Salvos fired in nurses� court battle
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday April 26, 2016 15:12
Arguments kicked off yesterday in the matter which pits the interim committee led by Obonolo Rahube against the current one headed by Tebogo Tshenyego.
Rahube’s incoming committee accuses Tshenyego’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) of refusing to vacate their seats and holding onto power unlawfully, following a rowdy and ultimately abandoned Annual General Conference last March.
Before Gaborone High Court, Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe yesterday, attorney Kgosiitsile Ngakaagae for Rahube’s committee argued that the current members of CEC were enjoying office without any court order or favourable election results.
He said the committee was in office unconstitutionally and without a mandate as its term ended on November 2015. “The committee has passed their constitutional, judicial and statutory mandates and they have no reason to still be in office while their term has ended. It is of paramount importance that the affairs of the union be run by people with a mandate as the outgoing one has elapsed,” he said.
Ngakaagae said nowhere in BONU’s constitution was there provision for Tshenyego and her committee to extend their term beyond the abandoned conference, without the approval of members of the union. He explained that the acts of the CEC to dissolve an elective conference citing security reasons was just a tactical move to prolong their office term.
Ngakaagae argued that the reasons for dissolving the conference were at the moment ‘hearsay’ because for them to be believable there had to be concrete evidence. “The committee has so far even failed to produce a police report or anything if they deemed that the situation was volatile to continue with the elective conference,” he said. “Their only reason is that the police said they could only act if there was a court order.”
Ngakaagae said the decision of the CEC to dissolve the elective conference was unlawful, as the committee knew that they were to be recalled.
The respondents in the matter, who include the union and Tshenyego, have previously submitted that they have no desire to prolong their term in office.
Yesterday, their lawyer, Jones Moitshepi argued that the elective conference was dissolved because the members were acting in a “rowdy and uncivilised manner”.
He said “unlike the incoming committee”, the outgoing one always acted in the best interests of the union and its members and did not take the law into their own hands.
“The committee had no intention of postponing the conference or even extending their term of office as alleged by the applicants. They refused to be recalled simply on the basis that it was unprocedurally snuck onto the agenda,” he said.
Arguments in the matter were continuing at press time yesterday.