Staff Reporter
THE President of the United People’s Movement (UPM) political party, Jan van Wyk, has responded to a statement issued by Member of Parliament and purported UPM Secretary General Celeste Becker last Friday, in which she announced that van Wyk, along with two other members of the party, had been removed after failing to attend three consecutive management committee meetings.
Van Wyk, however, asserted that Becker cannot remove him as President of UPM, as she is no longer a member of the party.
The UPM President, alongside Mita Pickering (UPM Vice President) and Justin Coetzee (UPM Local Authority Councillor), was removed due to non-attendance at management committee meetings. Becker cited Section 9.12 of the UPM Constitution, which automatically removes management committee members for failure to attend three consecutive meetings without apology.
Becker further claimed that Van Wyk had refused to comply with a court order by Judge Shafimana Ueitele, delivered on 30th July 2024, to restore her, Joseph van Wyk, and Moretha van Wyk to their positions as elected on 14th May 2022. According to Becker, this judgment rendered Van Wyk’s actions to remove them null and void.
Van Wyk, however, countered that the court order could not be implemented because Becker is no longer a UPM member. He said that Becker and the others had not challenged their expulsion from the party by the UPM Central Committee in April 2023.
He referred to a judgment delivered by Judge Collins Parker in August 2024, in which Becker challenged only the validity and lawfulness of her dismissal as Secretary General.
“I find that summons was issued on 23rd March 2023, and the plaintiff’s (Becker’s) membership of the UPM was terminated on 13th April 2023. However, the termination was put on hold to allow a disciplinary hearing to take place. The hearing was held, and the plaintiff was found guilty of all misconduct charges and expelled from UPM on 13th June 2023,” Parker said in his judgment. He subsequently dismissed Becker’s application seeking a court order declaring her dismissal from the party unlawful and invalid under the UPM Constitution.
Becker added that she has since appealed Judge Parker’s decision.
