News24 reports that General Shadrack Sibiya, the former Gauteng Hawks head who was dismissed in 2015, has won his appeal bid to be reinstated.

The Labour Appeal Court (LAC) also found that Sibiya was entitled to back pay of 14 months and eight days, which is the period he was unemployed after his dismissal. In his judgment, Judge Phillip Coppin ordered the police to reinstate Sibiya as a major-general, either in the position he occupied at his dismissal or in another post the national commissioner considered appropriate at the same rank and level. Sibiya was fired in 2015 by then-acting head of the Hawks, Berning Ntlemeza, following a disciplinary inquiry into his alleged role in the illegal deportation of five Zimbabweans in 2010. In 2020, the Labour Court ruled his dismissal was procedurally and substantially unfair. It ordered the police to pay Sibiya a 12-month salary as compensation. The court declined to award Sibiya the remedy of reinstatement, which prompted him to approach the LAC seeking reinstatement. His legal representatives argued before the LAC that the Labour Court had erred in not reinstating Sibiya in circumstances where it had "vindicated him and had found that he was innocent and had been victimised by officials who lacked integrity". In his judgment, Coppin said there was no reason why Sibiya's reinstatement should not have been ordered. The judge added that the fact the position he occupied at the time of his dismissal had been filled was no reason for refusing him reinstatement into the police. Coppin added that the fact that time had elapsed from the date of dismissal should not constitute a bar to Sibiya’s reinstatement.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jeanette Chabalala at News24

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