Cape security guard ‘dismissed over HIV status’

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Cape Town - A security guard from Dunoon said she lost her job after she disclosed her HIV status to a store manager. Nomzamo Ntamo (not her real name), a 31-year-old security guard at the Forever 21 clothing store in Canal Walk, Century City, believes she was shown the door following a confidential conversation she had with the store manager, who later passed the information on to the manager of security company Benncorp. Ntambo, who has had HIV for more than 10 years after she was raped, said it was her first time disclosing her status and that she felt discriminated against after she was initially sent to different sites in a bid to frustrate and eventually dismiss her because of her status. “I have for more than 10 years struggled to deal with my status and finally decided to talk to someone for the first time, who happened to be the manager, client of my employer. “A week after, I was called to the office, where my employer confronted me about my status and told me that for not disclosing my ailment, the client no longer wanted me on the site,” she said.

After threatening to take legal action, and upon asking Benncorp how her HIV status affected her work, he told her that the client (Forever 21) no longer wanted her on the site.

“I do not care about work, although my heart tells me to go back. However, what pains me is the discrimination and the embarrassment I had to endure. My employer protected the client at my expense, protecting their business interests, throwing me under the bus.

“My employer could not stand up for me to its client. Mel had no right to disclose confidential information I had told her in confidence,” she said.

However, the store manager had said Ntamo made no mention of the confidentiality of the conversation and that she was under the impression that Benncorp knew of her status, as told by Ntamo.

The manager said she was not aware that Ntamo was going to be transferred to another site.

“Our chat was more like any other conversation because it was not in a private location, but on the shop floor, which I told her was too noisy and that we should move to the office. She never told me to keep it confidential, or that and that no one knew about her status,” the manager said.

Ntamo has since laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission

Commissioner, Chris Nissen said this amounted to a human rights violation and that the commission would investigate.

Forever 21 refused to comment and referred questions to Ntamo’s employer, Benncorp.

However, a representative from the retailer said upon enquiring about the situation from the store they were told that the lady had not been dismissed but was currently in training for a new site that did not involve direct customer interaction. He said the retailer does not select the guards to work in-store but contracted companies to provide security services.

After several attempts and communication to get Benncop to respond to the allegations since last week they refused to comment.

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