News24 reports that the Labour Court has ordered the reinstatement of a KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) teacher after she was deemed to have been dismissed in August 2017.

Edith Mkhwanazi, who has 30 years of teaching experience, asked the court to set aside the Education MEC's 2019 decision not to reinstate her after she was purported to have been dismissed in August 2017 in terms of the Employment of Educators Act (EEA). Mkhwanazi had been a teacher at Zakhele Primary School in Kranskloof. On 27 July 2017, other teachers stopped teaching and demonstrated against the presence of Mkhwanazi at the school. "This arose in circumstances where she had delivered a written complaint to the department about their and the conduct of the principal in conducting the affairs of the school," according to the court judgment. On 2 August 2017, the circuit manager instructed Mkhwanazi to leave the school and await a disciplinary hearing. Mkhwanazi was told to present herself at the circuit office the following day with the name of a school she could be placed at. Instead, she consulted her trade union. On 16 October 2017, she received a letter from the department stating that she had taken leave without pay for the period 3 August 2017 to 13 October 2017 because she "failed to report for duty [and did not have a] valid reason". Her salary was frozen in December 2017. When Mkhwanazi queried the matter in July 2019, she received a letter stating that "she had been discharged in terms of Section 14 (1) of the EEA with effect from 4 August 2017". But, the Labour Court found that it could not be said that Mkhwanazi had been absent without permission from 4 August 2017. In addition, it found that Mkhwanazi did not leave her employment, but was instructed to leave. The court ruled that Mkhwanazi was not ‘deemed dismissed’.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Canny Maphanga at News24

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