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The labour court on Friday reinstated Mpumalanga’s regional manager, Aubrey Tshivhandekano, who former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane fired last month at the premises of the Gupta-owned Tegeta Resources mine where he had arrived to issue a noncompliance notice.
Judge Robert Lagrange said Tshivhandekano’s dismissal on February 15 outside the Gupta mine in Koornfontein in Mpumalanga was “unlawful and void” and should be set aside.
He ordered Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe and his director-general advocate Thabo Mokoena to “reinstate the applicant to the position he had before his dismissal and to allow him to continue his duties and responsibilities in that capacity”.
Tshivhandekano claimed in court papers that he was “ambushed” while carrying out his functions at the Koornfontein coal mine by a person from Zwane’s office, Steven Hlongwane, “who handed to me what purported to be a dismissal letter”.
Zwane has since been removed from Cabinet.
Zwane, Mokoena and the department argued that the court had no jurisdiction but the court disagreed.
The court was surprised that they offered no argument in defence of the merits of the case. “The respondents ought to not have defended the matter in circumstances where they did not even advance a substantial defence on the merits and where the merits are so clear.”
The judge said Mokoena probably ought “to have been cited in his personal capacity”, and granted a cost order against the respondents.
The court heard that the department sought to amend a written warning it had earlier given to Tshivhandekano following a disciplinary hearing and change it into a dismissal.
In April 2017 Tshivhandekano was among the regional managers who took the department to court to stop Mokoena from transferring them from their positions to other parts of the country.
“The basis on which we contended that the transfers ought to be stayed was, inter alia, that in arriving at the decision to transfer us, the second respondent [Mokoena] failed to consult us.”
Tshivhandekano said that pursuant to the interdict against their removal, he was “subjected to various acts of persecution” by Mokoena, including his suspension in July last year on allegations that he was absent from work on various dates without the employer’s consent.
In September the department lifted the suspension but on the day he returned to work he was again suspended on another charge of contravening the department’s ICT policy by sharing his logon credentials.
In January this year he was found guilty of having contravened the ICT policy and cleared on the charge of bringing the department into disrepute and a warning letter was recommended.
But two weeks later he was dismissed.
Zwane parachuted Mokoena from the Free State, where he was secretary of the legislature, in March last year, sparking complaints among long-serving senior managers in the department that he was inexperienced for the post.
