DIRECTORS of notorious security company, Red Ants, face jail time for contempt of court after failing to reinstate and pay an executive assistant the company fired nearly R372 000.
Former Freedom Front Plus Mogale City proportional representation councillor Alexander Munro Raubenheimer was employed by Red Ants in various capacities until October 2021 when he was fired as an assistant to the chief executive, a position currently occupied by Fuzile Balintulo, who is cited as a respondent along with another of its alleged directors Herman Breedt.
Following his dismissal, Raubenheimer referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and in June 2022, its commissioner Livhu Nengovhela found that his axing was procedurally fair but substantively unfair.
The CCMA ordered Red Ants to reinstate Raubenheimer retrospectively on the same terms and conditions, no less favourable than those governing the employment relationship at the time of his dismissal.
In addition, Red Ants were ordered to pay Raubenheimer R371 732.02 in back pay by July 22, 2022 and that he should report for duty three days later.
Instead, the company whose official name is Red Ant Security Relocation and Eviction Services, through its lawyers, told Raubenheimer it would launch review proceedings against the CCMA award and that he should not report for duty as well as that he would not be paid any monies due to him in terms of the award.
However, while the Red Ants instituted the review proceedings at the Labour Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, this was not done with the requisite diligence, according to Acting Judge Bart Ford.
Acting Judge Ford found that the Red Ants failed to deliver the arbitration record within the 60-day time period contemplated in the Labour Court Practice Manual.
The Red Ants had posted the bond of security required in review of awards proceedings, which must be equivalent of the compensation award and which Raubenheimer would be paid within 15 days of the review application being dismissed or any further appeal hearing being unsuccessful.
Later Raubenheimer’s legal representatives, Goldberg Attorneys, pointed out that the bond did not specify the actual amount that was paid by the Red Ants and the review application was deemed to have been withdrawn.
Red Ants also instituted an urgent application to stay the enforcement of the arbitration award but this was dismissed in March this year.
The company applied for leave to appeal the dismissal of its urgent application but did not do so in terms of the Labour Court’s rules at the time.
In his ruling in August this year, Acting Judge Ford stated that the only question that remains is whether the non-compliance of the respondents (Red Ants, Balintulo and Breedt) can be said to be mala fide (in bad faith).
”Having properly considered all the papers in this matter, and the absence of a justifiable basis or reason for non-compliance with the arbitration award, I conclude that the respondents are in contempt of court,” reads Acting Judge Ford’s ruling.
He found Red Ants, Balintulo and Breedt guilty of contempt of court and ordered them to effect payment of the arbitration award with interest to Raubenheimer within seven days of his order and to permit him to resume his duties on September 1, 2024.
Acting Judge Ford ordered that should Red Ants, Balintulo and Breedt fail to effect the payment of the arbitration award the Johannesburg Sheriff of the High Court must attach the company’s banking account held with First National Bank and recover such monies due to Raubenheimer in satisfaction of the award with interests.
”In the event that the respondents fail to comply with this order, the directors of the third respondent (Red Ants) including but not limited to (Balintulo and Breedt) are each to be sentenced to a period of 30 days’ imprisonment and the Department of Correctional Services is authorised to take them into imprisonment to serve their committal,” the acting judge ruled.
He wholly suspended the order of imprisonment for 14 court days pending the payment and compliance with the compliance of Red Ants’ bank accounts.
The Red Ants then applied for leave to appeal the August ruling but Acting Judge Ford found that it did not have any prospects of success and found no reason why the Labour Appeal Court ought to be burdened with a matter of this nature and refused it on November 25.
Raubenheimer’s lawyer Andrew Goldberg told the Sunday Independent that the Red Ants still had not complied with the Labour Court judgment but declined to say what their next step will be.
Balintulo did not respond to questions this week and Breedt has indicated that he was never a Red Ants director.
At the Labour Court, Raubenheimer was unsuccessful in seeking 24 months’ remuneration against Red Ants for refusing to reinstatement him, for loss of annual bonuses, a claim for R500 000 damages for a stomach injury he sustained while moving a lion during a veld fire and R190 735 compensation as payment towards a house that he bought from the company.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za