The former treasurer of the National Amalgamated Local and Central Government Manual Workers Union, Keforege Ntirang, was on Friday jailed for 90 days for contempt of Court.
This was confirmed by the Union’s Secretary General, Johnson Motshwarakgole.
Dirang’s imprisonment follows after she had failed to comply with Court orders instructing her to hand over financial records of the Union, which came into her possession on several times.
Commenting on the imprisonment of Dirang, Motshwarakgole said that it was an unfortunate thing to have happened to her and that his wish was that they had sat down as colleagues to discuss the matter and see how the issue could be resolved.
“It is very unfortunate that this has come to such end. One would have hoped that the issue was resolved amicably by both parties but unfortunately they did not want to do that,” he said.
Motshwarakgole also said that some of Ntirang’s colleagues will soon appear in Court for the same offenses.
“Two of her colleagues will soon appear in Court on related charges and this just shows the seriousness of the matter,” he said.
The missing money that they wanted Dirang and her colleagues to account for, he said, was around P400, 000.
This money was apparently spent during the time when there was a leadership struggle in the Union. Dirang belonged to the section that broke away from the current Union leadership to form a splinter Union.
Tshiamo Rantao represented the Union.
Last year, some leaders of the Botswana Mine Workers Union were jailed for the same reasons of failing to comply with Court orders.
In that case, again, some members of the Union who constituted the National Executive Committee of the union had, after losing elections to another executive, failed to hand over the union’s financial books to the new executive, leading to a long legal battle which was won by the new executive.
After having lost the battle they again failed to hand over the financial books or to account for money paid to them whilst they were in the executive of the Union. The new Executive had to go to Court to seek a legal order that they be forced to comply and when they failed to do so, they were sent to jail for contempt of Court and served over three months before they were released.
