The KZN provincial government is asking the Labour Court for a stay of execution after a CCMA ruling, authorising the court Sheriff to seize R10m worth of its assets on behalf of a former employee.

The ruling comes four years after the dismissal of a senior manager, which the CCMA found to have been ‘substantively procedurally unfair’, reports TimesLIVE.

In a certification of award issued by the CCMA, the KZN Premier is ordered to pay the applicant, Arumugam Govender, R9 449 977.48 – by no later than 30 September 2023.

Govender was appointed on a permanent basis as CFO in the KZN Department of Transport in December 2000. He occupied various senior positions in various departments until 2017.

During the termination of his employment, Govender had been deployed from the Office of the Premier to the Department of Public Works as a head of department, a position whose term of employment is five years.

In his founding affidavit, Govender said: ‘Regarding deployment from the Office of the Premier, his expectation was that if his contract at Public Works was not renewed, he would be redeployed until he reached the age of 65, his state of mind was that his contract would be renewed until he turned 65.’

The CCMA agreed and declared his termination to be procedurally unfair.

It authorised Govender to attach the movable goods of the respondent for the sum owed.

In its application for stay of execution, the Premier’s office asked the court to condone the non-compliance as such an execution would ‘render the Premier’s office and its staff incapable of performing their daily duties’.

Full TimesLIVE report