By Monwabisi Jimlongo
It doesn’t rain, but pours for embattled Boxing South Africa (BSA) as the Constitutional Court has delivered what could be best described as a knockout blow in the case between Moffat Qithi and the regulatory body.
The Apex Court has refused with costs BSA’s application for condonation in the long-drawn case between the boxing regulator and Qithi. BSA had asked the Apex Court for condonation after Qithi had won against the boxing regulator in all legal platforms starting from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court.
In its ruling on Monday, the Apex Court said: “The Constitutional Court has considered the application for condonation and the application for leave to appeal and has concluded that, although there is an adequate explanation for the applicant’s delay in bringing the application for leave to appeal, there are no reasonable prospects of success on the merits of the application for leave to appeal. Condonation must be refused and, as a consequence, the application for leave to appeal fails. The court has decided to award costs.”
BSA took the Qithi matter to the Apex Court earlier this year after the Labour Appeal Court had denied the boxing regulator leave to appeal against the Labour Court’s November ruling.
The Labour Appeal Court said in its ruling in February: “The petition for leave to appeal is refused with no order as to costs.The refusal for leave to appeal signifies that this court is of the view that the intended appeal has no reasonable prospects of success.”
Qithi had opposed BSA’s appeal of the ruling Labour Court Judge Portia Nkutha-Nkontwana delivered in November. Nkutha-Nkontwana dismissed BSA’s appeal to review a CCMA judgement, which had ruled in Qithi’s favour after he was dismissed as the boxing regulator’s chief executive officer 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 further said 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.”
