D-Day for the Nurses Union on Wednesday

Staff Writer | Tuesday May 3, 2016 15:44

 

On March 21 in Gaborone BONU had to call off their elective congress after a rowdy atmosphere where apparently even people who were not delegates, had stormed into the AGM taking control of the proceedings and resulting in disorder that forced the BONU executive committee led by Glan Tshenyego to seek legal advice and postpone the AGM indefinitely.

It was after the postponement of the AGM that the highly-charged faction decided to go ahead and elect a new committee, but their actions were not recognised by the current BONU committee, resulting in the urgent court action by the faction led by Obonolo Rahube, Godfrey Monageng, Yonnie Otukile, Onthusitse Dekoker, Killer Ntusa, Tshwarano Motlhala, Cynthia Monei, Tebogo Moseja.

However BONU argues that the faction cannot prove that there had been any elections that took place on that day after the dissolution of the AGM, adding that besides hearsay evidence, there is no voter registration to show.

The BONU also argues that even if there was any voter registration document to show, the faction have to demonstrate a legal basis upon which they became entitled to disregard the decision of the BONU executive committee to dissolve the AGM and purport to continue with the AGM as well as conduct elections. The faction that calls itself the interim committee also claims before the court that they had passed a motion of no confidence on the current BONU executive committee and it should go, although the BONU committee argues that such a motion of no confidence was immaterial since the AGM that was dissolved due to chaos caused by the faction was called solely to usher in a new committee.

Among others the BONU Committee says a motion of no confidence at the elections would have rendered the election process impossible since the outgoing committee had to set in place the election process.

The applicants also argue that their case is urgent because an executive only has three years in office, and that the more they delay the less time the new committee would spend in office, although the BONU says such delay can always be remedied by dating the new term of office to the day the court issued the order, if ever they become successful in their plea.

The BONU executive Committee also object to any interim ruling in favour of the claimants arguing that they (the new committee) may complicate issues, get into contracts or cancel others, resulting in undue disruptions. Instead the BONU executive says any provisional order should be to preserve the status quo