UKZN to appeal judgment for Pillay
Bongani Hans THE province has a plan to turn district municipalities into economic hubs, creating locally-based businesses and employment to ease poverty in rural areas.
Speaking in Ballito yesterday, Premier Senzo Mchunu launched the district development agencies, which are aimed at developing a green economy to slow the migration of rural communities to cities. He said each of the 10 districts would have its own permanent agency with a board of directors, full-time staff and offices.
Once the agencies became fully functional, the province would cut down on grants for the poor, as they would be able to sustain themselves.
The launch, accompanied by a two-day workshop, was attended by business people and senior local government officials.
“Providing food parcels and grants has proved unsustainable,” Mchunu said.
The provincial executive council announced that it had adopted the project early this year, which would attract local and foreign investment to rural areas. It was hoped that district municipalities would in future become stronger economic hubs than the cities.
Mchunu said the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department would be the main driver of the agencies, with the help of economic development, agriculture and small business development.
He said rural Msinga, near Greytown, where President Jacob Zuma had launched a R32 million irrigation scheme last week, had proved that rural areas could sustain themselves economically. This area is home to the multimillionrand Uthukela Estate, where farming projects produce livestock and vegetables.
“We want many farm estates in rural areas of the province. They will be similar to estates owned by white farmers. We want amakhosi to give us huge land to do this.”
He said the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs would help the districts set up the agencies and appoint boards.
The Department of Agriculture would identify suitable land for farming in each district, while Economic Development would help build the local economy
The Department of Small Business Development would help with packaging the end product.
Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said the agencies would create tourism, agriculture and lowimpact manufacturing industries. THE University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) says a judgment, which found in favour of its former chief financial officer Kanthan Pillay, was riddled with incorrect findings and the compensation award was “shockingly inappropriate”.
The university has applied for leave to appeal the judgment by acting Labour Court Judge C Fouché, which found that Pillay’s dismissal had been procedurally unfair and ordered the institution to pay him 10 months of remuneration.
Pillay is expected to oppose the leave to appeal application.
Pillay was an associate professor at UKZN and its chief financial officer when he was dismissed in 2008 after a disciplinary inquiry found that the “trust relationship” between him and the university had been “severed”.
The inquiry dealt with the findings of a tribunal which had been set up to investigate an anonymous e-mail that alleged he had been irregularly awarded a Master’s degree.
Pillay approached the Durban Labour Court to review a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration commissioner’s decision that his dismissal had been “procedurally fair”.
In a recent judgment, the court found that “procedural fairness did not take place” because Pillay had not been given the opportunity to address the disciplinary inquiry or the university’s council about his length of service, previous disciplinary record and personal circumstances.
In its leave to appeal application, UKZN said extensive evidence in mitigation was led and there was nothing procedurally unfair about the way the inquiry was held.
“The applicant (Pillay) had a full opportunity to present whatever evidence he had available.”
The application states that Judge Fouché had not given reasons for her judgment.
“There is a reasonable prospect that an appeal court will find that a conclusion without reasons is unhelpful and in the present context was wrong.”
The university also argued that the judgment contained several “factual findings” which were not supported by the facts or evidence.
The application said in parts of the judgment the facts had been “confused or misconstrued” which revealed a “deep misunderstanding of what led to the dismissal”.
The university said Judge Fouché had concluded that the commissioner who handled the disciplinary inquiry was biased, without evidence to support this assertion.
It noted that the 10-month remuneration award was three times more than Pillay had asked for.
“It is an award out of kilter with the normal range of awards for procedural unfairness which rarely exceeds three months (remuneration).”