Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The military trade union, the South African National Defence Union, and the national defence Force will be back in court on Monday when the Supreme Court of Appeal sits on three appeal matters related to collective bargaining.

The Bloemfontein court has set aside three days to hear the appeals, all related to the labour rights of members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). 

The appeal cases are about three applications brought before the Pretoria High Court by the South African National Defence Union (SANDU). The SANDF, as respondents, was successful in one that had been was decided in its favour but not the other two.

While the appeals have not been consolidated, they are scheduled to be heard together.

The first appeal matter, brought by the SANDU, relates to an application in the High Court during 2001, which consisted of two applications heard together.

The two issues were whether the SANDF was under a duty to bargain collectively with SANDU as a trade union representing its members on all matters of mutual interest and whether the SANDF or the Minister of Defence was entitled to suspend participation in the Military Bargaining Council.

Both issues were decided in the favour of SANDF.

The second appeal, brought by the SANDF, is also in regard to two applications brought before the High Court in 2002. The issue in this matter was principally whether there was a duty to bargain on the side of the SANDF.

In addition, various regulations in Chapter 20 of the General Regulations for the SANDF and the Reserve under the (now repealed) Defence Act 1957 were challenged on constitutional grounds.

The High Court held in favour of SANDU on all the issues.

The third matter, an appeal by the SANDF, is in regard an urgent high court application brought during June 2003 by SANDU. The union sought interim relief pending the determination by arbitration of certain disputes.

The core issue in this matter in the High Court was the duty to bargain.

In the third matter, the High Court disagreed with its findings and conclusions in the case brought in 2001. It held that SANDU had established a clear right to collective bargaining, which was not the finding in the 2001.

This week, five appeal judges will have to decide on the meaning of the words "the right to engage in collective bargaining" as in section 23 of the Constitution.

In particular, this will be whether it means that a trade union such as SANDU has a right to bargain collectively with the SANDF and that the SANDF has a correlative duty to bargain with it.  The issue straddles all three appeals.

This was the issue on which the three high court judges had disagreed.

On Sunday, acting national secretary of SANDU, Pikkie Greeff said the outcome of the appeals was of utmost importance for the union.

"It’s a make or break case for the soldier's union."

Greeff emphasized that the issue was a matter of "people’s labour rights" and had nothing to do with undermining discipline in the defence force.