In Ngobeni v Bidvest Protea Coin (Case No. JS439/22) [2025] ZALCJHB 203 the Labour Court had to determine whether the termination of a security guard’s employment amounted to a lawful termination of a fixed-term contract on the occurrence of a specific event or constituted an automatically unfair dismissal.

The applicant asserted that his employment ended solely because of his age and thus violated section 187(1)(f) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA).

The respondent maintained that Ngobeni’s employment legitimately terminated in line with the fixed-term contract, which was expressly tied to a service contract that had terminated.

The matter raised a key debate regarding the legitimacy of ‘automatic termination’ clauses in fixed-term contracts, especially when those clauses are tied to third-party or client decisions. In particular, the court had to scrutinise whether an employer can circumvent statutory dismissal protections by attributing the end of employment to an external event (namely, the cancellation or expiry of a client-service relationship).