Red Cross verdict fails to save Rantseli

An urgent application by media celebrity Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon against the South African Red Cross Society has been dismissed by the Johannesburg Labour Court.

Rantseli-Elsdon was suspended as the organisation's secretary-general. She had been appointed to the position in October last year.

She also opposed the election of an interim governing board for the society.

In his judgment on Tuesday, acting Judge Paul Benjamin said: "It is extremely sad that its noble endeavours should be imperilled by a civil war between factions in the organisation."

Benjamin's ruling did not touch on Rantseli-Elsdon's suspension but rather the validity of the interim governing board, by referring to an affidavit by Red Cross Society president Nqe Dlamini.

"In a matter such as the present [one] in which the versions of the parties are mutually destructive, I am required to decide whether to grant relief in urgent proceedings to the applicant on the basis of the respondents' version.

"Accordingly, I must decide this case on the assumption that the meeting of the general assembly on April 6 was unconstitutional and that the governing board presided over by Dlamini remains vested with responsibility for managing the society."

Red Cross Society board member and spokesman Jennie Martin had in April said Rantseli-Elsdon was asked to resign because of "a breakdown" in their relationship.

Though unhappy with the ruling, Rantseli-Elsdon said she would not appeal the decision as it had not considered her suspension as secretary-general of the society.

"I have not stopped my work, even after I was suspended. I just felt that I was not treated fairly as the board had been trying to get rid of me for a number of months.

"I approached the court because I kept wondering what kind of business practice this was that conducted itself in this manner."