Tiger Brands, Vodacom and more: The high cost of corporate missteps

It’s one of the unfathomable mysteries of the capitalist universe – the obliviousness of many businesses to self-inflicted reputational damage.

All these vast amounts of money to build one of the most fragile things in the world, that great intangible, “brand value”.

Then these selfsame CEOs allow their minions to trash their carefully curated corporate reputations by engaging in acts of unbelievable stupidity and monstrous callousness.

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There’s been a rash of these incidents locally. Some of the country’s biggest business names – Tiger Brands, Dis-Chem and Shoprite Checkers – have all taken a thumping to their standing in the communities to which they claim so much commitment.

The most egregious recent example is Tiger Brands. As our biggest food company one would think that it would try to rid itself as quickly as possible of the stench it became enveloped in when its factory was identified as the source of the 2017/2018 listeriosis outbreak that killed 218 people.

On this week’s sixth anniversary of what is the world’s largest and most deadly listeriosis outbreak, the families’ lawyer, Richard Spoor, issued a public appeal. In light of what he says, there is irrefutable evidence that the company has known of its fault since January, so should man up and pay out. Its liability is estimated at R1.5 to R2.5 billion.

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Another corporate behemoth determined to exhaust every avenue of lawfare is Vodacom.

For more than two decades Vodacom has been in dispute with Nkosana Makate over the Please Call Me free text service that he conceptualised.

The innovation earned Vodacom massive amounts of money but the company has used every possible legal stratagem to avoid compensating Makate.

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In February, the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered Vodacom to pay Makate 5 to 7.5% of the revenue generated by the service, potentially entitling Makate to R20 billion. Vodacom’s final offer to Makate has been R47 million.

Tiger Brands and Vodacom can at least claim that their behaviour is justified by the fact that their potential costs are so enormous. Dis-Chem and Shoprite Checkers have no such defence.

Earlier this year, pharmaceutical chain Dis-Chem fired Refilwe Matinketsa as a warehouse stock picker. Her crime was that she had developed cancer and needed a stoma, an abdominal opening that allows the collection of urine and faeces. This meant she could no longer lift heavy items.

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Dis-Chem refused to find Refilwe Matinketsa a permanent light-duty job because it was restructuring. Dis-Chem gets away with this because the CCMA says that the redundancy process had been followed to the letter.

Finally, there’s Shoprite Checkers. Earlier this year it fired Godfrey Makaloi, a baker who had an unblemished work record with them for 33 years.

When the CCMA overturned this, Shoprite Checkers appealed to the Labour Court. Makaloi’s crime was that he was seen on video stirring sugar into a cup during his tea break. This teaspoonful of sugar, asserted Shoprite Checkers, must have been stolen from the 25kg bag used for baking.

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Unfortunately for Shoprite Checkers, as both the CCMA and the Labour Court pointed out, there was not an iota of evidence, human or video, to support this conclusion.

What is needed is legislative reform to punish harshly the corporate bullies when they abuse judicial processes against vulnerable individuals and groups.