Mpumalanga High Court locked down | Lowvelder

The entrance gates to the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court will be locked and no one will be allowed to enter, not even the judges.

This is the risk the Department of Justice (DoJ) is facing due to their seemingly blatant disregard of a prohibition order from the Department of Labour (DoL) that was served on it last week, for it to evacuate the court building complex after it was found that the structural integrity might be compromised.

To add insult to injury, the Public Servants Association (PSA) intends to register a case of non-compliance with the police against the court’s management.

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During a snap inspection last week, it was also discovered that the DoJ was occupying the building illegally, due to the fact that an official occupancy certificate was never issued by the City of Mbombela’s Department of Planning.

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On Saturday, November 2, an emergency meeting was held, which the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court’s judge president, Judge Segopotje Sheila Mphahlele, the DoJ, the DoL, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), the Independent Development Trust as well as representatives of the PSA attended. After hours of negotiations, the DoL eventually caved in and said it would consider the DoJ’s request for an extension over the weekend. However, this did not last long.

“After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that we cannot grant the request for a deferral of the prohibition notice as requested,” Nhlahla Mbuyazi, occupational health and safety specialist of the DoL, wrote in a letter to Adv Tshilidzi Ramathikhithi, provincial head of the DoJ, on Monday.

The DoL reiterated that the building must be evacuated immediately.

Instructions were apparently issued to staff to move to other DoJ buildings in the city, and some had to work from home.

However, the court hearings continued, and the family advocate’s staff still kept working.

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Lowvelder can confirm, after studying a letter from the DoL, that an official complaint against the DoJ for non-compliance of the eviction order is being prepared. “Kindly be informed that this matter has been escalated to our legal services for the violation of the prohibition notice for operating the court building [today]. The building will remain prohibited until the corrective action is implemented,” the DoL said in a letter to Ramathikhithi.

In accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Ohsa) Section 30(2), the DoL will have the power to lock down the building. The act also determines that if such a prohibition order keeps being ignored, and the responsible person is charged criminally, they could be slapped with a R100 000 fine or two-year imprisonment.

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Besides the structural and health issues, such as leaking toilets and roofs, a lack of air conditioning and broken lifts, the most serious concern was that the building was being occupied illegally. In November 2019, the municipality issued a temporary occupancy certificate to the DoJ. This certificate was only valid for a month, and it expired after 30 days. Since then, neither the DoJ nor DPWI did anything to rectify the conditions as stipulated for the issuing of an occupancy certificate.

This means the DoJ is currently occupying the building illegally.

Flip van der Walt, acting provincial manager of the PSA, confirmed they reported the non-compliance of the evacuation order after they had established that the court proceeded with its operations this week, putting the employer in direct violation of the prohibition order.

“As a result, the PSA will file a case of non-compliance with the SAPS against the high court’s management. Additionally, the PSA has reported this non-compliance to the DEL [Department of Employment and Labour] inspector who is now initiating action under Ohsa Section 30(2) to have the high court premises fenced off and barricaded,” Van der Walt said.

A set of questions about the issue was sent to Ramathikhithi, but no response had been received by the time of publishing. His comment will be published when it is received.

• Shortly before going to press, Lowvelder established that the DoJ had requested yet another 48-hour extension of the prohibition order to allow it to move the court into another building in the city.