RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN S.A. EMPLOYMENT LAW

Seat of Court: Labour Court, Johannesburg Date Delivered: 21 October 2026 Case No: JR83/24 Name of Judge(s): Mhambi AJ Factual Summary: Mr Delport, represented by Solidarity, was charged by Stucky Motors with gross negligence and with insubordination in relation to the production of an IT Asset Register; he was acquitted of the first charge and dismissed on the second. A commissioner of the Motor Industries Bargaining Council upheld the dismissal, relying in part on uncharged incidents of 10 and 15 February 2023 arising from a dispute over sick leave. On 14 May 2026 the Labour Court reviewed and set aside the award, declared the dismissal substantively unfair and awarded compensation equal to six months' remuneration. Stucky Motors applied for leave to appeal, contending that the arbitration was a hearing de novo entitling the commissioner to consider the further incidents, that the Court had conducted an appeal in the guise of a review, that the order wrongly disturbed the fin...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: JR590/2024 Name of Judge(s): Maddern AJ Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, employed by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) since 2001, was placed on precautionary suspension on full pay on 1 August 2022. On 14 April 2023, while still suspended, he was notified that he had been discharged from the public service under section 17(3)(a)(i) of the Public Service Act for having been absent without authorisation since 1 August 2022. DIRCO contended that he had breached the terms of his suspension by being unreachable and failing to report for duty. He referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council. Upholding DIRCO's point in limine on written submissions alone, without hearing evidence, the commissioner ruled that the Council lacked jurisdiction because the termination had occurred by operation of law. The appli...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: JR331/2024 Name of Judge(s): Maddern AJ Summary of Factual Matrix: The two individual employees, processors with eight and ten years' service at the applicant's Rustenburg Base Metal Refiners, a high-risk facility, were working on cells in the Copper Tank House on 1 November 2022 when their supervisor, who was required to isolate the Centre Bay rectifier, locked out a different bay instead. The work area remained live and an arc flash burnt Mr Cimela's trousers. The supervisor was dismissed, and the employees were charged with failing to comply with the De-energise, Isolation, Lock-out and Permit to Work (DILEP) procedure, found guilty and dismissed. The applicant's own investigation revealed a practice on their shift of relying on the supervisor's lock-out and that the employees had received theoretical, but no practical, lock-out training. A CCMA commissioner found that t...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Durban Case No: D385/24 Name of Judge(s): Daniels J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, a Deputy Chief Education Specialist in the Eastern Cape Department of Education, had repeatedly acted as Chief Education Specialist: Curriculum Management between 2021 and 2024 under letters stating that acting created no right or expectation of promotion. When the post was advertised in 2023 she was shortlisted and interviewed, together with six others, by the same selection panel, but scored 59 per cent and was ranked fourth; the top-scoring candidate, the fifth respondent, was appointed. A 60 per cent threshold applied to senior appointments. The applicant referred an unfair labour practice dispute relating to promotion to the ELRC, contending that her acting experience made her the best candidate, that the panel was irregularly composed and unbalanced in race and gender, and that scoring was improperly used as the sole...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 21 October 2026, Labour Court, Cape Town Case No: 2026/219524 Name of Judge(s): Gandidze J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, a scaffolding subcontractor registered with the Building Industry Bargaining Council (Cape of Good Hope), was in arrears with benefit contributions when its employee, Mr Mshwadi, died in January 2025, so that the Fund declined his death and funeral benefits. The applicant contended that Mr Mshwadi had resigned before his death and, without the Council's involvement, settled with his nominated beneficiary for R65 000. The Council rejected the settlement and on 24 April 2026 issued a compliance order for the full death benefits and a penalty, which the applicant disputed; the dispute was referred to arbitration at the CCMA under the collective agreement. After the CCMA dismissed the applicant's jurisdictional point in limine on 30 July 2026, the Council, while the arbitration remained pending, marked the appl...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 20 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: 2026/255529 Name of Judge(s): Harvey J Summary of Factual Matrix: Seven members of NUMSA brought an urgent application against the union and its National Office Bearers for declaratory and mandatory relief concerning compliance with the union's constitution, the convening of its National Executive Committee, preparations for its National Congress (scheduled for 30 November to 4 December 2026) and the holding and funding of outstanding Regional Congresses. The application was uploaded to CaseLines on Wednesday 14 October 2026 for hearing on Tuesday 20 October; the applicants' own timetable contemplated answering and replying affidavits after the Thursday enrolment deadline. The answering affidavit was uploaded on the morning of Monday 19 October, and the replying affidavit and annexures, including a substantially revised draft order, by early that afternoon. The respondents objected tha...

