BOPEU members call for removal of the board
Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday December 7, 2017 14:21
Instead, in one of the commissions that presented on Wednesday morning, a recommendation was made to the effect that the board of trustees be removed from office.
The union president Masego Mogwera said during an interview that she only heard rumours about intentions of passing a motion of no confidence on the national executive committee in the corridors. She explained that constitutionally a motion should come 60 days before the sitting and that the secretariat should have circulated it throughout the branches as well as that all logistics for fresh elections should be done so that there is no vacuum leadership.
“The constitution says that when members pass a motion of no confidence elections must be conducted immediately. There are also electoral processes that take over 3 days such as submission of nominations. It also provides that should the motion succeeds automatically all below structures fall off,” she said.
She attributed the recommendation on the board of trustees to anger that has been brought by the financial issues. She said members are angry towards to board because the board is a custodian of the union property.
“It was just a recommendation by the commission but the constitution does not provide for that,” she said. It is understood that the closed session on Wednesday morning was heated as over 200 members supported the recommendation while just over 30 were against. All the recommendations, including the one on the board of trustees, will however be handed to a committee to decide on them. Mogwera said generally the union is well and healthy except concerns over issues of finances. The financial report was not presented in the CEC because only audited financial reports can be put before the meeting. She said that any issue regarding public funds is not easily accepted by the members or the public.
She however explained that financial audits are not yet complete and the fact that last year there were no audited financial reports makes members suspicious that more financial irregularities are there. “We cannot dispute that. The main issue is on the investment part while on the other hand audits have been finalised on the union side. But the two have to be consolidated before they can be presented,” she said.
Mogwera said auditors have issued a green flag on the union finances as well as finances for Babereki Insurance Brokers but said the problem lie at Babereki Investments and its subsidiaries. “Auditors have also recommended that we start our own forensic audit before they conclude theirs and we have already started collecting quotations,” she said.