Breytenback suspension 'to silence her'
2013-03-08 14:15
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Pretoria - The suspension of Glynnis Breytenbach from
heading the NPA’s regional head of specialised commercial crime unit was an
unfair labour practice, an attorney told an arbitration hearing on Friday.
Submitting final arguments, her advocate Andrew Redding said
an employee in her position could claim financial recourse from the employer.
"We are not asking for money, although we could be
asking for money for that unfair [practice]. We are asking for the lifting of
that unfair suspension," said Redding.
"Suspension is the employment [environment’s]
equivalent of an arrest. The only rationale for suspension is the reasonable
apprehension that an employer will interfere with the investigation or repeat the
misconduct," he said.
NPA 'not being just'
The National Prosecuting Authority had not followed the
requirements set out in the law when Breytenbach was suspended, the lawyer
said.
Every employee had the right to be fully informed of the
charges against them, and to be given a chance to respond before being
suspended.
Quoting a list of other unrelated cases, Redding said any
suspension had the potential to have "substantial reputational (sic)
implications" for the employee.
"Suspending somebody is taking them out of employment,
isolating them, and there are inevitable social consequences to that isolation.
"Inevitably, people say that person is probably up to
no good. That person is probably guilty," he said.
"The longer it [the suspension] goes on, the worse it
becomes for the employee. They cannot work, they don’t have the dignity of
being able to go and work and their dignity continues to suffer. That innuendo,
that trial by insinuation, is very damaging to the employee."
Reddy said the NPA, which was entrusted to enforce justice
in the country, "was not being just to one of its own".
"The suspension was done to punish her, to remove her
from the workplace. It was an attempt to silence and marginalise her and was
done without any regard for [her] rights as an employee," said Reddy.
The hearing on Friday was held in the Public Service
Bargaining Council chambers.
Breytenbach was suspended last year.
Mdluli link
The NPA insists the suspension was because of her handling
of criminal fraud and forgery complaints laid by ICT and Kumba Iron Ore in
their dispute over the mineral rights to Kumba's Sishen mine in the Northern
Cape.
However, she contends her suspension was triggered by her
desire to go ahead with the prosecution of controversial former police crime
intelligence boss Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli.
The NPA contends that there was no link between
Breytenbach's suspension and Mdluli.
Mdluli had been accused of defrauding crime intelligence,
but the charge was withdrawn in December 2011.
He also faced criminal charges relating to the murder, in
1999, of his former lover's husband Oupa Ramogibe, but the Boksburg
Magistrate's Court found there was not enough evidence to implicate him and
three others in the death.
- SAPA
