Cape Town - Correctional Services Department finance clerk, Christopher February, was detained for fighting the apartheid system – and says he is now fighting another system.
“We protested against apartheid and I was detained for that. Back then we were all together fighting against the system,” he said, referring to black and coloured people.
“Today I’m fighting another war,” February testified in the Labour Court on Tuesday.
He is one of 10 Department of Correctional Services (DCS) employees taking legal action against the department and Minister of Labour as they believe the DCS’s employment equity plan has resulted in them being overlooked for promotions.
The department’s equity targets are in line with national, not provincial, demographics.
On Tuesday February, a coloured man, said he had applied for promotions “quite a few times” between 2007 and 2010. He had applied for the position of senior state accountant, a post that had been vacant since 2008.
Reading from a document approving him filling the post in an acting capacity, February said he was recommended for the post as he had previously acted in it and had the necessary qualifications for it.
He had acted in the post from 2008 until 2011 “when I was informed the national commissioner said I can’t act anymore because of this case”.
In July 2010 February had again applied for the post and then decided to follow a grievance procedure about why he was never appointed.
February, again reading from documents, said it had been found he had “stood out head and shoulders” above other applicants and had passed a test with 100 percent during the application process.
A recommendation was made that the appointment be allowed to deviate from the employment equity plan so February could fill the post.
This did not happen and the second in line for the job was appointed in January 2011.
February said at the end of that month that person was appointed to another state department and the post was left vacant. He believed the reason he did not get the post was simply because he is coloured.
Earlier on Tuesday another witness in the case, Stanley Kemp, 49, testified that tensions had been created in the provincial DCS due to the equity plan. At one point during his career he had been stationed in KwaZulu-Natal and said when he returned to the Western Cape three years ago, he found the province “for some reason is different from my experience in the other region”.
“You could feel in the workplace there was some sort of tension,” Kemp said.
He had been on panels that interviewed and chose applicants for posts.
“If the best candidate doesn’t meet the equity requirements, we look at the next candidate,” Kemp said.
During cross-examination Dumisa Ntsebeza, SC, asked why Kemp had not objected to certain promotions that were swayed by the equity plan.
Kemp said as a loyal servant of the department, he had to execute a task given to him and while doing that it was not a time to show his emotions.
Ntsebeza replied: “I will put it to you the sincerest thing you could’ve done was for you to express your misgivings.”
The case continues on Thursday. - Cape Times