BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi has dismissed an application by three ex-Ingwebu Breweries employees, who were seeking an order to compel their former paymaster to pay them interest on their arbitral award.
BY SILAS NKALA
The three men — Mandla Khanye Khumalo, Shame Mudungura and Liver Mdlongwa — who were unlawfully dismissed by the brewery in 2004, had filed an application arguing that they were entitled to be paid interest.
On March 9 2015, arbitrator Simon Willie awarded the three men a total of $42 275,86 after upholding that they were unfairly dismissed, following which they then filed an application seeking payment of interest.
In his ruling, Justice Mathonsi said the trio were old and for 13 years, they had pursued the company that unlawfully dismissed them, adding they had never been employed since then and perhaps were no longer employable.
“But the sooner they sought and obtained alternative employment or other means of livelihood the better. They cannot expect to continue milking the same poor old cow. Everything has an end,” Justice Mathonsi ruled.
“The three applicants (Khanye, Mudungura and Mdlongwa) have, by joint effort, made an application using all the wrong means and filed all wrong papers seeking, in essence, an order awarding them interest on certain amounts of money awarded to them by an arbitrator in a labour dispute pitting them against their former employer in respect of unlawful dismissal.”
Justice Mathonsi said the arbitral award did not mention any interest and after having been paid their full amounts, they had not had enough, hence, they approached the court seeking payment of interest.
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The arbitrator had awarded Khumalo $13 350,16, Mudungura $20 739,41 and Mdlongwa $8 186,45 without mentioning interest.
“What all this means is that the applicants must suffer. I have said that perhaps it is time that they seriously consider redirecting their energies on other income-generating endeavours, which are not expecting to eke out a living out of a company that parted ways with them more than 13 years ago. That may indeed be worth their while. In the result, the application is hereby dismissed with costs,” Justice Mathonsi ruled.
