An Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) arbitrator has upheld the dismissal of a long-serving Western Cape teacher found guilty of assaulting a pupil, reinforcing the country’s longstanding prohibition on corporal punishment in schools.
In an award issued on February 25, arbitrator Firgil Philips ruled that the dismissal of Anthony Lionel Damons by the Western Cape education department was both substantively and procedurally fair.
Corporal punishment has been outlawed in South African schools for nearly three decades. The South African Schools Act prohibits corporal punishment in schools.
Damons began teaching in 1992 and was promoted to departmental head in 2015 at De Rust Primary School. He was dismissed in July 2019 after being found guilty of assaulting a Grade 7 pupil by striking him with a pipe on November 28 2018 during an examination session.
This matter has a protracted litigation history. In an arbitration award issued on June 28 2021, arbitrator Alta Reynolds held that Damons’s dismissal was substantively unfair.
Aggrieved by the order of reinstatement, the department took the matter on review to the labour court attacking the arbitration award on various grounds.
The labour court upheld the review application in an order issued on September 26 2024. The labour court ordered that the matter be remitted back to the ELRC to another arbitrator.
The arbitrator emphasised that any physical punishment — even a so-called tap — constituted assault.
“Assault remains assault by any other name,” Philips wrote in his analysis.
While he was acquitted on two additional charges — including allegations that the pupil was pushed against a desk and that he attempted to bribe another pupil, he was found guilty on the primary charge of assault.
Damons maintained that he merely tapped the pupil on the shoulder to calm him down. However, the arbitrator found that even on Damons’ own version, he had no right to touch a pupil in that manner.
Evidence presented during arbitration revealed that pipes were kept in the classroom, ostensibly confiscated from pupils and used for pointing at the board. Witnesses testified that the pipe was used to push or strike the pupil following a verbal altercation.
The arbitration award took note of Damons’ prior disciplinary record. He had received final written warnings and fines for previous assaults on pupils in 2016 and again in November 2018, just weeks before the incident that led to his dismissal.
The arbitrator found that the proximity of the incidents demonstrated a pattern of behaviour and a disregard for the department’s rules. The earlier sanctions had failed to deter further misconduct.
Damons had argued that his dismissal was procedurally unfair because the charge sheet had been amended during the disciplinary process; changing the allegation from striking the pupil’s hand to striking his shoulder.
The arbitrator dismissed this argument, finding that the amendment did not alter the substance of the charge.
He said it did not matter whether the child was hit on the hand or the shoulder, this “does not alter the fact that the child was hit”.
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