What recourse do I have against an employee who does not give notice and leaves immediately after receiving her salary.  She has also not returned her company cellphone and claims that it has been stolen.

Hi there and thank you for your question, 

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow-up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread. 

In theory, you could sue the employee to force the employee to return to work for the notice period, but the reality is that you won't be able to get into court in time, so that won't really work.

But what you ARE able to do is to sue the employee for any financial harm / damages that the company suffers as a result of them leaving their job without working in their notice period. If this includes contracts which were lost, or downtime, or the fact that you would need to externally train somebody new, all of those things could be claimed from the ex-employee. 

In relation to the company cellphone, you should report it to SAPS and to your insurance company as having been stolen. Tell SAPS that the ex-employee has stolen it and refuses to return it. Get your insurance company to pay for a new one. Let SAPS charge the ex-employee with theft! 

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question. 

Att. Patrick