BOFEPUSU pins their PSBC hope on Mabeo

Innocent Selatlhwa | Wednesday November 22, 2017 18:35

 

BOFEPUSU secretary general, Tobokan Rari said in an interview yesterday that they would as per the law appeal to the Minister of Employment, Labour Produciivity and Skills Development, Tshenolo Mabeo.  “Our lawyers advised that instead of going to court we should exhaust all existing avenues.

The letter announcing the de-registration advised that we should appeal to the minister and that’s exactly what we want to do. We feel the Commissioner of Labour was not fair to us by not giving us sufficient time to respond even after we requested,” Rari said.

BOFEPUSU is crying foul that the acting Commissioner of Labour, Goitseone Kokorwe gave them only seven days to comment on government’s intention to have the PSBC registration cancelled.

The commissioner rejected BOFEPUSU’s plea to respond in 30 days instead and went ahead to de-register the PSBC.  In a previous interview, Rari said they were not impressed that instead of getting a response to be given 30 days, they got a pronouncement that the PSBC was no more. “They cannot just tackle this matter casually. We deserved to see the letter from DPSM (Directorate of Public Service Management) in full.

The commissioner should have called all the parties to the table and talk about the matter,” he said.

On November 1, 2017 Kokorwe wrote to BOFEPUSU asking them to make representations in respect of an application made by the DPSM for the cancellation of the registration of the PSBC. BOFEPUSU was not impressed with the seven days they were given to respond in their response dated November 6, 2017 stating that it was inadequate.

BOFEPUSU argued in their letter that in order for them to make a meaningful representation in respect of the application that has been made by the DPSM, they must at the very least be given a copy of the application that the DPSM has made so that they could form their own view and their understanding of the application before responding to the same.  “It may also be necessary for us to seek legal opinion in respect of the provisions of the PSBC constitution that you refer to in your letter, as well as on whether the application that has been made is meritorious,” reads the letter. The federation requested that they be given at least 30 days in order to be able to properly address the DPSM’s application, possibly seek legal opinion on the application, prepare response to the application, possibly have a meeting with the commissioner of labour and make oral representations just as the DPSM did.

“We would also wish to consider the judgement of the Court of Appeal in respect of the scope and the functions of the PSBC prior to finalising any representations that we will be making,” reads the letter requesting that they be given a response urgently.

In acceding to the request to have the PSBC cancelled, Kokorwe states that they received the application on July 26, 2017 and had correspondences as well as meetings with DPSM since then. Kokorwe stated that DPSM’s case to have the PSBC cancelled presents sufficient and reasonable cause for cancellation of registration of the PSBC.

The main reasons for the application by DPSM were termination of BOFEPUSU as the admitted trade union party in May and that after the termination of BOFEPUSU membership, constitution of the PSBC made it impossible for the admission of a trade union party.