Latest news with #978
IOL News
18-05-2025
- IOL News
Eastern Cape Education faces lawsuit from retired teacher over leave gratuity
A former teacher is suing Eastern Cape Education and MEC Fundile Gade for leave gratuity money that she was allegedly short-paid when she retired in 2020. Image: Bheki Radebe/African News Agency (ANA) A retired teacher is embroiled in a legal battle with the Eastern Cape Department of Education, claiming R198,608 in unpaid leave gratuity following her retirement in 2020. The former teacher, Thandile Mposelwa, is suing the department and MEC Fundile Gade for leave gratuity money that she was allegedly short-paid upon her retirement in 2020. She claimed that the department owed her R198,608.06 after receiving an amount of R25,369,25 from her leave credits of R223,978,23. However, the Deaprtment of Education in the Eastern Cape said the leave credits were audited and an amount of R46,782,57 became payable to her. Mposelwa has been working for the department since 1988. She was promoted as a principal at Thembalethu Junior Secondary School in 1992. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ In 2010, she was transferred to a deputy principal post at Sterkspruit Junior Secondary School, where she worked until her retirement in 2020. She argued that in terms of the policy, permanent and fixed-term contract employees were entitled to the cash value of any unused annual leave credits in respect of their annual leave cycle. Mposelwa, who was in her final year to complete a Bachelor of Arts Degree, said her study leave was approved from March 1, 1996, to December 31, 1996. Mposelwa stated that following her retirement, an amount of R25,369,65 was paid into her FNB account in January 2021 and this payment fell short of what she was entitled to receive in terms of the department's policy, especially for the days she accrued while she was still employed. She said the money did not correlate with the amount of R223,978,23, which is recorded as the money paid to her. 'Prior to July 1, 2000, employees in the public service were allowed to utilise their accumulated leave working backward if they had accumulated enough leave credits. This was the case when the plaintiff (Mposelwa) took study leave in 1996 to complete her studies,' read the court papers. Mposelwa said the amount paid was inconsistent with the calculation of her leave gratuity credits. The Zwelitsha Magistrate Court is expected to hand down a default judgment on May 23, 2025, after Mposelwa applied for an exception judgment last year. The basis of her exception application was that the department's plea was vague, embarrassing and lacked averments to sustain a defence. The department was granted leave to amend its plea within 15 days. Mposelwa's nephew, Bandile Magibili, said at the lapse of 15 days, the department decided to serve Mposelwa's legal representatives with a purported amended plea. He said when Mposelwa's representatives considered the plea, it was established that the department intended to file the same plea that was subject to the exception judgment. 'In other words, they wanted to file a replica of the plea that was set aside by the court. It is on this basis that the representatives objected to the purported amended plea by way of making an application for summary judgment,' he said. A summary judgment is a procedural mechanism that allows a court to decide a case without a full trial when there is no genuine dispute about the key facts. Essentially, it is a way to expedite a case when it is clear that the defendant has no viable defence. Magibili said the summary judgment application sat before the court on July 16, 2024, but could not proceed as the department served Mposelwa's lawyers with a defective answering affidavit. 'They served the representatives with a notice of filing and annexures to the affidavit, without the affidavit itself. The matter was therefore postponed to August 13, 2024, for the department to file a proper affidavit in court and serve the representatives with the same, in order for the matter to be argued on August 13, 2024 and the Department is now bringing an Application to file an amended Plea.' 'Through the advice of the representatives of the plaintiff we opposed this application and that it be heard on the same day as the summary judgment, August 13, 2024. Sadly, due to technical glitches in the recording devices at court, the matter could not proceed and was postponed to October 8, 2024. The basis for our inclination to oppose this application to amend is that the department is insisting that their purported amended plea is the same as the one that was set aside by the court in the exception judgment,' said Magibili. Asked for a comment, Eastern Cape Education spokesperson Mboxela Ceduma said the department can only talk on a judgment that would have been served to them, adding that: 'For now we wait for the court to announce its view.' In a letter issued to Mposelwa on September 18, 2024, the Eastern Cape education department said the human resources (HR) confirmed that the recalculation was done correctly at the time of the first court application and documentation to that effect was furnished. The department added that HR further confirmed that all moneys due to Mposelwa were paid to her.
