15/08/2025
Publication: Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre
Author: OFHRAC Press Writer
The CCMA has found the Gamgara Municipality in the Northern Cape guilty of unfair dismissal
Contact: Patrick Mlaba of the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre on 073 377 9249
The Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre is pleased to announce that the CCMA has found the Gamgara Municipality in the Northern Cape guilty of unfair dismissal, after the municipality employed six workers and then dismissed them for no reason the following day.
(Please see the award amended)
The municipality has been ordered to pay each worker 12 month's pay as compensation.
The workers were hired as general assistants but when they arrived at the municipality to work, were simply told to wait to be issued with personal protective equipment. At the end of the day, they were told to report the following morning at 7:30am for induction. But when they arrived, they were dismissed with no reason.
The municipality then proceeded to advertise their positions again. The municipality's HR manager claimed that he had appointed the wrong people and was withdrawing the application.
The workers then contacted the Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre for support to bring a case of unfair dismissal to the CCMA. In handing down the default award (the municipality did not show up at the hearing), CCMA commissioner Amogelang Shadrack Bacwadi said the Gamgara municipality had indeed dismissed the workers, and this was an unfair dismissal as the municipality had failed to prove that it was procedurally and substantively fair.
He added that the reason the municipality gave for the dismissal (that it wasn't a dismissal as they were just 'withdrawing the appointments'), was a "lame excuse". Commissioner Bacwadi further added that if the municipality had genuinely mistakenly appointed the six workers, it had done so on 19 June, which left it 12 days before 1 July to notice its mistake.
"The reason for the withdrawal is therefore strange, improbable and unacceptable," Bacwadi said. He added that it was "impossible" that the workers could have been appointed in error.
He further lambasted the municipality, saying that as a government institution, it is expected to have competent HR personnel who are well-vested in the labour laws of South Africa. "Maximum compensation would be a justified remedy in the circumstances", Commissioner Bacwadi ruled.
The Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre is very pleased with this victory of the women workers. "What is important is that at least during Women's month, we did something to further and honour their celebration and this should be an achievement to all women out there" said Patrick Mlaba.