A week after public servants who belong to BOFEPUSU trade unions received their 3% and 4% back pays for 2016/17 and 2017/18 salary increments, the award will on Thursday take centre stage in an appeal challenging the scope of Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC). Masego Mogwera, president of Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) will on Thursday reunite with strange bedfellow Ruth Maphorisa – the Director of Public Service Management (DPSM) – at the Court of Appeal, where they are challenging the scope of the PSBC. The grounds of appeal and the opposition to same were filed by South African based senior counsel at the end of September 2017. The appeal is centred on a judgment by Justice Tshepo Motswagole, who set aside Directive No. 4 dated 30 March 2016 issued by Maphorisa awarding three per cent salary increase across board to all public servants. Following an interdiction of the unilateral salary increase obtained by BOFEPUSU in May 2016 at the Industrial court, Government continued to pay the increment to employees who are not affiliated to the federation or its member constituents as directed by court. Unhappy with the industrial court decision, which limited the scope of the bargaining council to…