Justice Bahuma slams doctors’ union over leaked WhatsApp conversation
Justice Isaac Bahuma of the Gaborone Industrial Court has berated Botswana Doctors Union (BDU) over screenshots of a leaked WhatsApp conversation discussing his alleged bias, just moments before the hearing of a heated dispute between the doctors and the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM).
According to the Judge, the press release was calling for his recusal from the case, making serious allegations that he was biased against BDU.
“The doctors union thinks that justice is served when cases are ruled in their favour. They were making ridiculous allegations against me, attacking me. This is unacceptable and I take exception to that,” he said about the press release.
The BDU legal team denied knowledge of the press statement and apologised to the furious judge.
This publication has learned that there was no such press release, but that someone shared the screenshots of a WhatsApp group conversation of the BDU executive committee with some people, including the Judge.
The matter was adjourned to its initial date of Friday but the parties have been ordered to exchange documents between Wednesday and Thursday, whilst the doctors continue to work according to last week’s ruling.
The doctors are challenging the long standing practice of Emergency Call Allowance which they say the DPSM is using to exploit them as they argue that they are made to work long hours without rest.
However, the Ministry of Health and the DPSM insist that the doctors should continue working under the arrangement until salary negotiations are completed before the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC).
The two government entities approached the Industrial court last week to interdict the BDU who had ordered their members to perform only one emergency call per month until the impasse is resolved.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, officials from the Ministry of Health and DPSM said that they were disappointed that the matter had to reach the Industrial Court.
The minister said that they have tried hard to engage the unions but it seems they have already taken a position that the DPSM should take the unions’ way or the highway.
“We have engaged with them on several occasions. They also met with Minister Motshegwa who also tried to show them that we as the new government are really eager to improve their working conditions and improve the state of our facilities. We have said it, and we still say that Botswana salaries are the lowest. We have not changed and we want to make these adjustments, but we also have to look at the state of the economy,” he said.
The minister said that the government coffers are empty and that there is need to stimulate the economy before increasing salaries for all civil servants.
However, BOFEPUSU Secretary General Robert Rabasimane also expressed disappointment after the court proceedings on Wednesday saying the DPSM legal team declined a request by the BDU team to explore alternative conflict resolution mechanisms prescribed in the Trade Disputes Act.
“We were disappointed and surprised at the position that DPSM have taken to go for litigation whilst BDU team suggested that the parties explore Section 20, Subsection (1e) that calls for conflict resolutions outside court,” he said.
The dispute between DPSM and BDU has been in and out of the courts since 2023 but there is hope that the matter will finally be settled this coming Friday.
