{"id":239562,"date":"2022-10-10T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/the-fmf-activist-who-lied-to-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs\/"},"modified":"2022-10-10T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T11:08:00","slug":"the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"The student activist who gaslit workers and cost them their jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Third%20Party\/mpendulo_2015_from_his_fb_page_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Sibusiso Mpendulo, fair use from his Facebook page.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>31 security guards were fired in June after they disrupted UCT exams in an attempt to get insourced by the university.<\/li>\n<li>These guards had, for years, been misled by a student activist, Sibusiso Mpendulo, who pretended to be a lawyer.<\/li>\n<li>Mpendulo faked court orders and took thousands of rands from the security guards, before they realised they had been gaslit.<\/li>\n<li>Now the guards have apologised to UCT, and asked to be insourced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In July this year, 31 security guards that disturbed a June exam at the University of Cape Town (UCT) were fired by the security company that employed them. But behind this action, footage of which was widely shared on social media, is a story of outrageous deception.<\/p>\n<p>The guards, who worked for a security company contracted by UCT and were asking to be insourced by the university, were following the advice of a former student activist Sibusiso Mpendulo, 37. Now, they are asking this university to forgive them and to be insourced, saying that they were deceived.<\/p>\n<p>Worker leader Amos Qwabi said he and 30 other security guards were misled and manipulated for years by Mpendulo, who claimed to be a lawyer, took thousands of rands from them, gave them fabricated court order papers and repeatedly lied to them, and ultimately led them into a ruinous strike that led to them losing their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, desperate after losing their jobs because they followed Mpendulo\u2019s advice, the workers approached the People\u2019s Law team for assistance. The People\u2019s Law team helped them discover the staggering extent of Mpendulo\u2019s fraud and manipulation.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Now the workers are asking the university to forgive them for the disruption, and for making the mistake of placing their trust in Mpendulo.<\/p>\n<h2>Asking to be insourced<\/h2>\n<p>Qwabi told GroundUp that this group of security guards have had a long struggle to be recognised as university employees, dating back to 2015, when the #FeesMustFall protests took hold at the campus. Some have guarded the university for over a decade.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, one of the major demands of the protests was that university workers, including security guards, should be insourced.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2016, then Vice-Chancellor Max Price announced that UCT would welcome about 1,000 insourced employees in July 2016. But about 50 guards who patrolled the university campus and who worked for Securitas and the Groote Schuur Community Improvement District (GSCID) were not among those hired.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi told GroundUp that they applied twice to be insourced, in 2016 and again in 2019, but did not succeed. He said that UCT did not explain to them why their applications failed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll we want is to be insourced so we can receive the same benefits enjoyed by other workers who are working for UCT.\u201d He said they do the same job but earn much less. The insourced workers also get benefits like medical aid.<\/p>\n<h2>Meeting Mpendulo<\/h2>\n<p>Then in 2019, the group of guards met Mpendulo at a protest. They were enticed by his activist credentials. He offered to assist the workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told us that he is a lawyer and assured us that we will win this case against UCT,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mpendulo has a bit of a record at UCT. In 2016, GroundUp <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/ucts-rocky-start-day-after-mini-protest\/\">reported<\/a> on a \u201cmini-protest\u201d by Mpendulo and his \u201cbodyguard\u201d, in which he blocked an on-ramp to the university in a protest for workers to be insourced. Mpendulo kept on engaging in a number of disruptions, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyvoice.co.za\/news\/watch-feesmustfall-protesters-disrupt-classes-at-uct-11278815\">shutdown of the library in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi said at first Mpendulo told them that he would take their matter to the CCMA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what happened at the CCMA since Mpendulo used to attend meetings alone,\u201d he said. Then he said he was taking the matter to the Western Cape High Court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe process took long but we trusted him. He would go alone to court. We didn\u2019t have a problem with that as we believed that he was helping us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mpendulo would meet with the guards, and tell them that he was acting for them in court. He \u201cwent to court\u201d at least four times in 2019, and a number of times in later years. Each time, he would take R100 from each of the 31 workers.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Covid meant that the case quietened. But Qwabi said Mpendulo came back in 2021, saying he was taking the matter back to the Western Cape High Court.<\/p>\n<p>Then early this year he came to the workers with outstanding news \u2013 the workers had won the case and now UCT had no other option than to hire them.<\/p>\n<h2>A ruinous strike<\/h2>\n<p>In a 20 September letter written by the security workers to UCT, they asked the university staff, management and students to forgive them for the disruption they caused in May when they engaged in a strike action to be insourced by UCT.<\/p>\n<p>Mpendulo came to the workers in May saying that the university was not complying with a court order against them, and that he had a plan to get the university to comply with the order and insource them.<\/p>\n<p>After a meeting, Mpendulo told the workers to follow him into the examination halls as he disrupted the June university exams.<\/p>\n<p>The disruption was widely covered in the news at the time. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2022-06-06-uct-condemns-disruption-of-midyear-exams-amid-protests-over-insourcing\/\">reports<\/a> did not get to the bottom of the story.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtyala\/status\/1533789260867936258\">this video<\/a>, Mpendulo can be seen throwing papers around. He is incorrectly identified as a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters\u2019 Student Command, and the guards are ambling down the aisles. They did not throw papers about.<\/p>\n<p>Securitas and GSCID, the workers\u2019 employers, called them in for disciplinary hearings after the unlawful strike.<\/p>\n<p>Mpendulo\u2019s advice to the worker was that they should not attend the hearings, saying that they had a right to embark on a strike.