The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed former Public Protector Busi Mkhwebane's bid to force her former employer to pay her a R10 million gratuity.

INCOMPETENT

Mkhwebane argued that withholding the payment was an unfair labour practice, emphasising the circumstances surrounding her removal from office, but the court ruled against this. Just before her seven-year term ended, Mkhwebane was dismissed for incompetence and misconduct in September 2023. She filed an urgent application challenging the decision in March, but it was removed from the urgent roll. The matter was sent to the deputy judge president to consider where to place the case, and it was then re-enrolled and heard in August.

NOT A CHANCE 

Mkhwebane's successor, Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, dismissed the gratuity request, stating that it was not part of Mkhwebane's contractual terms and that it was at the discretion of the employer. The judge presiding over the matter, Omphemetse Mooki, while delivering the judgement, confirmed that Mkhwebane's constitutional rights were not violated and that she was not entitled to consultation under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. "I agree with the respondent that a gratuity is a token of appreciation as expressed by an employer towards an employee. This view has a bearing on the expression on the vacation of the office. This is because clause 3.1 links the payment of a gratuity to a vacation of office. It would be absurd for an employer to be expected to pay a gratuity to an employee as a token of appreciation who left the office in disgrace," Mooki said in her judgement.