Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Truworths cashier fired for short-changing the company won’t be going back to her job at the fashion retailer after the Labour Court found that her dismissal was lawful.
In a groundbreaking judgment penned in Sesotho by acting Judge Smanga Sethene, the court disagreed with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration’s (CCMA) ruling that overturned the company’s decision to fire Maphasha Mochekgechekge.
Sethene reviewed and set aside the CCMA decision, stating that the “arbitrator misdirected himself and failed to take into account the evidence that was before him”.
The acting judge started his judgment by explaining why writing the judgment in Sesotho was essential.
He quoted Judge Neville Holmes, who in 1958 penned a judgment in Afrikaans and said: “One’s experience is that the winner is usually content to know merely that he has won. But the loser likes to know the reasons why he has lost. I proceed to give judgment in the language of the losers.”
Sethene said Mochekgechekge had first asked for a Selobedu and Sepedi interpreter, and when they were not available, she opted for a Sesotho interpreter instead.
The acting judge said:
According to the judgment, on several occasions when Mochekgechekge cashed in, there would be a discrepancy.
When management asked her why the money was short, she apparently used her pregnancy as an excuse.
Mochekgechekge continued to cash in short until she was given two warning letters, but that didn’t resolve the matter.
The woman was fired following a disciplinary hearing. However, she went to the CCMA to contest her dismissal, which ruled in her favour.
According to the judgment, the CCMA found that the company was unfair in firing her because she was pregnant at the time.
It said the company should have taken that into account.
But Truworths argued that the decision was unlawful, adding the commission failed to take evidence into account that the woman was consistent in short-changing the company from 2014 until 2018.
The judgment does not reveal how much money the company lost.
The Labour Court found that Mochekgechekge’s axing was, in fact, lawful and set aside the CCMA’s ruling.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
