Court papers to save SAPS discrimination victim served on SAPS – Solidarity

Trade union Solidarity this week served court papers on the South African Police Service (SAPS) as respondent.

This comes after Solidarity on 22 February 2017 referred a case in terms of section 60 of the Employment Equity Act against the SAPS to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after the SAPS had once again failed to take deliberate action against a racist employee.

According to Anton van der Bijl, Head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices, the employee, Mrs Jonker, was the victim of unfair discrimination based on race. This comes after Mr Motlhaoleng, another employee who reported to her, had turned to social media to vent racist comments after Jonker, his line manager, had taken legitimate disciplinary steps against him.

Following an internal investigation Mr Motlhaoleng was found guilty and was dismissed. He was, however, reappointed after a period of six months. According to Van der Bijl, the reappointment of Mr Motlhaoleng serves as proof that the original grievance was not fully dealt with. “The fact remains that while the SAPS had initially taken the necessary steps to ban such offences in the workplace, they did not carry it through,” Van der Bijl said.

“This case is yet again proof of how people in positions of power deal with incidents of racism in a selective manner – hence Solidarity’s recent campaign against selective racism,” Van der Bijl said.

Click here for court documents

Statement issued by Anton van der Bijl, Head: Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices, 23 June 2017