By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Former Boxing South Africa (BSA) chief executive officer Moffat Qithi is living in hope as he’s waiting for the Labour Appeal Court to rule on his case against BSA.
Qithi, who has won many times against the boxing regulatory body, is opposing BSA’s appeal on the ruling Labour Court Judge Portia Nkutha-Nkontwana delivered in November last year. 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.
Delivering her judgment last November, 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.
That never happened as 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 added in her November ruling: “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.”
Qithi said on Monday: “We are waiting for judgment from the Labour Appeal Court. They lodged an appeal against the Labour Court judgment and we opposed their appeal. We’ve been waiting since December.”
