Kgosi's decisions haunt DIS
Mpho Mokwape | Friday October 19, 2018 15:52
One such is the one he took to terminate employment of one Walter Matsoga who was dismissed in 2017 for medical reasons, months after he was involved in a car accident.
Matsoga who is seeking a condonation of the court to file a review application wants Kgosi’s decision declared unlawful, as he was not dismissed in accordance with the Public Service Act.
In his filing notice dated September 2018, Matsoga said should he be granted condonation to file, he wants his dismissal from the DIS reviewed on grounds that the decision taken to retire him based on a medical report conducted 26 months prior to his dismissal was unreasonable as health was not a static thing and that he had improved since the 2015 assessment.
He explained that he was able to perform duties he was hired to do, or alternative duties that were deemed suited for him.
“If the employer was in doubt about my health, the logical thing to do would have been to subject me to another assessment,” he said.
Further on his grounds, Matsoga says his retirement was in violation of the Act, which applies to the DIS employees, as they have not been excluded from it like other security personnel such as the police and the Botswana Defence Force.
His contention is that he was not notified in writing of the constitution of the medical board and was never furnished with a copy of the report as mandated by the law and was not given the opportunity to make representation as required by law. Matsoga, who continued and still occupies the DIS house after being retired, also explains that he has been at ease as he was given an impression by his former attorney that the matter was being resolved until around July 2018.
He mentiones that his then attorney started ignoring his calls and that his worries deepened when the DIS stopped buying him electricity as they used to.
Matsoga, who has now engaged the services of Ndadi Law Firm says the delay on his account to pursue the matter was solely on the account it was being resolved and that staying in the unit’s institutional house fortified his view.
Matsoga who filed a statutory notice of intention to sue on July 18, 2018 is praying for an order for condonation, an order reviewing the decision of the director general, that he be reinstated and costs of the suit.
The respondents are the Attorney General and the Director General of the DIS.