Cape Town - Embattled former Bloekombos Secondary School principal Ntombi Goniwe has lost her appeal against the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) over financial mismanagement.
She also walked away empty-handed as the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) ruled that she was not entitled to any relief.
Goniwe was employed at the school in October 2018. However, the school faced many challenges from 2020, with feuds between the School Governing Body (SGB) and Goniwe over governance and maladministration.
Parents also staged demonstrations at the school, demanding that safety be ensured, while Goniwe allegedly received death threats and had to be under police protection at some point.
The WCED took the former principal to a disciplinary hearing in 2022, where she faced five charges.
Initially, Goniwe pleaded guilty to one charge but changed her plea to guilty in all after evidence was led by the Senior State Accountant.
This led to her being sanctioned for dismissal.
Department spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, said Goniwe appealed to the former MEC Debbie Schäfer and the appeal was dismissed.
“A curator principal was introduced and was welcomed warmly by the staff, senior management team (SMT) and the SGB,” said Hammond.
Goniwe approached the ELRC as she believed the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively unfair, and she sought retrospective reinstatement.
During cross-examination, Goniwe indicated that she had not been forced to plead guilty to the allegations levelled against her, however, she indicated she was not thinking straight as she had a death threat made against her.
She claimed she did not receive support from the circuit manager.
According to the arbitration award, Goniwe stated she did not see the charges that were levelled against her as being serious, as they did not fall within section 17 offences of the Employment of Educators Act.
Her version was that she did not benefit from the allegations and was paid for her time on Saturdays.
She claimed the circuit manager, Cherie Meyer-Williams and Jacobus Williams, the presiding officer in her hearing, shared the same surname which displayed bias against her.
Meyer-Williams testified that she met the presiding officer for the first time when she arrived to testify in aggravation at Goniwe's hearing and that they were not related in any way.
She said support was given to Goniwe including financial training.
“In February 2022, the applicant pleaded guilty to five charges of financial misconduct which shows that the applicant cannot manage school finances and also speaks to her competencies in respect of the Basic Finance Management Act,” she said.
According to Meyer-Williams an amount of around R4 million had been paid to the school and money went missing that was not reported and there was no accountability.
ELRC commissioner, Lanthis Taylor said Meyer-Williams had also testified to Goniwe’s previous disciplinary record for offences of a similar nature.
The Cape Times contacted Goniwe to no avail.
Cape Times