By Bame Piet

Copyright thevoicebw

Court frees P259 million housing payouts as union war explodes
* Judge says members have a right to choose any union

The Industrial Court in Gaborone has lifted a July interdict against payment of housing allowance for members of Botswana Landboards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU), while sharply critisising the Five Plus One cooperating unions for their actions.

The Five Plus One had approached the court on urgency seeking the interdict, arguing that BLLAHWU, which has since left their coalition, was using the contents of their previous negotiation meetings to secure a deal with DPSM.

Among other demands, they sought to stop the implementation of Directive No.1 of 2025, which approved payment of housing allowance, and even demanded that negotiation minutes be split into two sets: one reflecting BLLAHWU’s participation, and another excluding them after their departure.

BLLAHWU opposed urgency, pointing out that the unions would suffer no irreparable harm, and that blocking the directive was unreasonable.

Justice Dr Goodwill Makofi, when delivering judgment, dismissed the union’s claims, describing them as paranoid and overly dramatic. The judge said their real fear was losing their members to BLLAHWU.

On a scale of 10, the judge placed the urgency of the case at five and half, and maximum six, saying the matter was “slightly urgent”.

“As would have been gleaned from the foregoing passages, the nature of the dispute, the type of disputants, and the nature of the interests at stake, have tilted the scale somewhat and persuaded me to consider the slight urgency demonstrated by the applicants to be sufficient for the court to hear them on urgency. However, it is not the “slight urgency” which the applicants are required to prove – in an urgent application there must be imminent harm or prejudice,” he said.

The judge dismissed the applicant’s fear of losing membership to BLLAHWU, saying that such members have a democratic right to choose whosoever they want to associate with.

“The grounds which the applicants herein advance as the basis for beholding their members to the Five Plus One unions have the potential to infringe that right and I cannot accept it. The whole thing looks like an exercise in optics by the applicants just for the purpose of impressing their members with their organisation skills or negotiating skills,” he said.

“As for the possibility of future distrust of the employer arising from the alleged bad faith bargaining in the present circumstances, I find this reasoning to be unfortunate to say the least,” the judge said.

He said that the relationship between the unions and the employer is an enduring one and not based on the 2025/2026 negotiations for salary increases, as there will be many future negotiations.

On the fear of P259 million depletion, he said that the government is at liberty to use funds elsewhere since it has not been interdicted from doing so.

“In my view, if the applicants genuinely believe that government coffers could soon dry up, they would take what is available while there is sunshine, and agitate for more going forward,” Justice Makofi said.