Reintatement of Mr Hlaudi Motshweneng 30-07-08

 

STATEMENT BY COSATU FREE STATE ON THE MATTER SURROUNDING THE REINSTATEMENT OF MR HLAUDI MOTSHWENENG

29 July 2008

On the 23 July 2008, COSATU in the Free State issued a statement welcoming the return to work at the SABC of Mr Hlaudi Motshweneng who was dismissed in 2007. The case was fought by this worker for the whole of 2007 and at the end he was finally reinstated in 2008. It has come to our attention that there are some unions/groupings that are not happy that this worker has won the case and been reinstated. This is a very worrying situation and one wonders whether the workers at this institution are protected or not. It is our simple understanding that no union can be against the reinstatement of a worker because every union is establish around the principle of defending its members. It cannot be correct for a union to be worried and have concerns when a worker is reinstated.

We engage our union CWU on this matter so that there is a common understanding about this principle of fighting for the protection of a worker and we both agreed that it can never be correct for any union to rejoice when a worker is dismissed because that will go against the principle of protecting the very same worker. In this country we fought for the Labour Relations Act (LRA) precisely to ensure that workers are protected at their different workplaces. So no-one has the right to simply decide to undermine the same laws that we have fought for all these years unless such a person was not part of the struggle or rather he or she does not know why the LRA was constructed in the manner that it is now, the manner that the LRA has to ensure that workers in South Africa are protected.

Lastly, it is a common thing that it is management that will at all times try to justify their reason to dismiss a person but that is not a union responsibility. In this situation it is our understanding that management have decided to reinstate and why then there are others who are not given the responsibility of managing the SABC objecting or mobilizing against the reinstatement. All that we are saying here, is that we are not getting into the merits of the case or rather intend to engage on them because we believe it is a matter for the hearing and not for us to try and justify.

It will be procedurally unfair and substantively unfair if management can succumb to the pressures by individuals or groupings because that will make the management to undermine the very same LRA which they are suppose to respect by all means.

Statement made on behalf of the federation in the Free State by

Sam Mashinini

COSATU Provincial Secretary, Free State, 082 563 6954