Lion King producer Lebo M’s domestic worker has obtained an interim protection order against him at the Randburg magistrate’s court for “swearing at her” and “holding her clothes hostage”.
Siphokuhle Dlamini has also dragged Lebo M, real name Lebohang Morake, to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA ) in Joburg for unfair dismissal.
Morake appeared in the same court on Thursday last week to show cause why the order should be not be made permanent.
But after deliberations between Morake and Dlamini, the court postponed the case to November 25 for verdict.
In the order, which we have seen, Dlamini said she was working for Morake as a helper while staying in his apartment.
She said her occupation of the apartment in Fourways was part of the perks for working for him.
Dlamini said her world crumbled like a deck of cards when Morake’s wife Pretty Samuels informed her on July 22 this year that she had been fired with immediate effect.
Samuels, she said, ordered her to vacate the unit by close of business on the same day.
She said she vacated the apartment with a few clothing items as she had to travel to her home village in Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal in a public transport.
“I left a large amount (sic) at the apartment as I couldn’t take all of them at the same time,” she said in the order.
Dlamini said since then she had been requesting Morake to allow her to collect the clothes from the apartment.
She said Morake first agreed to give her access to collect her clothes in the condo but changed his mind at the eleventh hour.
Dlamini also stated in the order that Morake had been swearing, harassing, and calling her names via the WhatsApp messages, which he had sent to his wife to
forward them to her.
She even said Morake publicly humiliated her by calling her an evil sangoma and a serpent on social media.
“He has lied about me saying I was working in the finance department, and I swindled his funds whereas I was never even working in that department (sic).
“He and his wife are the ones handling the finances,” reads the order.
Dlamini said Morake had “held her clothes hostage” for three months and refused to hand them over to her despite repeatedly requesting him to do so.
She said on October 24, she went to the police station to request the police to accompany her to the apartment to collect the clothes.
She went there after attending the hearing at the CCMA in Joburg, she said.
“It was easier for me to do it whilst still in Gauteng as I had to go back home in Eshowe,” reads the order.
Morake, she said, told her when she arrived at the apartment with the police that she should have gone to court instead and obtained a court order if she needed to gain access to the apartment to collect her clothes.
Dlamini pleaded with the court to urgently give the order, saying Morake has held “her clothes hostage” and she did not have money to buy new ones as she was unemployed since she (Morake’s wife) unfairly fired her.
“My clothes have been held hostage without my approval despite numerous request to get them and Mr Morake refusing (sic).
“I do not have clothes to wear. I need to get them urgently as I am going back to Eshowe-KZN. I don’t not have funds to buy new clothing,” reads the order.
