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TimesLive reports that a teacher fired for allegedly kissing a pupil and grabbing her buttocks was vindicated when the Education Labour Relations Council overturned the decision.
The teacher not only got his job back, but the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) education department was ordered to pay him more than R600,000 for the 19 months he had been at home. The teacher, who cannot be named to protect the pupil, was the grade 9 head of the department (HOD). According to the ruling, the HOD called the pupil into his office to tell her that another teacher had agreed to apologise for ridiculing her in front of others. The pupil was apparently teary and emotional and he gave her a hug and told her that the teacher would never mock her again. The following day, the HOD was placed on precautionary suspension, while his contract was eventually terminated on 16 September 2021. Under cross-examination, the HOD pointed out that a hug was not intimate but it could be depending on the kind of hug and the nature of the hug. He disputed that he kissed the pupil and grabbed her buttocks and denied he was a sexual predator. The education department did not bring witnesses to the arbitration. Instead of proving that the HOD’s dismissal was fair, the department “asked questions to challenge the evidence tendered by” the HOD. The arbitrator found that the HOD’s evidence was probably true. “In this regards the evidentiary burden that was on the [education department] is toppled by [HOD’s] evidence,” the ruling reads. The arbitrator found that the education department had failed to demonstrate that the dismissal had been substantially fair.
Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Philani Nombembe at TimesLive
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