Chief Justice Zondo rules in favour of SANDF members’ reinstatement

In his final judgment before retirement, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo ruled in favour of a member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) that he be reinstated, giving hope to the 47 members who were dismissed in 2015.

On Tuesday, the South African National Defence Union (Sandu) took the SANDF to the High Court in Pretoria before Judge Freek Terblanche for a matter that was meant to be resolved in 2018.

Sandu accuses the SANDF of creating its own interpretation of the judgment handed down instructing dismissed members to be reinstated.

First judgment after SANDF members contracts expired

Sandu’s Pikkie Greeff said they were dismissed for “being outside the base in Democratic Republic of the Congo beyond curfew hours”.

Greeff said the first judgment came after some of the contracts of the members had expired.

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“The SANDF interpretation was that the reinstatement could only refer to the two years specifically so they were only willing [to] ‘reinstate’ by paying the guys the part of the contract during which they had been fired.”

One member who had been working from 2009 on a contractual renewal basis said: “My contract was ending 2018 August, but they only reinstated those in 2019 November whose contracts were still active.”

It took a year because the SANDF had gone to the Supreme Court of Appeal and after losing, only took eight soldiers as their contracts were still active.

‘Unlawful and invalid’

The judgment read: “It is declared that the first respondent’s decision to terminate the 2nd to 44th applicants’ service with the SANDF is unlawful and invalid.

“Applicants are reinstated in the service of the SANDF with full retrospective effect, with retention of all salaries and benefits since the date of the unlawful termination of their service.

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“The order of reinstatement above does not mean that the members will escape charges under the code in a properly constituted military court.”

The former soldier said the dismissal was unfair because when one commits an offence, they are taken to military court and receive a fair trial. But they were fired without a court case.

Disagree with how SANDF acted

Greeff said they disagreed with how the SANDF acted. It is this interpretation that was the subject of Tuesday’s hearing.

“It’s a cynical approach that they took and it is entirely malicious,” said Greeff.

Sandu argued that it was not given a fair chance because the court dragged the matter till their contracts expired, yet their dismissal happened while they had active contracts.

No comment had been received from SANDF by the time of going to print.

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