Suspended Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) firm secretary Nompumelelo Nene has failed in her pressing authorized bid to halt disciplinary proceedings towards her.
Nene is one among 5 key workers members positioned on suspension in 2022 in a crackdown on corruption on the NLC.
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It seems, from courtroom papers earlier than Johannesburg Excessive Court docket Choose Stuart Wilson final week, that Nene has been inserting obstacles within the path of her disciplinary listening to.
Her newest, an pressing utility for an interdict, was struck from the roll by Wilson as “not being pressing”.
He ordered her attorneys to make submissions earlier than the tip of the month as to why they need to not personally pay for the prices of the appliance on a punitive scale. He stated that “attorneys aren’t postboxes” and “they’re duty-bound to advise purchasers on the prospects of litigation”.
Stalingrad defence
In accordance with Wikipedia: “The Stalingrad authorized defence is a method often utilized by a defendant to put on down the plaintiff or authorized proceedings by interesting each ruling that’s unfavourable to the defendant and utilizing no matter different means potential to delay proceedings.”
A timeline hooked up to the courtroom paperwork reveals that Nene was positioned on suspension with full advantages in November 2022. The disciplinary course of commenced in February 2023.
She introduced an utility earlier than the committee to uplift her suspension however this was dismissed.
She has additionally sought, within the Pretoria Excessive Court docket, to put aside the findings of the Auditor-Normal’s stories on the monetary years 2019/20 and 2020/21, which implicated her in misconduct referring to unauthorised expenditure on media companies, accountants and auditors.
She has additionally referred an unfair labour follow dispute to the Fee for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), which remains to be pending.
On 5 March, she launched the pressing excessive courtroom proceedings that got here earlier than Choose Wilson. She claimed that her dismissal was a foregone conclusion and, ought to the listening to proceed, she could be subjected to undue monetary hardship and a dismissal on her document, which means she would wrestle to safe different employment.
She additionally claimed a lot of violations of her constitutional rights.
She needed her disciplinary listening to, set down for later in March, to be stayed.
‘Not pressing’
The NLC, represented by legislation agency Cheadle, Thompson and Haysom, raised a number of objections, together with the truth that the matter was not pressing and, if it was, it was self-created.
Learn/pay attention: Nationwide Lottery decided to remove fraud and corruption
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In heads of argument, the NLC stated Nene had been positioned on suspension in November 2022, pending investigations by the Auditor-Normal into the NLC’s books for the 2021/22 monetary 12 months.
In October 2023, she had been given a replica of the ultimate investigation report, and in November, the consolidated fees of misconduct with the related paperwork.
In February 2024, she briefed new attorneys who wanted time to familiarise themselves with the matter. Later that month, she delivered a 67-page request detailing additional paperwork she required for her defence.
Then on 5 March, she launched the pressing utility for the interdict, setting it down for 14 March.
The NLC stated this was “an abuse”. Disciplinary motion towards her was initiated in February and there was no reason why she had not sought to halt the method sooner.
“The excessive watermark of her case on urgency is that she might be subjected to monetary hardship ought to the listening to proceed and he or she is dismissed. The difficulty with this reasoning is that no proof has been led and the result is much from being identified.
“Her unsubstantiated apprehension of monetary loss doesn’t avail her of pressing reduction. She is in no worse a place than any worker who faces the potential of dismissal for misconduct,” the NLC submitted.
Nene, the NLC stated, had alleged unfair labour practices however she had not defined why, within the occasion she was dismissed, she couldn’t then refer the matter to the CCMA or the Labour Court docket below the provisions of the Labour Relations Act.
If her contract was unlawfully terminated, she may additionally sue for breach of contract and damages.
“Lastly, she is at liberty and is entitled to boost all of the defences of her employer’s perceived contrived and unfair conduct within the disciplinary listening to,” the NLC stated.
On the problem of prices, the NLC stated the appliance was meritless, poorly conceived, and its solely actual objective was to delay the disciplinary listening to. Her legal professionals had acted unreasonably and recklessly and a punitive value order towards them was warranted.
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