11 Sep 2016

High Court Judge, Justice Leatile Dambe has reserved for January 27 next year, judgment on the case in which a section of Gaborone United (GU) supporters is challenging legitimacy of the team’s current executive committee. 

The case was heard at the Gaborone High Court on Friday (September 9) and in his submission, the applicants’ attorney, Uyapo Ndadi argued that the GU annual general meeting of 11 July 2015, which elected Rapula Okaile as chairman of the club for a period of four years, must be nullified because it was unconstitutional.

The meeting held at the University of Botswana also elected GU legend Gofhamodimo Senne as secretary general, Dr Fidelis Nkomazana as president and Nancy Borakanelo as treasure. 

Ndadi said it was not in dispute that the meeting had failed to form a quorum and should have been adjourned adding that, while GU had 900 registered and paid up members at the time, only 234 of those members were present at the disputed meeting. 

He said the number was significantly lower than the two-thirds required for a meeting to convene outlined under clause 15.1 of the GU constitution.

“Clause 15.2 (of GU constitution) indicates that the meeting should stand adjourned for 14 days if there is no quorum.

A notice shall then be made for another meeting after 14 days, and threshold for that meeting shall be one-thirds of the present members,” Ndadi said.

He said his clients informed the respondents that the GU constitution was violated but the respondents were uncooperative, leading the applicants to approach the High Court. 

However, the defendants’ attorney, Lore Morapedi argued that the case lacked merit because no concrete evidence was provided by the applicants to show that the meeting had violated the club’s constitution. Morapedi said there were no minutes to prove the claim that the meeting failed to form a quorum. 

He also argued that there were no infringement of the rights of applicants and the case should be viewed as application for review instead of a declaration.

Morapedi said the case must be dismissed because it was brought outside the four months period permitted for review applications.

Meanwhile, Justice Dambe has set 9 March 2017 as date of hearing of a case in which some Township Rollers supporters had filed a contempt of court case against the management of the club. ENDS