BLAMED: Ndadi

A former employee of Botswana Network on Ethics, law and AIDS, Pako Luke, 23 has accused the organisation’s director, Uyapo Ndadi of lying saying he mispresented  reasons for firing him.

Luke was dismissed from work in 2010, on suspicions that he stole BONELA’s mobile phone. Although BONELA had argued that Luke had admitted to the theft Luke has refuted the accusation.

“Uyapo Ndadi was not telling the truth,” Luke pointed out.

He further explained that after the phone was rediscovered he was still accused of theft and subsequently dismissed.

“I was called for a meeting with Laone Scheffers (Programme’s officer) who asked to hear my side of the story. I explained to her that I found the phone by the reception area on a weekend. I had come to attend to some matters in the office and I did not know how it got there. I never admitted to have stolen the phone,” Luke stated.

Ndadi had revealed in an interview that the phone was found in Luke’s possession.

“He answered a call from our messenger, two days after the phone went missing and pleaded with him not to tell management, but he did. At the time, the messenger was on his way to Mascom to report the stolen phone,” Ndadi had said.

Ndadi’s comments attracted an angry rebuttal from Luke who accused Ndadi of “liking the lime light.” In fact he wrote him a letter complaining about it.

“I am disappointed at the false manner in which you of all people, a human rights activist plus a lawyer for that matter would post such untrue statements which implies that indeed the court found that the evidence before it showed that I stole the phone,” Luke wrote in part to Ndadi.

Nonetheless, Ndadi maintained his statement in another interview this week.

“The phone was found in his possession and that is consistent with our version that he admitted stealing it. Battles are fought in court, where he took us,” Ndadi stated.

Meanwhile Luke is planning a second law suit against the non-governmental organization over unfair dismissal after the same application was dismissed by the High court.

Luke told The Voice in an interview this week that he would lodge the case with the Industrial court very soon.

“My case was dismissed on technical basis and I intend suing again, but this time around I’ll go to the Industrial court,” Luke explained.

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