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IOL News reports that a Limpopo school teacher who approached the Labour Court in Johannesburg to fight his two months’ suspension without pay, had his appeal dismissed after the acting judge Luit de Haan found that the sanction had been fair.
Vonani Arone Mukhari has worked as a teacher at Nkuzana Primary School in Khomanani since 1986. He has been engaged in a four-year-long battle with the school after an internal disciplinary committee found him guilty of insubordination in August 2020. Between January 2018 and March 2018, Mukhari allegedly displayed disrespect towards others in the workplace and faced four charges. He was charged with disrespecting the principal after he told her that she was not “Alpha and Omega”. Mukhani also refused to accept the curriculum package from the school administrator and he indicated that he was not going to abide by the management plan because it was not helpful to him. A disciplinary hearing was held in March 2020 and in August 2020, he was found guilty of three charges, but was cleared of disrespecting the principal. Mukhani faced a sanction of two months suspension without pay and a final written warning was also imposed. He unsuccessfully appealed the findings and sanction internally. In March 2021 he approached the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), which ruled that the outcome and sanction had been fair. Mukhani then took the matter to the Labour Court. De Haan found that Mukhari gave contracting evidence as to why he had refused to accept the curriculum package and his argument had no merit. Additionally, his refusal to attend a parent-teacher meeting had been a direct challenge to the authority of both the principal and the HOD. “I can find no grounds in the papers or in law for interfering with it (the sanction). I therefore can’t fault the arbitrator on this score,” De Haan said, adding that his sanction had been lenient in that he had not been dismissed. No costs were awarded because of the ongoing relationship between Mukhani and his employer.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sinenhlanhla Masilela at IOL News
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