A Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) arbitrator needed to have been "alive" to the enormous problems racism had caused in South Africa when considering the reinstatement of a SARS employee accused of racism. That was the Constitutional Court's view when it found a decision by the CCMA to be unreasonable.Following the court's ruling yesterday, the employee, who used the k-word to a senior, will not be returning to work at OR Tambo International Airport, where he was part of the SARS anti-smuggling unit.In a unanimous judgment, the court found that the use of the k-word showed that South Africa had many bridges to cross to get to equality.During an altercation with his supervisor in 2007, Jacobus Kruger said to Abel Mboweni: ''Ek kan nie verstaan hoe ka****s dink nie. [I cannot understand how ka****s think.]"Kruger also said: ''A ka***r must not tell me what to do."Brought before a disciplinary hearing, Kruger pleaded guilty and was given a final written warning and suspended without pay. In October 2007, however, then SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan fired him.Kruger challenged his dismissal at the CCMA and was reinstated.SARS then approached the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court and lost before appealing to the highest court.In his judgment, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said the arbitrator should have been ''alive" to the problems racism had caused in South Africa.The court upheld the SARS appeal, while it ordered it to pay Kruger six months' salary.The revenue service said it saw the judgment as a victory.Spokesman Sandile Memela said: "As SARS, we are for creating a non-racial society."..