Labour court rules ban on Samwu members in political party jobs unconstitutional

The Labour Court has ruled that the prohibition of all municipal employees from holding office in a political party to be unconstitutional, in a judgment welcomed by the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).

Judge J Van Niekerk handed down judgment on Friday and awarded costs against the government.

The Municipal Systems Amendment Act was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2022. But it was found to be in contravention of clauses in the bill of rights which state that every citizen is free to make political choices.

The amendment act introduced a new blanket ban on all 350 000 municipal employees from holding office at any level in a political party.

Victory for workers

Samwu said the judgment is a victory for workers.

Samwu General Secretary Dumisani Magagula said since the amendments were enacted in October 2022, the union opposed them, considering them a “violation of workers’ constitutional rights”.

“We are pleased that our position has been fully presented in court, vindicating Samwu, especially considering that many of our members were given ultimatums to resign from employment or their chosen political party.

“We trust that Salga, having complicated the situation this week by issuing a memorandum to municipalities, will now inform all municipalities to comply with this ruling,” Magagula said.

Samwu took the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to court when they infringed on the rights of municipal workers to hold political party jobs.

Ruling welcomed

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has also welcomed the Labour Court’s ruling.

“This judgement is backdated to November 2022. Instructions by municipalities to employees to resign from any political office bearer positions they may hold or be dismissed, have been declared invalid,” said Matthew Parks, Acting National Spokesperson Parliamentary Coordinator.

“The Municipal Systems Amendment Act of 2022 is fundamentally flawed, dangerous, and simply unconstitutional. This was a gross and shamefully unconstitutional assault on the right of freedom of political association and expression of not only municipal workers but in fact all workers.”

Thousands of municipal employees received letters from their managers warning them that unless they resign from any position they may hold in a political party, they would be dismissed from their jobs.

Parks said Samwu previously took an earlier version of this Amendment Act to the Constitutional Court and won.

“We are pleased that the Labour Court has again found in favour of Samwu in this defence of workers’ hard-won constitutional rights. We hope that CoGTA and Salga will now spend some time familiarising themselves with the Constitution and embrace its progressive ethos,” said Parks.

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