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[2016] ZALCJHB 81
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POPCRU obo Seuloana v Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council and Others (JR2956/2011) [2016] ZALCJHB 81 (2 March 2016)
IN THE
LABOUR COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
HELD
AT JOHANNESBURG
CASE
NO
: JR2956/2011
DATE
: 2016-02-10
In the matter
between
POPCRU
o.b.o SAMUEL
SEULOANA
Applicant
and
SAFETY AND SECURITY
SECTORAL
BARGAINING
COUNCIL
First respondent
PRINCE
KEKANA
N.O.
Second respondent
SOUTH
AFRICAN POLICE
SERVICE
Third respondent
Date of
ex tempore
judgment: 10 February 2016
Date
edited:
2 March 2016
J U D G M E N
T
STEENKAMP,
J
[1] This is
an application to have an arbitration award by Commissioner Prince
Kekana reviewed and set aside. The applicant,
Mr Samuel
Seuloana, was a police officer deployed by the South African Police
Services at Menzie’s Aviation, a company that
was contracted to
handle luggage and check in points for several international airlines
at O.R. Tambo International Airport.
[2] The
employee was dismissed for misconduct. In short, video footage at the
airport showed that Mr Seuloana, together with another
employee,
opened passengers’ bags and stole items from those bags.
At a disciplinary hearing, after seeing the video
footage, the
employee and his representative, a Mr Maffa, admitted that he stole
passengers’ items and pleaded guilty, simply
saying in
mitigation that he had financial problems. Not surprisingly, he was
dismissed. He appealed internally and now simply
said that he
was remorseful and should be given a lesser sanction.
[3] At
arbitration Mr Seuloana did a complete
volte-face
and blamed,
firstly, the initiator; and secondly, his representative, Mr Maffa,
to say that he pleaded guilty on their advice.
At the hearing
today, where he seeks to have the finding of the arbitrator that his
dismissal was fair, reviewed and set aside,
his new representative,
Mr
Goldberg
, merely took issue with the sanction imposed.
[4] As Mr
Makote
very eloquently pointed out in his argument for SAPS,
this is no ordinary employee. This is a police officer who has a duty
to
protect the public of South Africa. He betrayed not only that
trust that the public should have in the police, but also the trust
that his employer put in him. He perpetuated his own dishonesty
by firstly admitting that he committed the misconduct and
then trying
to claim that he did not commit the misconduct when it came to
arbitration.
[5] The
arbitrator noted that the employee, having initially denied that he
was at the scene of the misconduct, admitted his wrongdoing
only
after having been confronted with the video evidence. He admitted his
wrongdoing at the disciplinary hearing and at the internal
appeal,
arguing only about sanction. The arbitrator was satisfied that
Seuloana was the person in the video footage. His misconduct
was
beyond question. He was dishonest. The sanction of dismissal was
fair. That is a reasonable conclusion.
[6]
This application is entirely without merit. There is no doubt that
the dismissal of the employee was fair and the conclusion
of the
arbitration confirming his dismissal is entirely reasonable.
The only reason that I do not consider awarding costs
against the
employee is because both parties agreed that there should be no cost
order.
Order
[6] The
application is dismissed.
___________________
A.
J. Steenkamp
Judge of the Labour Court
APPEARANCE
FOR THE APPLICANT:
A GOLDBERG
APPEARANCE
FOR THE RESPONDENT: M Z MAKOTI
Instructed
by
The State Attorney.
CERTIFICATE
OF VERACITY
I,
the undersigned, hereby certify that,
in
as far as it is audible
,
the aforegoing is a
VERBATIM
transcription from the soundtrack of proceedings, as was ordered to
be transcribed by iAfrica Transcriptions and which had been
recorded
by Digital Court Recording Services by means of digital recording
equipment.
In
the matter between:
POPCRU
o.b.o. SEULOANA,
S
Applicant
and
SOUTH
AFRICAN POLICE
SERVICE
Respondent
Case No
J2956/11
Client Reference
N/A
# Pages
4
RECORDED
AT
:
Court
:
Labour Court
Court Nr
:
Stenographer
:
[No annotation]
TRIAL
DATES
:
2016-02-10
ORDER
TO TRANSCRIBE
:
Transcribe soundtrack
as per order
TRANSCRIBER
:
Cherylene van Jaarsveld
SOUNDTRACK
:
Delivered on: 2016-02-16
DATE
COMPLETED
:
2016-02-16
J406-ENVELOPE
INFORMATION
:
Not supplied
PLEASE
NOTE
:
1.
Court digital recording equipment not utilised to its full potential:
Specify
:
……
2.
Parties intervening each other, may result in indistinct words and or
phrases.
3.
Court stenographer’s annotations incomplete.
4.
Where no clear annotations are furnished, names are transcribed
phonetically.
iAfrica Transcriptions (Pty) Ltd
ARBOUR HOUSE
CNR MELLE& JUTA
STREET, 6TH FLOOR
BRAAMFONTEIN, 2001
TEL/FAX: (011)339-4362
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