ECDC ordered to pay former employee for unfair dismissal

The Eastern Cape Development Corporation has been ordered to pay R476,000 to a former employee, Mbulelo Ngxabane, after the CCMA ruled he was unprocedurally dismissed in 2018. Ngxabane, who was employed as a senior IT manager at the corporation in 2017, was dismissed just over a year later after his employer claimed he had misrepresented his qualifications on his CV.

The position had required a candidate with a postgraduate qualification in the IT field.

Ngxabane, with a Btech in IT at the time, applied and got no response from the ECDC.

It was only after being headhunted through an agency that Ngxabane submitted his qualifications. He said he was called into an interview with four other candidates and ultimately hired.

After more than a year in the job, Ngxabane was issued with a notice of the termination of his employment.

A letter from the corporation to Ngxabane at the time stated that after “an internal audit report, investigation report and legal opinion” it had “come to the decision that [Ngxabane’s] continued employment at ECDC [was] unlawful and [needed] to come to an end”.

His employment was terminated at the end of August 2018.

Ngxabane, who maintained he never did anything unlawful to gain employment, challenged the dismissal and, after a lengthy legal process, the CCMA ruled in his favour in November.

The corporation has been ordered to pay R476,164.41 to Ngxabane by December 15, according to a letter from the CCMA seen by the Dispatch.

“The amount contemplated includes the labour court costs order obtained by the employee. The parties agree that in the event of non-compliance [with] this agreement, the party defaulting will pay the full costs incurred by the other party in enforcing this agreement,” the award reads.

Ngxabane said he was happy that he had been vindicated. He said the legal process had taken its toll on his health. “My contract of employment with the ECDC was terminated wrongly and unfairly,” Ngxabane, who now has honours and master’s degrees in IT from the University of Fort Hare, said.

“The legal process had been emotionally and financially draining on my part. I have lost so much money fighting [against] what I believe was gross violation of my rights.”

He said he intended to pursue further legal action against the corporation and was not happy with the amount of money the CCMA had ordered it to pay him. “What ECDC has done to me was a defamation of character. I have suffered depression as a result of their actions towards me. The accusation by the ECDC was wrong.

“I also had some difficulty in obtaining employment the way I would have preferred based on my experience,” Ngxabane, who now works in an IT position at a government institution, said.

ECDC spokesperson Nobulali Myataza said it was aware of the CCMA agreement regarding Ngxabane.

“The matter was resolved at the CCMA on November 15 with the ECDC in agreement with the resolution,” Myataza said.

She said the ECDC had “cancelled his employment contract upon discovering that he did not meet the required minimum qualifications for the post”.

On Ngxabane’s claims of defamation by the ECDC, Myataza said: “We are not aware of the defamation claims Mr Ngxabane is said to be making, and therefore cannot comment on that.”