Marion Edmunds
TWO former intelligence agents – a man and his wife – who were fired after refusing to take a prescribed oath of loyalty to the 1994 transitional authority, are suing the government for more than a million rands for unfair dismissal.
Papers have been filed in the Pretoria Supreme Court by Susan and Pieter Pretorius, but a court date is yet to be set. Neither party will talk to the media, but Pretorius has mandated Freedom Front MP Pieter Groenewald to talk on his behalf.
Groenewald said this week that Pretorius’s problems started in early 1994, when he was reluctant to take a prescribed oath of loyalty required by the Transitional Executive Council (TEC), just before the elections.
The TEC insisted on this measure to ensure stability in the run-up to and during the elections.
Groenewald said Pretorius had sought outside advice on the ethics of the oath, but in doing so, had provoked the censure of his authorities and was suspended without a disciplinary hearing.
His relationship with the authorities subsequently deteriorated, and eventually both he and his wife were forced to leave the service in 1994, following alleged intimidation by security operatives, including the bugging of telephone conversations.
Pretorius claimed that there was never an official disciplinary hearing to investigate the charges against him. He is suing for unfair dismissal, loss of income and future earnings, personal suffering as well as damage sustained to his family life.
Groenewald said he had offered his services to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) as an arbitrator in this dispute, but the department had turned his offer down.
An NIA spokesman confirmed that a summons had been issued against the government by the Pretorius’, but said he was not in a position to comment because the matter was sub judice.