By Cebelihle Bhengu.
The Labour Court has ruled that the deputy director-general of corporate services in the Department of Human Settlements, Nelly Letsholonyane, may return to work after she was fired by Minister Mamoloko Kubayi in April.
Letsolonyane approached the court with an application that it reinstate its order which ruled she could return to work. The court dismissed Kubayi’s application for leave to appeal this order because it had no prospects for success.
She was fired in April, one month after the minister got stuck in an elevator for more than one hour. She blamed her deputy director-general for the incident.
In a judgment from 8 August, Labour Court Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje ruled that the minister and the acting director-general had “adopted a deplorable and gung-ho posture in dismissing the applicant, irrespective of the nature of the trauma the minister may have endured while stuck in an elevator”.
Tlhotlhalemaje reiterated the earlier judgment, saying the minister had acted as a “victim, prosecutor, and executioner” in dismissing the 62-year-old Letsolonyane.
He stated that Letsolonyane, who hadn’t earned a salary since her dismissal, was in a predicament because of the minister’s unlawful conduct. The judge said he believed that she would suffer further irreparable harm if she was not reinstated.
Tlhotlhalemaje’s order was as follows:
- The applicant’s application is accorded urgency;
- The operation and execution of the order granted in favour of the applicant on 15 May 2023 under the present case number by Makhura AJ is not suspended in terms of section 18(1) read with 18(3) of the Superior Court Act 10 of 2013, pending the application and petition for leave to appeal, or any subsequent applications or appeals. 3. The respondents are ordered to pay the costs of this application jointly and severally, the one paying the other to be absolved;
- The respondents are ordered to pay the costs of this application, jointly and severally, the one paying the other to be absolved
In May, Johannesburg Labour Court Acting Judge Molatelo Makhura said the minister’s conduct was unlawful and ordered that Nelly Lethsholonyane be immediately reinstated.
He then denied Kubayi’s application for leave to appeal, saying Letsholonyane had not been subjected to the prescribed disciplinary procedures.
Judge Tlhotlhalemaje ordered that the operation and execution of Judge Makhura’s order not be suspended pending the minister’s petition for leave to appeal, or any other applications or appeals.