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STANLIB OPPOSES EX-MD’S E1.7M DEMAND

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MBABANE – Stanlib Swaziland (PTY) LTD has opposed the application filed by its former Managing Director, Abel Sibandze who is demanding close to E2 million.


Responding to Sibandze’s application, Stanlib, which is the second respondent in the matter, claimed that Sibandze  allegedly failed to prosecute his claim within the legally required period.


 Liberty Life is the first respondent in the case while Stanlib has been cited as the second and Sibandze is demanding approximately E1 767 690 for alleged unfair dismissal.


Stanlib stated that Sibandze alleged that he had been appointed as managing director during or about November 2008 and argued that such an appointment predated his application in terms of Section 85 of the Industrial Relations Act, 2000, served on it as the respondent on or about July 15, 2018, by a period in excess of nine years. These are allegations whose veracity is yet to be tested by the court.


According to Stanlib, Sibandze’s contract of employment was entered into and signed in South Africa which explicitly referred to the of South African legislation application to the contract.

It said in the event that the court found that Eswatini law applied to Sibandze’s claim, and in the event that the respondents replied that in terms of Eswatini Common Law, a claim of his nature must be taken up by means of legal processes within a period of two years.
“The applicant has delayed taking any action for a period of at least eight years, despite the certificate of unresolved dispute dated May 11, 2010,” the second respondent alleged.


Furthermore, the respondent argued that the delay was unreasonable under the circumstances and that the applicant had forfeited the right to proceed with the claim.
“Alternatively, the applicant is deemed to have abandoned the claim, further alternatively ought to be stopped from asserting the claim against the respondent,” argued the respondent.


When he filed the application, Sibandze stated that on or about March 1, 2006 he was employed by Stanlib Swaziland as a general manager.
At the time of his employment, he alleged, he was working and residing in Johannesburg, South Africa and that his work required that he relocated to Eswatini to assume his position in which he was entitled to repatriation costs of E40 000 payable once-off in terms of Clause 6 of the contract.


Subsistence


The court papers state that the applicant was also entitled to subsistence allowance for the first three months of his repatriation in terms of the costs for lodging in a bed and breakfast establishment while finding a house to reside in, in the sum of E45 000 calculated at the cost of E500 per day, for 90 days in terms of Clause 6 of the contract of employment.


It was stated in the court papers that the first and second respondents merged in 2008 and Sibandze was appointed the managing director of both entities on or about the month of November.


 It was stated that Sibandze was slapped with charges including alleged failure and or refusal to comply with direct instructions and a management style of insolence, incompatibility, insubordination and undermining authority.
Another charge, according to the court papers, was for alleged accessing of the company’s premises without authority and refusing to hand in his laptop and access cards on the day of his suspension.


Other charges were for alleged non-compliance with the company’s credit card policy, irregular use of the company credit card, deterioration and complete break-down of the trust relationship between the parties and creating a risky working environment for the first and second respondents and their clients plus becoming a law unto himself.

 

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