IOL Business reports that what started with the sale of 10 discounted bags of damaged cement – and ended with no delivery for three months – has now seen the Labour Court order Cashbuild to reinstate its dismissed Mqanduli branch manager over procedural disciplinary issues.

The court in Gqeberha found that the CCMA erred in awarding Luvolwethu Dyani 18 months’ back pay worth R463,840 as it upheld overturning Cashbuild’s decision to fire him. In October 2022, the CCMA ruled Luvolwethu Dyani’s dismissal was both substantively and procedurally unfair and ordered his reinstatement. Cashbuild took the matter to the Labour Court, arguing that the CCMA ignored key evidence and misapplied the facts.

The saga began in December 2020, when a customer bought and paid for ten bags of damaged cement at a discount. The bags were never set aside or sent and instead sold to another customer. Over the next three months no replacement was delivered despite payment having been made. Dyani was charged with poor customer service/gross negligence and bringing the company name into disrepute. A disciplinary hearing in March 2021, held without him, led to his dismissal, and his internal appeal the next month was unsuccessful. Dyani went to the CCMA, which found that he should be reinstated with 18 months’ salary because his “dismissal was both substantively and procedurally unfair”.

Cashbuild took the matter to the Labour Court, arguing that the CCMA didn’t fairly consider the evidence. The Court decided that the CCMA’s payout decision was “one that a reasonable decision maker could not reach” and cut it to four months’ salary, namely R103,076. It also found that while Dyani had been negligent, dismissal was too harsh, and a final written warning was the more appropriate sanction.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nicola Mawson at IOL Business

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