The OFM News team spoke to the only employee to attend the latest round of Bloemfontein High Court hearings in the saga, on a promise of anonymity, in which he reveals that he and his fellow colleagues, are ready for this whole ordeal to be finalised. On Friday 26 March, Centlec represented by senior legal counsel, Stefan Grobler, sought leave to appeal the Bloemfontein High Court ruling which found in favour of the five employees declaring the revocation of their promotions as unlawful. Grobler wants the complex matter to be elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). In 2015, Centlec launched an investigation into the group’s alleged use of a fraudulent version of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’s rapid progression policy to motivate their promotions.

The group has already argued successfully in the High Court, that the “fraudulent rapid progression policy ”was likely an earlier version of the document at the Mangaung Metro and was not necessarily tampered with. However, Grobler maintains that even when you remove the “fraudulent policy” from the complex scenario, the reality is once it was established that the employer and employee “laboured under a mistake” this then nullified the contractual agreement between the two parties. According to the report, Centlec revoked the contentious promotions after determining they were irregular and began docking the salaries of the employees in question, and are still making these deductions to date.

Amongst those embroiled in the scandal, is an HR Manager who was accused of being complicit in the irregular appointments, by not bringing the alleged tampered version of the progression policy to the attention of her seniors in Corporate Services. She is reported to have already challenged the process in the Labour Court and emerged victorious, ultimately receiving compensation from the utility. Another employee was accused of nepotism when his fiancé was hired as a cashier – while the vacancy was only advertised internally. The couple – according to the report – got married, mere days after the cashier began working at the power utility.

Centlec spokesperson Lele Mamatu previously declined to indicate how much Centlec spent on litigation in this matter. The amount is believed to run into the millions with a 2017/18 annual report revealing R500 000 was spent in that year on the case.

In February, Centlec, again came under scrutiny when thousands of Curriculum Vitaes and personal documents were found thrown out. Scores of job seekers ended up picketing outside over the incident.

OFM News