City of Cape Town ordered to pay ex-employee over R319,000 for blocking promotion opportunity

The Labour Court in Cape Town has ordered the City of Cape Town to pay over R319,000 in compensation to ex-employee Mahlatse Maebana for unfair treatment during a promotion process. Judge Suzanna Josephine Harvey overturned an earlier arbitration ruling, finding that the municipality had acted unfairly during the recruitment for the post of Manager.

Maebana, who had previously been employed as Head of the Operational Programmes Management Unit, was denied an opportunity to compete for the managerial position when it was first advertised in 2022. The city subsequently engaged in a headhunting process, identifying three candidates, including a fellow employee, George Jonkers.

Despite Maebana meeting the minimum requirements and achieving the highest interview score among the candidates in a later re-advertisement in 2023, the city ultimately appointed Jonkers. The court ruled that the Municipal Staff Regulations do not permit headhunting unless a post is classified as a critical and scarce-skills position, which was not the case in this situation.

The court found that Maebana was denied a fair opportunity to compete under a lawful recruitment process, and awarded him compensation equivalent to three months' remuneration.