Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba could face a jail sentence or pay a fine for contempt of court if she does not give a satisfactory answer to the Labour Court as to why her department ignored a court judgment to increase employees’ salaries, reports City Press.

The historic labour matter started in 2012, long before Ramathuba was appointed MEC, but it is now binding on her as the department’s current accounting officer.

According to a Labour Court judgment dated 10 August, Ramathuba and the second respondent (Limpopo Government) must appear before the court on 18 November to explain why they defied the court’s ruling of 15 November 2021.

Provincial health spokesperson Neil Shikwambana blamed state attorneys for not filing papers for leave to appeal the judgment following its decision to do so as early as 16 November 2021.

Shikwambana said the Office of the State Attorney had actually filed the application to the wrong court, the Constitutional Court instead of the Labour Court, and also an email was used to file, which was the incorrect procedure.

‘The department instructed the Office of the State Attorney to correct this by filing with the correct court using the right procedure. Subsequent to this, the Office of the State Attorney also delayed filing the leave to appeal in the correct court and the correction of the procedure until a Senior Counsel applied for condonation for the late filing,’ he added.

Full City Press report