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The DA will today write to President Jacob Zuma, requesting he immediately remove Mildred Oliphant from her position as Minister of Labour following the decision earlier this week by the Labour Court in Johannesburg.

Earlier this week, the Labour Court ordered Minister Oliphant to immediately reinstate former Labour Registrar Johan Crouse, who was removed from his position by the Minister in July after initiating the process to put Chemical Energy Paper, Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) under administration.

The Court found that Oliphant acted irrationally in removing Crouse from his position of Labour Registrar as she had not properly considered a submission by Crouse on the reasons for his decision to place the union under administration.

The Minister has indicated she will not be following the court’s ruling, and will be taking the matter on appeal – using taxpayers’ money to protect her favourite cadres.

The reality of this matter is that Ceppwawu have not submitted their full audited financials for the past 4 years and must be placed under independent administration due to this gross financial mismanagement.

It is quite clear that the Minister is merely trying to protect the General-Secretary of Ceppwawu because he is aligned to the current Cosatu and ANC leadership, by preventing the Ceppwawu matter being heard in a court of law. This is gross political interference.

The Minister has a history of trying to protect deployed cadres when they break the law or mismanage their entities. Examples include Herbert Mkhize - whom she rewarded with a promotion after an independent forensic report found that Mkhize, and then Chief Financial Officer of Nedlac, Umesh Dulabh, fraudulently and illegally enriched themselves to the value of almost R2 million using Nedlac funds. Mr Mkhize is currently her special advisor.

Moreover, since her appointment in 2010, Minister Oliphant has not once appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Labour – the primary body to which she is accountable.

I have previously written to the President, urging him to remove Oliphant as Labour Minister following her inexcusable behaviour in covering up corruption and treating Parliament with contempt. The President has ignored this call.

Thus in light of her treatment of Mr Crouse and the Ceppwawu matter, the DA once again implores President Zuma to remove Oliphant as Labour Minister and to ensure that she withdraws her appeal against the Labour Court ruling to reinstate Mr Crouse as Registrar.

In the 5 years she has been at the helm, South Africa has experienced an increase in unemployment and retrenchments, an increase in labour unrest and strike related violence and a rapidly degenerating Compensation Fund that fails injured workers.

President Zuma must waste no time in removing Minister Oliphant from her position – once and for all.

Issued by DA