On Thursday, the BRPs Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson lost their application for leave to appeal at the Labour Appeal Court after the unions succeeded at the Labour Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg to have the planned retrenchment of 2 260 of SAA’s 4 700 employees withdrawn as they were premature and procedurally unfair.
They also told the Labour Court that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter without their permission and that the High Court had exclusive jurisdiction to interpret the act. Numsa and Sacca were highly critical of Dongwana and Matuson, accusing them of going against the Act in many respects, by failing to develop a business rescue plan within the stipulated period while charging exorbitant fees of nearly R36 million at great cost to the taxpayer.