Article 15/2024

LabourEdge

Motion proceedings (including applications in terms of rule 31 of the CCMA rules) are not designed to resolve disputes of fact, but indeed disputes of law.  What is the content of the test formulated in Plascon-Evans Paints Ltd v Van Riebeeck Paints 1984 (3) SA 623 (A) and so applied subsequently in Thebe Ya Bophelo Healthcare Administrators v National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight Industry 2009 (3) SA 187 (W) in determining how such disputes are resolved when considering whether the applicant is entitled to the relief claimed in such motion proceedings?

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  • The facts averred in the applicant’s affidavit, admitted by the respondent, with the facts alleged by the respondent, must justify the order, unless:
    • the dispute is not real or genuine (on the basis of a bare denial), or
    • the denials in the respondent’s version are bald and uncreditworthy. or
    • the respondent’s version raises obvious fictitious disputes of fact, or
    • the respondent’s version is palpably implausible or farfetched, or so clearly untenable that the court is justified in rejecting that version

See, further, National Scrap Metal (Cape Town) v Murray and Roberts 2012 (5) SA 300 (SCA); Ndudane v Premier of Eastern Cape (2022) 33 SALLR 6 (ECB); National Director of Public Prosecutions v Zuma 2009 (2) SA 279 (SCA).

September 2, 2025

What alternative claim(s) exist in delict to a statutory automatically unfair dismissal, a statutory constructive dismissal and a statutory unfair discrimination claim?

September 2, 2025

The scenario is as follows: in terms of a collective agreement between an employers’ organisation and various trade unions, provision is made for the accreditation of medical schemes by the relevant bargaining council, so that employees may enjoy the benefits of selecting and joining a scheme to which their employers contribute.

August 26, 2025

The labour court is afforded jurisdiction ito s77(1), read with ss77(3), of the BCEA to hear and determine any matter concerning a contract of employment, irrespective of whether a basic condition of employment constitutes a term of contract.