By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Boxing South Africa (BSA) is not ready to throw in the towel in its fight against its former chief executive officer Moffat Qithi, who has won many times against the boxing regulatory body.
After sustaining a black eye when Labour Court Judge Portia Nkutha-Nkontwana dismissed BSA’s appeal to review a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling, which had ruled in Qithi’s favour after he was fired in 2015, the regulatory body has decided to petition the Judge President of the Labour Court.
Delivering her judgment last Friday, Nkutha-Nkontwana said: “Seven years have passed since the time Mr Qithi was dismissed and this matter is yet to be finalised. Mr Qithi, the vulnerable party, is still unemployed and held hostage by the party who had approached this Court on an unmeritorious review application.”
Qithi won his case against BSA on 17 December 2018 and the CCMA ordered that he be paid R3,9 million plus interest and also be reinstated as CEO.
The then BSA board applied for the review of the CCMA ruling on 1 February 2019 – the last day of the six weeks provided for in Section 145 of the Labour Relations Act.
Judge Nkutha-Nkontwana said on Friday: “Accordingly, I am not persuaded that there is a reasonable prospect that the factual matrix in this case might receive a different treatment at the appeal. Put differently, the applicant has failed to make a case that another Court might reasonably arrive at a decision different to the one reached by this Court. Yet, I am not inclined to award costs against the applicant. In the circumstances, the leave to appeal application is dismissed with no order to costs.”
Now BSA has instructed its lawyer Masilo Maake of Masilo Maake Attorneys to continue fighting against Qithi.
