Tahir Maepa. File picture
THE LEGAL battle between the suspended deputy general manager of the Public Service Association (PSA), Tahir Maepa, and the union's board of directors is far from over.
Maepa is taking the PSA board of directors to court again, this time demanding that the disciplinary hearing against him be abandoned immediately so that he can clear his name in a case to be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.
He also wants members of the board earning salaries from both the union and the state to pay back all the money they earned from the PSA coffers.
The 2017/18 Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) report revealed that the representatives were paid over R11.5 million and trustees were paid travel fees, retainer fees and attendance fees.
Speaking to the Daily News, Maepa said he was determined to get the disciplinary hearing abandoned immediately so that he could clear his name.
This is not the first time that Maepa has taken the members of the PSA board of directors to court.
Maepa and the now retired Eastern Cape provincial manager, Thami Makuzeni, filed high court papers in February this year asking the Pretoria High Court to nullify their suspension and order the PSA to allow them to return to full duty with immediate effect.
The PSA is one of the country’s largest public service unions with over 240,000 members.
In their application, they argued that the PSA board of directors had no powers to suspend them.
They argued that the general managers had the jurisdiction to hire and fire, not the board of directors.
In August, Maepa was reinstated before the court case could be heard.
However, he was immediately placed on special leave pending the outcome of the misconduct investigation against him in connection with comments he allegedly made on social media and his attendance at a structure meeting while on suspension.
PSA president Dr Lufuno Mulaudzi said the PSA would oppose the application on Tuesday. He said it would be premature to comment further on the case as the matter was sub judice.
Mulaudzi said Maepa was still on suspension pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearing against him for misconduct.
"The fact that Maepa had lost the case on the same issue three times before is an indication that his current application has no basis. He keeps making allegations against the members of the board. The Daily News must wait for after the case is heard to hear the facts of this application and why we opposed it," said Mulaudzi.
– DAILY NEWS