never scheduled the ACM to the knowledge of his client and that the constitution was never complied with during his removal. He further argued that the litigation was a nullity as the NEC never met to pass a resolution for the association to litigate.
Letsholathebe was elected into office in November 2014 as the Chief Commissioner.
His three-year term in office ends in November 2017. The disputed vote of no confidence was convened on November 21, 2015.