News24 reports that the University of Fort Hare (UFH) has been ordered to reinstate an employee it dismissed for sending a pornographic image to the university's alumni WhatsApp group.
The employee, an account executive, sent an image of female genitalia to the 181-member group in May 2023. According to evidence before the CCMA, the image was sent on a Sunday afternoon to the group, with the caption, "It's all yours". The group's admin brought the image to the employee's attention 11 minutes later. The axed employee's response was an apology, explaining that he had sent the image to the "wrong group". In a disciplinary hearing, the employee was found guilty of "sexual harassment, gross negligence, and bringing the company into disrepute" and was dismissed in September 2023. The axed employee then took the university to the CCMA, where he argued the photo was not his because it had also been forwarded to him. When he was informed about the image, he immediately apologised to the group, and wrote 'Sorry, wrong group'. The image was apparently intended for a group of male friends. The university argued that the forwarding of the explicit image constituted sexual harassment and that the WhatsApp group members had found it “inappropriate and degrading." The CCMA commissioner found the dismissal of the applicant was "procedurally fair but substantively unfair" and ordered the university to reinstate the applicant retrospectively from 4 September 2023 and back pay the applicant for 12 months by not later than 14 October 2024. The applicant has to report for duty on 7 October 2024. The university is awaiting legal advice from its attorneys to determine whether the award is reviewable.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sithandiwe Velaphi at News24 (registration required)
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