Joseph Pule obo Public Servants Association of South Africa Department of Home Affairs Branch and Others v Public Servants Association and Others

The Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA) held its annual general meeting on 19 September 2019, at which an election was conducted to fill five vacancies on its board of directors. Three PSA branches, represented by their respective chairpersons, disputed the election results, particularly the number of spoilt votes, and demanded access to the ballot papers. Access was refused. The applicants sought urgent interim relief in the Labour Court to interdict the PSA and its office bearers from convening further board meetings or filling the vacancies, pending a review application to set aside the election. The applicants approached the court not in their personal capacities as union members, but in a representative capacity on behalf of PSA branches.

The application was dismissed. The representatives of the applicant branches were ordered, in their personal capacities, to pay the respondents’ costs jointly and severally.

The judgment clarifies that internal structures of trade unions, such as branches, lack independent legal personality and standing unless expressly authorised. It reinforces the jurisdictional limits of section 158(1)(e) of the LRA and confirms that only individual union members, not branches, may litigate constitutional compliance disputes with a union in the Labour Court.