By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Sanity has finally prevailed as the embattled Boxing South Africa (BSA) has thrown in the towel in the long-drawn case brought against the regulator by Moffat Qithi, who was fired in 2015.
After the BSA board’s intransigent position while absorbing heavy legal blows from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to the Constitutional Court, the boxing regulatory body has now reached a settlement with Qithi.
The BSA board had no choice after the Apex Court delivered what could be best described as a knockout blow to the regulatory body last month.
The Apex Court refused BSA’s application for condonation with costs. This was after BSA had asked the Apex Court for condonation following Qithi’s victories at the CCMA, Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court.
Contacted for comment, Qithi said: “My lawyers called telling me that a settlement has been reached with Boxing SA. BSA had nowhere to go thus they decided to settle. I have a meeting with my lawyers on Monday.”
The settlement was reached after Qithi’s lawyers had given BSA until the end of last month to pay him or else.
In its ruling last month, 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.”
In February this year, the Labour Appeal Court denied BSA leave to appeal against the Labour Court’s November ruling and the boxing regulatory body decided to take the matter to the Apex Court.
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 judgment, which had ruled in Qithi’s favour after he was dismissed as chief executive officer in 2015.
Delivering her judgement 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.”
