Aaron Nicodemus
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) axed its national registrar last week after an internal inquiry found him guilty of sexual harassment, gross insubordination and negligence.
Monde Zimema, the organisation’s number two official since mid-1996, has been suspended with pay since February. The inquiry also found him guilty of lying to his superiors over financial matters, but not of any financial impropriety.
”This was a witch-hunt,” Zimema said. ”I cried for fairness, and it was not there. I was never given an opportunity to receive a fair trial. The truth of the matter is, I’m innocent.”
He claimed he was fired because R3-million spent by the organisation’s accreditation and subsidy committee was not tendered properly.
During his hearing, Zimema requested more than 30 documents in relation to this charge, but says he never received them. He also claimed that after the initial charges were filed, all staff were ”invited to provide evidence against me”, and that every staff member received copies by e- mail of the charges against him.
The five-month internal disciplinary inquiry could not substantiate 11 charges of ”creating racial tension” against Zimema. Although not accepted by the inquiry, the charges of racism indicate how badly internal strife is hurting the CCMA’s ability to function.
The 11th and final racism charge against Zimema noted: ”Your conduct … has seriously undermined the CCMA, its values, ethos, its internal morale, its role in society and its organisational efficiency and capacity.”
CCMA director Thandi Orleyn said racial tension within the organisation, largely caused by Zimema, had become unbearable. Tensions have significantly cooled since he was suspended, she said.
”We’ve addressed issues of efficiency and professionalism in our work,” she said. ”We’ve been able to start rebuilding relationships.”
She added that the drawn-out inquiry into Zimema’s job performance had taken a toll on the organisation’s morale.
”It has really left the institution in a shambles,” said one staff member. ”Administratively we’ve been a mess, and we didn’t realise how bad it was until he [Zimema] left. There has been a lot of internal strife, and this was the culmination of all that.”
Of the most serious charge, of sexual harassment of a lower-level staff member, Zimema alleged the victim was paid off by the CCMA to be a witness against him.
He provided the Mail & Guardian with a copy of the agreement, which paid the former staff member six months’ salary as part of a severance package. It also stipulated that she testify in the inquiry against Zimema.
Orleyn responded that the CCMA handled the harassment issue with utmost care. ”It was a difficult issue,” she said. ”As part of the agreement, [the victim] agreed to testify, to ensure this kind of thing did not happen again.”
The victim of Zimema’s alleged advances claimed he asked her to kiss him on many occasions, fondled her at a public workshop, tried to kiss her at another workshop and promised at one point that she would have his child. She also alleges that he once drove her home, then sat on her bed and invited her to join him. She testified that she repeatedly rejected his advances, but that he continued to pursue her.
”I told him what he was doing was very embarrassing and humiliating,” she testified. ”The reason I did not report this immediately is I thought I was adult enough and could handle this on my own, and for the sake of a sound and healthy working environment.”
At the hearing to determine sanction after finding Zimema guilty of more than half the charges against him, a representative presented Zimema’s six-page rebuttal calling the entire inquiry into question, mocking the process and virulently insulting advocate Norman Arendse, the presiding officer at the inquiry. Much of the rebuttal was laced with racial invective, and described the CCMA as an organisation that is hostile towards blacks.
Before his interview with the M&G, Zimema accused the paper of ”black-bashing” and said it is out to destroy him.
Zimema said he intends to appeal the decision, but cannot because he has not yet received the final decision. He was notified of his dismissal on Monday.
Sue King is serving as interim national registrar until a permanent replacement is hired.
The CCMA, now in its third year of existence, is the lynchpin of South Africa’s new labour relations regime, as it handles mediation and arbitration in labour disputes.
According to its annual report released last week, the CCMA settled more than 38 000 disputes in 1998, including major wage disputes of municipal workers, Sun International, Telkom, the private security industry and auto assembly workers.
”We try to be a model to employers,” Orleyn said of the CCMA’s role in labour disputes. ”We followed the procedure to the letter, and he was properly accommodated at all times. No employee is exempt from the terms of the Act.”
According to sources within the CCMA, the inquiry dragged on because Zimema continually made himself unavailable for meetings and hearings.
He and his legal team raised several significant issues about the process, including charges of bias, and ultimately proceeded with the process under protest. Zimema also said he fell ill with a chest infection, which caused him to postpone.
The inquiry cost hundreds of thousands of rands, a CCMA official said. When the hearings were postponed, the cost to taxpayers to fly the presiding officer up from Cape Town were wasted.