EFF ex-employee Maggie Klaas wins CCMA case but party still doesn’t want to pay

Former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) office administrator in North West Maggie Klaas, 34, who won a CCMA case last year against the party after it was found to have dismissed her unfairly, will now have to wait even longer for her money after the party appealed the outcome.

When The Citizen spoke to her and her lawyer on Friday, they said they were still waiting for a date for the EFF’s appeal to be heard.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) had ordered the EFF to pay Klaas 11 months’ salary after ruling her firing was unfair and the party did not follow standard procedures. The payout came to R102,300.

READ MORE: Female EFF members accuse of lying with his Women’s Day promises

Former EFF North West deputy chairperson Bunga Ntsangane was last year found guilty of assault and crimen injuria against Klaas after she accused him of assaulting her and making additional threats of cutting off her private parts during an argument in his office in November 2017.

He was sentenced to six months in prison or a R6,000 fine, suspended for three years.

Klaas said she had been dismissed by the EFF for what she describes as having spoken up against the abuse she suffered after she underwent internal disciplinary hearings in the party.

She says she has been struggling to survive, having been unemployed since her dismissal.

In 2018, Seitebogeng Nkitseng, an EFF member of North West’s provincial legislature, said that EFF leader Julius Malema was not walking the talk when it came to his position on the abuse of women.

She alleged that the EFF had never publicly expressed its view on Klaas’ case, apart from the fact that the case was “under internal investigation”.

No post-traumatic counselling had been offered to her, and she continued to work in the “same hostile environment”.

Instead, Klaas was herself charged with misconduct for speaking out publicly, while the perpetrator had not been charged or placed under provisional suspension by the party at the time.

North West secretary-general Papiki Babuile said last year that the EFF welcomed the judgment and sentence against Ntsangane and that the party would look into internal processes to discipline the former deputy chairperson, who was still a member of the party.

“Our position is very clear, we don’t support gender-based violence and now that there is a judgment we will look into internal processes of the party to discipline Ntsangane.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.