Fired UFH deputy vice-chancellor fights for reinstatement
Nokwethemba Ndlazi seeks leave to appeal against labour court ruling
A fired University of Fort Hare deputy vice-chancellor is fighting for reinstatement after a labour court judgment in her favour ordered compensation but not reinstatement.
Nokwethemba Ndlazi has been unemployed since September 2020, when she was dismissed by the university.
She has now applied for leave to appeal against the judgment that was handed down by the labour court in Gqeberha on March 1.
Acting judge Ncumisa Nongongo ordered that she be compensated for the equivalent of eight months’ salary, but did not order her reinstatement, which her legal representative, Java Mama, said was what Ndlazi wanted.
She quit her Mangosuthu University of Technology job to join the University of Fort Hare on September 2 2019 after a successful interview, when vicechancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu was on the interviewing panel.
She was subsequently appointed and started work on September 2 2019.
The next year she was charged with failing to tell Fort Hare during her interview in June 2019 that there was a pending case against her from MUT.
The charge sheet at her disciplinary hearing said her failure to disclose that she had been implicated in a forensic investigation [at MUT] constituted a material non-disclosure that was dishonest or alternatively grossly negligent.
“Your actions are further in breach of the fiduciary duty you owe your employer,” it said.
She was found guilty and dismissed on October 20 2020.
The labour court judgment says that during her interview, Ndlazi was asked whether there were any facts she felt were important for the interviewing panel to know.
In his recorded comments, Buhlungu said: “Overstepping tender, overspent by R3m or so, caused audit inquiry.
“University’s recruitment agent Sandra Burmeister made a further inquiry on Ndlazi’s discloser after the interview.
“She asked Prof Ramogale of Mangosuthu University of Technology to shed light on the seriousness of the disclosure that was done by Ndlazi and whether the university should be concerned about continuing with the selection process.
“MUT responded that it was an issue of procedural noncompliance which would be condoned by their council.
“Ndlazi was then appointed as deputy vice-chancellor on September 2 2019.”
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the disciplinary hearing, Ndlazi referred the matter to the CCMA for arbitration.
After hearing evidence, CCMA commissioner Jean van Zuydam found that the comments on the interview sheet by Buhlungu and Burmeister’s records contained important elements of the disclosure by Ndlazi.
He found that Ndlazi was not
It is improbable that the university would not have filled such a key position after the departure of Ndlazi
guilty of all the charges against her, and ruled that her dismissal was substantively unfair.
Fort Hare was ordered to pay four months ’ compensation of R700,000.
Van Zuydam said he had taken into account the degree of unfairness displayed by the university in dismissing her and the fact that, had the university not employed her, she might still have been employed by MUT.
However, the order did not include her reinstatement.
Ndlazi took the matter to the labour court, seeking an order to review and set aside the arbitration award issued by CCMA as it had failed to order her reinstatement.
Labour court acting judge Nongongo said Fort Hare had led no evidence to establish that a continued relationship would be intolerable.
However, she said there had been a substantial lapse of time from dismissal to the hearing.
“It is improbable that the university would not have filled such a key position after the departure of Ndlazi.”
She then ordered the university to pay Ndlazi compensation equivalent to eight months ’ salary.
Mama said the relief of compensation was wrong.
“She was supposed to be reinstated with back pay. We felt, and still do, that the judge had committed an error and have decided to take the matter to the labour appeal court.
“We think it might get decent treatment.
“We have since lodged an application for leave to appeal ...
“We are quite confident that we are not going to get a relief that is different from those given to people who were unfairly dismissed, which is reinstatement.”