Rulings deem it irrelevant that the statement was made after hours or that the employee was unaware of company’s social media policy-Facebook
An Facebook employee at Clover has failed in his bid to be reinstated to his job
after he was dismissed for a Facebook
posting in which he said that all white people should be killed.
While initially denying that he had made the post,
Nhlanhla Christopher Makhoba later said he did it because he loved the ANC
and its President [Zuma at the time] and he believed they were under verbal attack.
Given that Clover was a multicultural company and it had a duty to protect all its employees,
Makhoba’s public statement had a bearing on the employment relationship, she said.
Evidence before the court was that Makhoba was a general worker with ten years’ experience
when he posted the comment in 2017 on Eyewitness News’s Facebook site.
It read: “Whites mz be all killed”.
One comment subsequently read:
“Nhalnhla Makhoba, are you saying that whites must be all killed in your personal capacity or as an employee of Clover.
Don’t even know how you became a team leader with that hate-filled violent mindset of yours.”
The company instituted disciplinary proceedings against him.
He was charged with two offences:
making a racist comment on social media and acting contrary to the interests of the company.
Dismissal
Aggrieved, he challenged his dismissal in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
There, before Commissioner Richard Lyster,
he admitted that he had posted the comment
but claimed it was a “political matter” which needed a political resolution.
He said he had posted it outside working hours,
it was not directed at any person employed by the company, and he was not aware of the company’s social media policy.
Lyster ruled that his dismissal was both substantially and procedurally fair.