Michelle Phillips, chief executive officer (CEO) of Transnet Pipelines and former acting chief executive officer of Transnet Port Terminals, has mud on her face after she tried to silence the United National Transport Union (UNTU) with an interdict in the Johannesburg High Court.
Phillips had to withdraw her application for a semi-urgent interdict and tender to pay the costs of UNTU, Steve Harris, the General Secretary of the most progressive union in the transport industry, and Sonja Carstens, UNTU’s Media, Liaison Officer, after the Union filed its answering affidavit to her unfounded allegations.
Phillips alleged that UNTU insinuated that she is, amongst others, corrupt and involved in the Gupta state capture scandal of over a decade at Transnet simply because it referred to her in the same press statement on 22 September 2020, but with specific reference to the promise she made to the citrus industry.
In the application the court was requested to order UNTU to remove two paragraphs from its Facebook post, to interdict and restrain Harris, Carstens and UNTU from publishing defamatory statements about her, and to order UNTU to issue a written apology on the Union’s Facebook-page.
UNTU denied all of the allegations raised in the application and stated that her application was without foundation in a number of fundamental respects which shows that Phillips has misconceived her position entirely.
The Union believes that it is entitled to and required to advance the interests of its members dispassionately, without fear, favour or prejudice and will ,carefully guard against any attempt by an employer or senior management to interfere with this.
Read more about this court application and UNTU’s response in the next edition of Labour Report, the quarterly newspaper of the Union, coming to you soon.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media, Liaison and Communication Officer. For UNTU press statements phone Sonja on 082 463 6806 or e-mail sonja@untu.co.za.