Daily Maverick
28-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Three nuggets from the mining sector
If you look beyond gold, you won't find much great news in the mining sector. Still, there are a few interesting things to learn from recent production updates. If you could pick any nugget in the mining sector right now, you would certainly choose a gold nugget. The gold price is behaving like a meme stock, having broken through the $3,000/oz (R1,978 per gram) mark in March and then wasting no time at all in getting close to $3,500/oz (R2,307 per gram) in April. Now below $3,300/oz (R2,175 per gram), we are seeing the kind of volatility in the price that is usually reserved for property funds. Such is the broader environment that we currently find ourselves in. This gold price boom has naturally driven huge returns in the share prices of local gold miners. In turn, these have boosted the JSE Top 40 Index returns. The performance of our local equity market this year has very little to do with conditions on the ground in South Africa. If you look beyond gold, you won't find much great news in the mining sector. Still, if we look for nuggets of insights instead of just nuggets of gold, there are a few interesting things to learn from the recent production updates that we've seen in the sector, starting with the obsession with copper. Copper on top If you read the announcements by the likes of BHP and Anglo American, you'll see that they have copper on the brain. The metal is seen as being key to the energy transition, with numerous industrial uses and a particularly strong use case in electrification, which ties in perfectly with the global push towards reduced emissions. This is a perfect example of how mining houses need to take a long-term view on a particular metal, as the investment required to get commodities out of the ground is immense. The difficulty of managing capital allocation decisions against a backdrop of commodity pricing cycles is a feature of the mining industry, not a bug. You may recall that BHP recently made a play for Anglo American. What they were really after was the copper, as Anglo American is sitting on some strong copper assets. The rest of Anglo's group is a mixed bag of note, which is why the deal would have required plenty of restructuring at Anglo American to panelbeat their business into what BHP was actually looking for. Although Anglo's board pushed back against the deal on that basis, the message from the market was clear: Anglo needed to sort out its group and focus on what was actually working. Ironically, the initiatives since then have been largely in line with what BHP would have required anyway. One has to wonder if BHP is simply waiting in the wings for Anglo to finish up its restructuring, before returning with another offer. Time will tell. Anglo's greatest love may be copper, but they are also hanging on to their iron ore and manganese ore assets, as well as their future plans around the crop nutrients side of the business. Beyond that, it's all about asset disposals and demergers. Anglo American Platinum will be demerged at the end of May and will change its name to Valterra Platinum. Deals are in process to dispose of the steelmaking coal and nickel businesses as well, although a recent fire at one of the steelmaking coal assets has cast some doubt on that transaction. As for De Beers, that brings us neatly to our third nugget… Diamonds on the bottom There's just no sign of improvement whatsoever for De Beers. This has become Anglo American's biggest headache, with diamond production down 11% year-on-year in the latest quarter. With prices down 38%, it's not like the lower supply is doing any wonders for demand. At this stage, lab-grown diamonds are looking less like a disruptive force and more like an extinction event for mined diamonds. If this is indeed an asteroid for the sector, then it's terrible news for the economy in Botswana. Anglo American wants to sell De Beers, and they have a new long-term deal in place with the Botswana government to try to support such a transaction. I just can't see how they are going to find a buyer at a decent price, as there is no good news coming through in this business to support a thesis around growth, or even a recovery, for that matter. Has Transnet finally bottomed? Although Afrimat's full-year numbers paint a sobering picture in the iron ore industry, the Kumba Iron Ore announcement (which only deals with the latest quarter) shows that there are signs of improvement. Kumba noted a 5% improvement in Transnet's performance, which in turn led to a 6% increase in sales volumes. The sad truth is that the infrastructure has been the bottleneck for the sector, as the iron ore miners have had to curtail their production to respond to what Transnet is actually capable of transporting. Although there are some green shoots here, Kumba is taking a cautious approach. Instead of ramping up production this quarter, they instead used the opportunity to reduce their finished stock. Perhaps if Transnet can continue with this positive momentum, we will see a meaningful uptick in production. The other good news for Kumba came in the form of the FOB (free on board) export price for iron ore. In the case of Kumba and its FOB export price for iron ore, it means: Kumba's pricing is based on the cost of iron ore up to the point it is loaded on to the ship at the port. The buyer (say, a steel mill in China) then covers shipping, insurance and any further transport. Not only are they still running above the benchmark price, but they enjoyed a price that was 10% higher year-on-year. For now, there's been no upgrade to guidance for the year. It's still early days, and we know how volatile the market is, not just in terms of iron ore pricing, but also in relation to Transnet's performance. Nonetheless, it's great to see some positive momentum here. As one of the key iron ore businesses in the broader Anglo American stable, Kumba helped to offset some of the pressures seen elsewhere in the Anglo group in this quarter. DM
