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- Tebogo Kgatle wanted to work for Clicks because, he said, Shoprite was underpaying him, and his prospects were poor.
- He had obtained an honours degree from Stellenbosch with a Shoprite bursary, and later signed a restraint of trade when he was promoted from trainee to employee.
- Shoprite was happy for him to stay, or go elsewhere – just not to the competition.
- The Western Cape High Court slapped both Kgatle and Clicks with costs.
- For more business news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Tebogo Kgatle was awarded a coveted Shoprite bursary to complete an honours degree at the University of Stellenbosch. Then he joined the company's logistics division as a trainee and, in mid-2021, he was employed full time.
But Kgatle was not happy as one of 14 design planners in his unit, reasons for a ruling provided by the Western Cape High Court this week show. He said he was, in the summary of the court, "underpaid, did not have a career path, and had no prospects of advancement". So he found a job at Clicks instead.
There was just one problem. Clicks is a direct competitor of Shoprite (which moved into standalone pharmacies in late 2021), and Kgatle's employment contract banned him from joining a competitor via a standard restraint-of-trade clause in his "managerial level" agreement. And Shoprite had every intention of holding him to that agreement.
Kgatle told the court he should not be prevented from working for Clicks because he promised not to divulge any confidential Shoprite information, and, at least at first, that he didn't know anything useful anyway. He also argued against the court upholding his restraint because he was young, because he had not worked for Shoprite for long, because he wasn't a senior employee, and because he didn't like his job.
Shoprite offered to talk to him "regarding his remuneration and further opportunities", and said he could stay in his job until he found one with a company that didn't compete with it. Or, said Shoprite, Kgatle could just withdraw his resignation and stay on.
Kgatle rejected the offer and so, after a two-and-a-half months of being paid to sit at home while Shoprite went to court to stop him from taking the new job, his employment ended in mid June. He is now under a court order not to work for anyone in a business even remotely resembling that of Shoprite, specifically including Clicks, until at least April 2024.
He must also, said the court, pay half the legal costs alongside Clicks.
