Workers fight in vain to get socialite Shauwn Mpisane to pay up

Painter Wekeza Zinya has been hiding from loan sharks for six years after she took two loans for her son's funeral.

Zinya, 52, from Bizana in the Eastern Cape, lives in a basic two-room house in Umlazi township's F-section in Durban.

The loans she took out after her son died in 2012 have incurred massive interest which she can't afford to pay.

She is one of the 167 former employees of Zikhulise Cleaning Maintenance & Transport who are owed R425,737.84 in severance pay by its multimillionaire owner, Durban businesswoman and socialite Shauwn Mpisane, who has been awarded R719m in contracts since 2005.

More than 230 employees had lodged a grievance with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) over severance pay in a dispute that dates back to 2012.

In December last year, the CCMA ordered Mpisane to pay 167 employees R425,737.84 severance pay within 30 days of receipt of the award. The CCMA ruled that 69 employees were not entitled to severance pay.

In a bid to recoup the money, the employees were granted two enforcement orders by the CCMA to attach Mpisane's office furniture or her bank account. But when the sheriff went to her office, it was no longer there and money from her bank account had been attached by the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

ON REVIEW

Mpisane, who amassed a multimillion-rand fortune from building low-cost houses, is digging in her designer heels and has taken the CCMA's decision on review in the labour court.

She declined to comment.

An opposing affidavit by Zikhulise's human resources manager, Derrick Sibongiseni Ntombela, in the labour court states that the employees were employed on fixed-term or limited-duration contracts to carry out certain functions relevant to the building of the houses. Once the housing project in that specific phase was completed, their employment was automatically terminated.

Ntombela disputed CCMA commissioner Humphrey Ndaba's conclusion that the employment did not terminate, which resulted in the arbitration award.

He said the CCMA's conclusion and findings were reviewable and ought to be set aside and substituted with the finding that the workers were not entitled to severance pay.

Zinya said: "It's painful because we're making debt which we don't know how to repay. I am running away from loan sharks after I borrowed money for my son's funeral because I can't repay them." She is now unemployed and survives on a R400 child support grant for her two grandchildren.

Another former Zikhulise employee, Zithulele Mbambo, said former employees were not even aware that Mpisane had taken the matter on review as they could not afford a lawyer.

"We are waiting for her to pay us our money … It's been more than four months since we got the award from the CCMA but she has not paid us," said Mbambo.

NO MONEY

A lawyer who tried to help the workers attach Mpisane's assets said the sheriff had discovered that one of Mpisane's two bank accounts had no money and the other had already been attached by Sars.

"We told them this is where we come to an end. We advised them to go to legal aid. It's a sad thing that she can't pay such a small amount compared to what these people [the Mpisanes] may have," said the lawyer, who did not want to be named. 

A convicted fraudster, Mpisane has been dogged by controversy and has been the subject of several investigations for building "shoddy" houses by the National Home Builders Registration Council, and forensic investigations of alleged tender irregularities.

Her huge earnings from construction contracts have bought her several luxury properties, including a R15m, three-storey home in La Lucia, one of Durban's most sought-after northern suburbs, and a fleet of exotic cars including a black Rolls-Royce Ghost worth about R8m.