04 Aug 2016

Parliament has given the nod to four bills – the Whistleblowing Bill, 2015 (Bill No. 19 of 2015), Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2015 (Bill No 17 of 2015), Trade Disputes Bill, 2015 (Bill No 21 of 2015) and the Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Bill No 5 of 2016).

The Whistleblowing Bill, 2015 was presented by Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale and its objective is to provide for the manner in which a person may disclose conduct adverse to the public interest; to provide for the manner of reporting and investigations of disclosures of impropriety; and the protection against victimisation of persons who make the disclosures and to provide for related matters.

Among other things, the bill prescribes who is an authorised person to receive a disclosure as well as authorised institutions to receive disclosures such as the DCEC, Auditor General, Botswana Police Service, Ombudsman, Botswana Unified Revenue Service, DIS, and Financial Intelligence Agency.

The bill also prescribes that a whistle blower may disclose information where he or she has reasonable cause to believe that a crime or other unlawful act has been committed; was being committed or was likely to be committed. 

The bill prescribes that those whistle blowers who have disclosed information shall not be subjected to victimisation by their employer or by fellow employees or by any other person and the law also protects the whistle blower if the disclosure was made in good faith 

Also the law protects the whistle blower if  he or she reasonably believed that the disclosure and an allegation of impropriety contained in the disclosure was substantially true, and that the disclosure was made to the authorised person..

Parliament also passed the Trade Disputes Bill, 2015 (Bill No. 21 of 2015) that replaces Trade and Dispute Act of 2003  that was presented by the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu. 

The object of the bill is to provide for the settlement of trade disputes by the Commissioner of Labour, mediators and arbitrators which will result in a reduction in the backlog of cases at the Industrial Court.

The Bill also seeks to provide for the establishment of the industrial court as a court of law and equity and for recognition of trade unions at the workplace and industry level and for the determination of industrial action, protection of essential services, life and property during industrial action; and for matters incidental or connected therewith.

It is also intended to strengthen the dispute resolution process that would in turn minimise delays in the resolution of trade disputes characterised by delays emanating from gaps in the existing act, particularly the mediation process.

Furthermore, the bill seeks to increase the number of cadres included under the essential services bracket to include cadres such as the diamond sorting, cutting and selling services, the teaching services, the veterinary services in the public service, the immigration and Botswana Unified Revenue Services, the government broadcasting services and the fuel haulage services .

The Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Bill No 5 of 2016) which was also presented by Minister Batshu seeks to amend the Societies (Amendment) Act.

Among other things, the Bill seeks to deal with the mushrooming of churches in the country. Its amendment was necessitated by the mushrooming of churches in the country as well as lack of legal provision for mediation and reconciliation of church disputes.

The Societies Act prescribed the minimum number of persons for the formation and registration of society as 10 but, according to Mr Batshu, the population had grown and the figure had to be increased to 250 as religious organisations are by nature mass organisations.

Other changes brought by the amendment include the requirement that two thirds of membership of any society should be citizens and residents in the country. Fines for non-compliance with the provision which mandates office bearers to return registration certificates after de-registration have increased to P500 to P2000 from P10 to P50 respectively.

Assistant Minister of Investment Trade and Industry, Mr Sadique Kebonang presented the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2015 which seeks to amend the Companies Act in order to align it with the Securities Act with regard to issues relating to securities and the public offering of securities. ENDS