Andile Ngcaba, the former chairman of Dimension Data Middle East & Africa, is suing the company over alleged racial discrimination and for allegedly violating an undertaking over equal pay.
This is according to a report (pay wall) in Business Day on Friday, which cited court papers saying that he accused Dimension Data, its chairman, Jeremy Ord, and parent company, Japan’s NTT, of backing out of an undertaking to pay him equally or higher than other senior executives between 2004 and 2016.
The development comes after Ngcaba lost a battle with his former employer at the Commission for Concilation, Mediation and Arbitration in 2017. Ngcaba told TechCentral at the time that he planned to take the matter on review in the courts.
Ngcaba, who is a former director-general in the department of communications, took the NTT-owned and Johannesburg-headquartered Dimension Data to the CCMA after he was excluded from a long-term incentive scheme than benefited staff and other directors.
“During that period, (Dimension Data) had been paying remuneration to the senior executives, who are mainly white persons, in a manner which was different to and higher than that of (Ngcaba),” the court papers read, Business Day reported. Dimension Data has rejected the allegations.
Monetary claims
The newspaper said Ngcaba is claiming R261.3-million in unpaid bonuses. Alternatively, he wants the court to order Dimension Data to pay him about R170-million in damages for allegedly discriminating against him on the “grounds of race, social origin and/or other arbitrary ground” by remunerating him less than other senior executives at the company. The case is expected to be heard on 10 November, the report said.
Ngcaba stepped down as chairman of Dimension Data Middle East & Africa in early 2017 after Convergence Partners, his investment vehicle, sold its shares in the company. He joined the company originally in 2004. — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media