SowetanLive reports that an employee at President Cyril Ramaphosa's cattle farm is taking the fight to get his job back to the CCMA after he was fired for missing work for two days when he took ill.  

Bennet Mashinini, a security guard at Ntabanyoni farm in Badplaas, Mpumalanga, said he had not been feeling well when he decided to visit the Prince Mkholisi Community Health Centre on 12 December.  “They did a Covid-19 test and told me that all my symptoms were that of a coronavirus patient and told me to stay at home for 10 days [in isolation]. I called the manager [Ben Molotsi] and informed him about what health-care workers (had) said,” Mashinini indicated.  According to his medical certificate, Mashinini was advised to isolate for 10 days or until he got his Covid-19 test results back showing he was negative.  "While I was at home recovering, I received my results via SMS on December 17 and they were negative. But because I was not feeling well, I had to stick to the 10 days [isolation period] and I stayed at home and went back to work on December 23,” said Mashinini.  He claimed he did not get any other message informing him of the results after that initial SMS.  When he went back to work, Mashinini faced disciplinary proceedings for misconduct and was found guilty after a hearing and dismissed.  Molotsi indicated that it had been agreed that Mashinini would call the company once results were received.  “Upon receiving his test results, he failed to contact the company as agreed and when asked why, he said there was something wrong with his phone. After [receiving] his negative test results, he proceeded to stay home for two days."  Molotsi also said Mashinini "has a bad misconduct history in his employee file.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mandla Khoza at SowetanLive

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