Bhekuyise Mjoli and Others v Peters Papers (Pty) Ltd and Others

The applicants were employed by Peters Papers (Pty) Ltd as drivers and drivers’ assistants responsible for delivering paper on pallets to customers along predetermined routes. For the first time in 30 years, the employer ran out of pallets and discovered that some employees had been deviating from assigned routes to stop at pallet yards. Using a vehicle tracking system with designated pallet-yard geofences (DECOs), the employer established that vehicles driven by the applicants repeatedly stopped at pallet yards where pallets are bought and sold, without authorisation and not for delivery purposes. The employer inferred that employees were selling company pallets for their own benefit. Following an investigation, disciplinary hearings were held, and the applicants were charged with, inter alia, theft, unauthorised removal of company property, route deviations, misuse of company vehicles, and derivative misconduct. They were dismissed. The CCMA arbitrator found the dismissals substantively and procedurally fair. The applicants brought a review application under section 145 of the Labour Relations Act, challenging the finding of substantive fairness.

The review application was dismissed and the CCMA arbitration award upholding the applicants’ dismissals was confirmed.

The case reaffirms the Sidumo/Herholdt reasonableness standard in Labour Court reviews and underscores judicial deference to arbitrators’ factual and credibility findings. It illustrates how circumstantial and tracking evidence may justify inferences of theft and common purpose in employment misconduct cases. The judgment also emphasises that issues expressly limited or conceded at arbitration cannot later be revisited on review.