MORE serious workplace abuse allegations against Numsa’s Free State-Northern Cape regional secretary Andile Zitho have emerged as the union’s former second deputy president, Ruth Ntlokotse, launches an urgent application to overturn her expulsion.
Zitho recently made headlines following Free State High Court Judge Sharon Chesiwe awarded one of his subordinates R100 000 in damages for defamation after the unionist disclosed her HIV status in a meeting of 14 colleagues, including some from management, as well as one the complainant who cannot be named considers a friend and a sister and had confided in her about her HIV-positive status.
The complainant, who in court identified the “friend and sister” as Mamojabeng Constance Molatlhoe and as the person who informed Zitho of her HIV status, had sued the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) for an amount of R1 million for defamation.
In court, Judge Chesiwe was told that Zitho informed the meeting that it was Molatlhoe who informed him that the complainant was HIV-positive.
Following Judge Chesiwe’s ruling on July 21, a further workplace grievance against Zitho has come to light.
In the grievance filed by 12 Numsa employees in its Free State-Northern Cape regional office, the group want Zitho suspended until their matter is resolved and has complained about their fear to take sick leave to look after their ill children as Zitho screamed that he did not employ their offspring.
This was allegedly after Zitho rejected an employee’s child’s medical certificate because he did not employ the child and as a result employees began bringing their sick children to work, fearing the rejection of doctor’s certificates and the consequences of being absent from work.
”Certain staff members have been told to bring back the Numsa (office) key while off duty and being told ‘if you were raised drinking toilet or bathroom water, other people are not (sic)’ when they had previously been given an instruction to retain said keys for safety purposes,” states the grievance.
In other instances, employees were asked to specify why they needed to go to the toilet when nature called and were called out of the bathroom to attend to tasks.
The employees also accuse Zitho of phoning staff members and asking questions about the grievance.
Contacted for comment, Zitho said the grievance was two years old and that Numsa did not have any comment.
”The union has exercised its rights. It’s appealing the judgment,” he said.
Ntlokotse, who is the president of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and was a Numsa shop steward until her expulsion in May, is heading to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, to interdict Numsa and its general secretary, Irvin Jim, from purporting to implement her suspension and/or expulsion as a union member and shop steward.
She has asked the High Court to grant her the interdict pending the determination of part B of her application.
In part B of her application, Ntlokotse wants the court to declare the decision of Numsa’s national executive committee in May at which she was expelled unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid and reviewed and set aside.
In addition, Ntlokotse wants the court to declare the decision of Numsa’s special central executive committee last month to dismiss her appeal unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid and reviewed and set aside.
She also cited the pending finalisation of Numsa’s Labour Appeal Court matter where the union is challenging Labour Court Judge Graham Moshoana’s July 2022 ruling interdicting the national congress from proceeding until it fully complied with the terms of its own constitution and declaring that the suspensions of Ntlokotse and other unionists on the eve of the gathering unconstitutional, invalid and unenforceable in law.
Numsa’s appeal of Judge Moshoana’s ruling on the eve of its national congress will be heard on Tuesday.
In a separate matter, Ntlokotse has launched another application in terms of Section 158(1)(e) of the Labour Relations Act, which empowers the Labour Court to determine a dispute between a registered trade union and any one of its members or applicants for membership on any alleged non-compliance with the trade union’s constitution.
At the Labour Court, she is challenging Numsa’s national congress, at which she intended to run for president, which was held in Cape Town in July last year to be declared null and void ab initio (from the beginning) and thus invalid and nullified for failing to comply with the union’s constitution.
Ntlokotse also wants to overturn the outcomes and decisions of several regional congresses held in the run-up to the national congress as well as a subsequent extended central committee meeting held in December last year.
She said she would suffer irreparable harm if the high court did not intervene as she would be unable to play a role within Saftu and its biggest affiliate, Numsa, and that harm to her political, civil and labour rights would be final.
”In addition, new people may by then be elected in my place, both as shop steward for Numsa and as the Saftu president, and it will be wholly impracticable to undo that damage,” explained Ntlokotse.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “We will be going to court to defend the union and its decisions. We will not comment on malicious gossip and propaganda.”