Farmworker fired for wearing ANC T-shirt and cap

A farmworker was allegedly fired for wearing an ANC T-shirt to work at an estate which supplies bananas to leading chain stores across the country.

Lucas Mzala Sibambo, an employee of Umbhaba Estate near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga, said his troubles began when he was ordered to stop work by his supervisor because he was wearing an ANC T-shirt and cap.

Sibambo, who was employed as a general worker, said he was then taken to Shane Plath, a manager on the farm, who told him that they were going to have a disciplinary hearing against him for wearing ANC clothes.

Sibambo said he was shocked to discover at a disciplinary hearing a day later, on May 27 2014, that the company had also instituted additional charges of "being slow in his work and for threatening his supervisor" Wilson Shabangu.

In July 2014, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ordered Umbhaba Estate to pay Sibambo three months' salary amounting to R7261.63 after it found that his dismissal "was procedurally unfair but substantively fair".

Sibambo was earning R2420.41 a month. But Umbhaba failed to obey the CCMA order which led to the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), which represented Sibambo, instituting further action in the Labour Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

In December of the same year, the Labour Court ordered the sheriff to attach the moveable goods of Umbhaba to recover the money owed to Sibambo. This was after the company failed to honour the CCMA order to pay Sibambo. But two years on, Sibambo, of Mangweni village near Tonga, has still not been paid.

"I have been waiting forever," said Sibambo, who now survives on piece jobs and struggles to support his family. Sibambo said prior to his disciplinary hearing, he was never made aware that wearing a political party T-shirt was against company regulations.

However, one of the witnesses for the company at the CCMA hearing, Horacios Amos Mabuza, said under cross-examination that he was aware of the rule and that employees who came to work wearing clothes bearing political party colours and flags would be told to take them off. But another witness, also a supervisor, said he was not aware of the rule against the wearing of political party regalia.

Fawu's Justice Shakoane said they were now waiting for the Labour Court to set a date after Umbhaba appealed the ruling.

But Umbhaba Estate's spokesman Michael Cloete dismissed Sibambo's allegations and said they were taking legal action.

"Mr Sibambo was not dismissed for wearing any type of T-shirt. His dismissal matter is still pending and subject to due process in the Labour Court. In short, he was dismissed for gross insubordination and levelling threats to other employees."

"Mr Sibambo is regrettably seeking justification for his dismissal contrary to the true facts."

This article first appeared in The Sowetan.