The High Court of Botswana has dismissed the Manual Workers Union's bid to overturn the 30 January 2026 appointment of Andrew Motsamai and Tobokani Rari as Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Public Service Bargaining Council, ruling that signing the Council's constitution does not confer membership. Justice Maripe held in a 53-page judgement that admission to the PSBC requires proof of the 4,000-member statutory threshold, which the union failed to demonstrate.
According to The Business Weekly & Review, the ruling settles one of the most contentious questions hanging over the Public Service Bargaining Council: what it actually means to be a member. The answer, the court has now made clear, is that membership is earned by meeting a threshold written into law, not by the flourish of a pen.
Why the Manual Workers Union Lost Its Case
The National Amalgamated Local, Central and Parastatal Workers Union, known as the Manual Workers Union, had asked the court to invalidate the crucial meeting of 30 January 2026, during which its representatives walked out and refused to participate in the vote that appointed Motsamai and Rari. The union's argument rested on a simple claim: by signing the PSBC Constitution, it became a member entitled to challenge the Council's affairs.
The respondents, led by the Attorney General as first respondent, disagreed. They anchored their case in the Public Service Act and the PSBC Constitution itself. Section 50(2) of the Act states that the Council shall consist of Government as employer and trade unions that meet the threshold for admission under the Council's constitution. Section 52 repeats the point. Clause 8 of the constitution, agreed to by all parties present, is blunt: the threshold for admission is 4,000 members.
Justice Maripe dismantled the union's signature-based theory of membership.
“The PSBC is therefore no ordinary voluntary association arising purely from the independent will of privately contracting parties who are at liberty to accept whoever they wish and exclude whoever they do not want among their ranks,” the judge held.
Membership, he said, is determinable not only by the constitution but by the Public Service Act to which the Council owes its existence. The union had leaned on a private-contract view of the Council, treating it as a voluntary club whose doors open with a signature. The court rejected that reading outright.
A Statutory Council, Not a Private Club
The judgement traced the three-step process Parliament designed to operationalise collective bargaining in the public service. First, the Public Service Act was amended to remove pre-2025 bottlenecks. Second, Government and the unions agreed on a proposed constitution, with Parliament giving the parties latitude to settle everything by agreement. Third, the constitution went to the Commissioner of Labour for approval and registration.
All three steps were completed. The parties signed, the Commissioner approved, and the constitution was registered on 24 November 2025 after first being signed on 13 May 2025 and re-signed on 17 October 2025. By signing, the parties bound themselves to every clause, including the admission clause they had written themselves.
The court found the constitutional language deliberate. Clause 7.1 names the parties as Government, as employer, and all trade unions admitted to the Council. Clause 8.1 allows any recognised trade union, or two or more acting jointly, to be admitted provided they meet the required threshold.
Justice Maripe warned that if the threshold is not met, “an illegality will eventuate.” The reason is plain: the PSBC performs a public function, collectively determining the terms and conditions of service of numerous public service employees. Parliament intervened to provide its legislative environment for a purpose, and that purpose is not served by admitting unions that cannot demonstrate real representativity.
The court accepted the union's citation of the South African case Govender v Textile Workers' Industrial Union, in which Justice Wessels observed that members of an association are bound by contract to one another, with the terms enshrined in the constitution. But that contract, Justice Maripe held, includes the term that one must be admitted. Signature creates a bond between signatories; it does not bypass the admission clause the same signatories drafted and signed.
What the Court Ordered
In its final orders, the court declared that membership of the PSBC is governed by Sections 50(2) and 52 of the Public Service Act read with Clauses 7 and 8 of the PSBC Constitution, and that the 4,000-member threshold is a statutory requirement for admission. Signature alone, the court declared, does not confer membership.
The court further declared that the Manual Workers Union has not demonstrated that it meets the threshold and is therefore not an admitted member for purposes of challenging the Council's affairs where that challenge rests solely on signatory status. Its application to declare the 30 January 2026 meeting and the appointments invalid was dismissed for lack of locus standi.
The court also uplifted the stay on the Council's processes, which had been imposed by a consent order of 3 July 2026 pending judgement. That order had followed a procedural dispute after the Attorney General filed papers late; the parties agreed to allow the late filing on pain of costs, with the union now bearing those costs. No order as to costs was made against the other respondents whose participation was necessary to properly constitute the Council.
What This Means for Botswana's Labour Movement
The message to organised labour is unambiguous. In the PSBC, you do not join by pen; you join by threshold. No union, however vocal, can walk into the Council or drag it to court without first proving 4,000 members.
The ruling also protects the Council from fragmentation by smaller unions while upholding the sanctity of a constitution the parties themselves negotiated, signed and registered. The court referenced the Interim Committee agreement of 10 December 2025, which the parties used to bridge the gap after registration, and found the 30 January meeting was conducted by the properly constituted parties: Government and the admitted trade unions.
There is a lesson here that extends beyond the labour movement. Institutions built on negotiated rules survive only when those rules are honoured, including by those who wrote them. A union that signs a constitution and then seeks to escape its own admission clause is not defending workers; it is defending convenience. The High Court has said as much, and the Council can now get on with the business it was created to do.
FAQ
Does signing the PSBC Constitution make a union a member?
No. Justice Maripe ruled that signature alone does not confer membership; admission requires meeting the 4,000-member statutory threshold set out in the Public Service Act and the PSBC Constitution.
What happened at the 30 January 2026 meeting?
Representatives of the Manual Workers Union walked out and did not participate in the vote appointing Andrew Motsamai and Tobokani Rari as Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Council. The court held that the union, not being an admitted member, could not invalidate the meeting on that basis.
Can the Manual Workers Union challenge the ruling?
The judgement does not bar future challenges, but any future application must first establish that the union meets the 4,000-member threshold and has been formally admitted to the Council.