CSTU leaders’ mandate questioned

The Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU) executive is said to have been operating without the mandate of its membership for more than a year after its tenure expired in December 2011.

A lawyer has since warned that the union is opening it to challenges on its decisions.

Both CSTU president Elia Kamphinda-Banda and general secretary Pontius Kalichero confirmed the development, but said the situation has been so due to financial constraints. They said the union was currently working on calling for the elections.

The executive committee was put in office in 2007 for a four-year term that expired in December 2011.

The development has, however, prompted some of the members to question the legality and validity of the operations of the workers’ representative body which has of late been in the forefront fighting for improved salaries for the civil service that saw government agreeing to a 61 percent increment for the lowest paid.

The union is also leading a task force formed following a meeting with government on March 19 to review the civil service salaries and conditions of service and other issues as presented in the February 17 petition to government.

In an interview on Wednesday, Chancellor College based lawyer and trade unionist Sunduzwayo Madise expressed fears that the union’s situation is opening it to challenges over some of its decisions made while the executive is not duly elected.

“The issue is not whether their decision are illegal, but the executive is opening itself to challenge whereby some people can challenge the validity of its decisions in court. It is only when a court would agree that the decisions are invalid that they could indeed be invalid,” said Madise.

Kamphinda-Banda explained that although the issue of the elections has been raised at various foras lacks funds to call for a union congress.