Durban — A school principal from Umzimkhulu, in southern KwaZulu-Natal, has appealed to KZN Education MEC Mbali Frazer to intervene following the department’s failure to pay R6 million that was due to him.
The money has been accumulating since 2007 after Msawenkosi Tshazi was ordered reinstated in his position at work after winning a sexual abuse complaint laid by a schoolboy against him in 2004.
Tshazi was the principal at Mfulamhle Primary School in Umzimkhulu when he was dismissed in 2004. He appealed against the decision and was found not guilty by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) which ordered his reinstatement.
Besides the order, which was coupled with an instruction to the department to pay his annual salary as compensation for unfair dismissal, the department failed to reinstate him within 14 days as per the ruling. He was only reinstated 12 years later in 2019.
Tshazi told the Daily News on Wednesday that he had been fighting for justice since 2007 and when he was eventually reinstated in 2019. He added that the department had subjected him to further trauma by not processing his back pay.
He said he suspected there were people within the department who were blocking his payment, because last year the department’s human resources department had calculated that the amount owed to him was R6.6m.
“Every senior official from the district to the head office knows my problem, but no one is explaining why I have not been paid my money. Which is why I want the MEC to intervene and investigate the matter.
“I believe the truth will come out that there are people who either failed to do their jobs or were deliberately blocking the payment for nefarious reasons. I suspect I am being frustrated by the people associated with a particular union who were behind my unfair dismissal,” said Tshazi.
He said even after his eventual reinstatement in 2019, the department was still paying under the level 3 post, contrary to the ELRC award which ruled that he must be reinstated at the level 4 category he was on at the time of his dismissal.
A Level 3 principal applies to schools that do not qualify for deputy principals because they have fewer pupils. This meant that the department had to find him a school that was in a level 4 category, or pay him in line with his grade if it could not find a suitable school.
KZN education MEC Mbali Frazer told the paper on Wednesday that she was not aware of the matter, but promised to get a report from officials, who would be back at work next week.
Detailing the suffering and trauma he went through as a result of the department’s bungle, Tshazi said he lost everything he had, and his wife divorced him.
In the ELRC award, which this paper has seen, the council dismissed the evidence by the department’s two witnesses as hearsay since they said they were told by the pupil. They hadn’t seen the abuse themselves.
The council said it also noted the pupil never reported the abuse to anyone and only reported it after he had failed to submit his marks. It then found the principal not guilty and ordered his reinstatement within 14 days.
Daily News