JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday 8.00pm
THE Mpumalanga education department will have to shell out some R2,6-million to sacked department head Faith Sithole for as settlement for irregularly firing her.
Sithole was dismissed after 20 years service in January after she was accused of complicity in the province’s 1998 matric exam results scandal. The scandal saw department officials fraudulently inflate the average exam pass rate by 20%, from 51,6% to just over 72%.
Sithole told the court she was never formally charged, was never given the opportunity to defend herself at a disciplinary hearing. She launched an urgent application to declare the dismissal unlawful and order her reinstatement after negotiations between the province and her attorneys made no progress by February 11.
However, High Court Judge HP van Dyk on Wednesday ordered Mpumalanga to honour a subsequent written settlement offer to Sithole which offered her an equivalent post in Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu’s office or a R2,6-million severance package. Sithole declined the premier’s office position but was unable to extract the offered settlement from the education department.
Judge Van Dyk ruled the offer had legal standing and had to be honoured. Padayachee said in a brief statement on Thursday that he accepts the ruling despite reservations about the processes followed. — African Eye News Service