Ex-Cosatu leader loses court bid
A FORMER Cosatu leader yesterday refused to state his plan of action after losing his court bid aimed at forcing one of the federation’s affiliates to pay him about R1.9 million for firing him for being Zimbabwean.
Gift Sandile Ndwandwe, the right hand man and bodyguard of former SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu, was fired last year after the union discovered that he was a Zimbabwean and had fraudulently obtained his South African identity document.
Labour Court Judge Belinda Whitcher dismissed Ndwandwe’s application two weeks ago stating that there was no prima facie case that Satawu committed a breach which entitled him to invoke contractual remedies for a fundamental breach.
Ndwandwe’s lawyer Kimani Ndung’u would not say what his client’s next step will be or comment on his whereabouts.
In court, Ndwandwe said he did not commit any misconduct, was not found guilty of any and not offered any opportunity to respond to the allegations.
Mahlangu himself was deported by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) in 2017 after it was found he was in the country illegally and that, according to Satawu, his real name was John Sibande.
Ndwandwe argued that had Satawu not terminated his contract he would have remained its employee for the unexpired portion of his term as provincial secretary, which was two years and 11 months.
According to papers filed at the Labour Court, Ndwandwe wanted R1.9m compensation from Satawu, citing a breach of contract.
Ndwandwe, whose fraudulent identity document states that he is 38, rose from being a messenger at Satawu’s head office in 2011 to being its Gauteng provincial secretary by 2015, replacing Chris Nkosi, who was shot dead while driving home to Ekurhuleni in the same year.
Between 2011 and 2015, Ndwandwe was also appointed Satawu’s organiser in the North West, national coordinator of the cash-in-transit sector and later national head of security responsible for the safety of its facilities, offices, assets and staff members, including Mahlangu.
In his court papers, Ndwandwe states that in October 2017 Satawu’s then deputy general secretary Zacharia Mosothoane informed him that he had been suspended with immediate effect pending an investigation into allegations that the Department of Home Affairs was questioning his nationality.
Ndwandwe’s suspension was later reinstated by the South Gauteng High Court, which declared the move unlawful.
However, in January last year, Satawu leaders met Ndwandwe to enquire about his representations to the DoHA but he refused to hand them, claiming certain aspects were confidential including information relating to his wife and minor children.
Satawu then fired Ndwandwe after he told its leaders he could only give them the covering letter of the representations he had made to the department.