Seat of Court: Labour Court, Johannesburg Date Delivered: 20 October 2026 Case No: JR676/22 Name of Judge(s): Phakedi AJ Factual Summary: The applicant employer, Tshipi Noto Funeral Home, had unsuccessfully sought to review an arbitration award in which a CCMA commissioner found the dismissal of its employee, Mr Njebe, unfair and ordered his reinstatement. The Labour Court dismissed the review on 22 July 2026, and the employer applied for leave to appeal, which was considered in chambers on written submissions. The employer contended that the commissioner had committed a gross irregularity by awarding reinstatement when the parties had recorded at the narrowing of issues that the employee sought compensation only, thereby depriving it of the opportunity to lead evidence on reinstatement, and that the commissioner ought to have guided its lay representative in the conduct of the employee's evidence. The employee opposed, contending that his claim to reinstatement had been led in...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 19 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: 2026/230525 Name of Judge(s): Tlhotlhalemaje J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, a member of the first respondent union (NUM) since 1998 who was employed by Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited and seconded full-time to the union, served as Secretary of its Free State Regional Committee from November 2024. Charged with misuse of union funds, he obtained several postponements of the disciplinary enquiry on medical grounds, but on 21 April 2026 was informed that he had been found guilty and suspended from the position of Regional Secretary for ten years. The National Executive Committee dismissed his appeal on 7 August 2026 as having been lodged outside the seven-day period in the union's constitution, and communicated that outcome on 13 August 2026. The applicant first approached the High Court, which on 1 September 2026 held that it lacked jurisdiction and ordered punitive costs aga...

Seat of Court: Labour Court, Johannesburg Date Delivered: 19 October 2026 Case No: J1722/2023 Name of Judge(s): Prinsloo J Factual Summary: The applicant, a former employee of Eskom, had brought contempt of court proceedings against Eskom and two of its officials, alleging non-compliance with a settlement agreement concerning the provision of transport to him. The Labour Court (Khumalo AJ) dismissed the application on 21 August 2025, the applicant having since resigned from Eskom's employ. The applicant applied for leave to appeal against the whole of that judgment and order. The application was decided in chambers. The issue was whether there was a reasonable prospect that the Labour Appeal Court would come to a different conclusion, or some other compelling reason for an appeal, under section 166(1) of the LRA read with section 17(1) of the Superior Courts Act. Legal Questions Considered: [3] ‘It is trite that there is no automatic right of appeal against a judgment of the L...

Date of Judgment & Seat of Court: 19 October 2026, Labour Court, Johannesburg Case No: 2026/251444 Name of Judge(s): Tlhotlhalemaje J Summary of Factual Matrix: The applicant, the Municipal Manager of the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality on a fixed-term contract, was arrested by the Hawks in June 2026, placed on compulsory leave and then on precautionary suspension by resolution of the Council. His urgent application to the Northern Cape High Court challenging the Special Council meeting, the suspension and the Municipality's compliance with the Local Government: Disciplinary Regulations for Senior Managers was dismissed with costs by Mamosebo J on 25 July 2026. The Council thereafter adopted an investigation report and disciplinary proceedings were convened, with the hearing set down for 19 to 21 October 2026. On 9 October 2026 the applicant brought an urgent application in the Labour Court to interdict the disciplinary hearing pending a review said to have been in...