<\/p>\n<p>They listened to him. The workers were sacked.<\/p>\n<p>Mpendulo was later arrested for trespassing and malicious damage to property but charges were dismissed in court.<\/p>\n<h2>The fake court order<\/h2>\n<p>Mpendulo did not deny this when called by GroundUp. He said that he has the court order but that UCT is refusing to implement it. He said he has since taken the matter to the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>This is Mpendulo\u2019s Facebook post from July this year, trumpeting his \u201ccourt order\u201d:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/mpendulo_22_july_statement.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"too_big\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Source: Sibusiso Mpendulo\u2019s Facebook page, fair use. The court order is forged.<\/p>\n<p>His statement makes no sense: he cannot have \u201cexclusive access\u201d to a public document.<\/p>\n<p>But to workers, unfamiliar with court machinations and styles, these papers passed as legitimate \u2013 the order was stamped and appeared to use court stationery.<\/p>\n<p>But this is a forged order. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/mpendulo_bullshit_order.pdf\">Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/Third%20Party\/mpendulo_bullshit_order.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The front page of the forged court order.<\/p>\n<p>For one, there is no actual order that follows the words \u201cIt is ordered\u201d. Instead, gobbledygook:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat this matter is referred for oral evidence on this issue alone which is raised in paragraph 1 of the Applicant\u2019s Notice of Motion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat the parties are to pursue the relevant rules with regard to the matter being followed up by oral evidence, and the matter is postponed sine die for the process to be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The dates are all over the place. The stamp is from 2022, and the written date on the first page is \u201c23 June 2020\u201d and on the last, \u201c19th November 2019\u201d. This is interesting because Judge Siraj Desai retired in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The stationery is irregular \u2013 orders do not contain the emblem of the court. And, for some reason, Bowman Gilfillan is mentioned on the first page.<\/p>\n<p>A court order would also be marked with an \u201cX\u201d and would be initialled by the judge.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Desai told GroundUp that he has no recollection of this matter, and would need the court file to determine what transpired in court or in his chambers.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cHe messed up our lives\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Qwabi said Mpendulo brought nothing but more trouble into their lives after they trusted him. UCT failed them after they worked to keep the university and its people safe for years, said Qwabi, but Mpendulo made things much worse.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi said this fight made them targets at work. As a result, he was no longer happy and resigned earlier this year. But he continued supporting the motion that he and his colleagues should be insourced.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi said that when Mpendulo showed them the \u201ccourt order\u201d they were \u201cso happy\u201d. He said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t even know that they were fake until recently. By then all the striking workers were out of their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believed him but he messed up our lives,\u201d said Qwabi.<\/p>\n<h2>Mpendulo and the \u201cHawks\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the \u201corder\u201d being a forgery, Mpendulo insists that it is real, and he insists that the Hawks are investigating UCT for not following it. He would not give GroundUp the case number, and he threatened to report GroundUp to the Hawks if we \u201csaved\u201d the order.<\/p>\n<p>But things get curious here.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi said that, after Mpendulo told the workers that he had taken the matter to the Hawks, he received a call from a detective by the name of \u201cTsiya\u201d who asked to meet him in Cape Town Central police station for a statement. Qwabi told GroundUp that he met Tsiya and another man in an office at the police station who claimed that they were from the Hawks. Mpendulo told us the same story.<\/p>\n<p>Since his statement was taken Qwabi has not received any feedback from Tsiya. \u201cI called him a few weeks ago. He said he will update me in November when he is back in Cape Town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>GroundUp contacted detective \u201cTsiya\u201d, who said he works for the Hawks and that he is aware of the case. When we asked what exactly he was investigating, he said he was busy in court and he dropped the call.<\/p>\n<h2>Help needed<\/h2>\n<p>Qwabi told GroundUp that Mpendulo went quiet after the workers lost their jobs. UCT was not insourcing them, per the \u201corder\u201d. They realised something was very wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Desperate, they approached the People\u2019s Law team, a Cape Town law advice clinic based at Bertha House. Through People\u2019s Law, they found out that the papers were forged, and that they had been grossly misadvised.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a meeting with the People\u2019s Law and Mpendulo was part of it. When he was asked about the forged court order he got angry and marched out shouting. He told us that we must choose between the People\u2019s Law team and him. He made this whole thing about him, not about us. Since then he dropped us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Qwabi said People\u2019s Law helped the workers uncover their deception, and helped them write to the university. They have petitioned UCT to reinstate and insource the striking UCT security guards by the end of October.<\/p>\n<h2>Mpendulo speaks<\/h2>\n<p>Responding to the allegations, Mpendulo said there are \u201cunions\u201d who are bought by UCT and they are trying to destabilise them. He said these \u201cunions\u201d are using his court papers he posted on his Facebook page and what they are doing is not right. He has reported them to the Hawks, who, he says, are investigating the UCT case against the dismissed workers.<\/p>\n<p>Questions sent to the Hawks and UCT were not answered by time of publication, but answers will be added as they arrive.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sibusiso Mpendulo, fair use from his Facebook page. 31 security guards were fired in June after they disrupted UCT exams in an attempt to get insourced by the university. These guards had, for years, been misled by a student activist, Sibusiso Mpendulo, who pretended to be a lawyer. Mpendulo faked court orders and took thousands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":239563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-239562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/the-student-activist-who-gaslit-workers-and-cost-them-their-jobs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}