Cape Town - A whistle-blower whose suspension by the Northern Cape government was reversed by order of the Labour Court was back at the court on Friday, attempting to get the court’s order enforced.
Former Northern Cape legal adviser Mathloko Motingoe wants the court to force Infrastructure and Public Works MEC Dawid Rooi and head of the public works department Kholekile Nogwili to comply with the judgment delivered in December, which ordered them to uplift his suspension with immediate effect.
Motingoe exposed alleged irregularities by the department head related to the tender process of a construction project at Theekloof Pass in 2013. In November that year, the MEC suspended him pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings.
At the Labour Court he secured a finding that the disclosures he had made were protected in terms of the Protected Disclosures Act.
The General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council made an award in his favour after an arbitrator found that the MEC had no legal authority to suspend him because this fell within the powers of the departmental head.
The arbitrator also found that Motingoe had not been given an opportunity to make representations prior to his suspension.
The department was ordered to lift the suspension with immediate effect and reinstate him until the Labour Court made a final order. The court found that Motingoe had been subjected to occupational detriments because he had made disclosures.
The following month the department filed an application for leave to take the matter to the Labour Appeal Court (LAC) and served Motingoe with a new suspension letter, this time signed by the department head.
But the application for leave to appeal and a later petition to the LAC were refused. However, the suspension was still not lifted and Motingoe did not receive any payment, prompting him to launch a contempt of court application.
The department intends to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal.
Motingoe took the matter back to the Labour Court, asking the court to put an end to the saga.
The court now has to decide whether the contempt of court application can proceed.
Weekend Argus