A teacher who has been earning his salary for almost nine years without teaching, is embroiled in a bitter battle with the Mpumalanga department of education to return to the classroom.
Ndifelani Ligege, 46, who was teaching at Umlambo Primary School in Amsterdam’s Gert Sibande district claimed his impasse with the department started in 2014.
He said he discovered alleged corruption in which a teacher who had resigned continued drawing salary and blew the whistle on this.
According to him, the school principal at the time allegedly did not submit the resignation to the district office for it to freeze the salary. He alleged that he reported the matter to the district and officials visited the school, but the matter was concealed.
“Shortly after the circuit manager visited the school, I started to experience all forms of occupational detriments ranging from victimisation, intimidation and physical assault. The principal [allegedly] incited the school governing body [SGB] to formulate fabricated charges against me, and I was expelled from work by the SGB,” he said.
He said at the time he wasn’t charged or found guilty of any wrongdoing, so the department intervened and he was exonerated.
The department must explain to the court why it failed to adhere to the arbitration award, which is now a court order. The award directed the department to reinstate me back to work, but it dismissed me before it could reinstate me.
— Teacher Ndifelani Ligege
But the department did not order him back to the school. Instead, he started to report for work at Amsterdam circuit in January 2015, without a job description or tasks to perform.
“I just sat the whole day earning a full salary monthly,” he said.
In August 2015, he referred the unfair dismissal dispute to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC).
The matter was conciliated in September, and an agreement was reached that the employer must set up a team to investigate the matter thoroughly.
He claimed, however, that the department didn’t adhere to the agreement.
Ligege said he had tried three times to return to a classroom, and all three times he has been “dismissed” unfairly. Again, he has won all three unfair dismissal cases.
Ligege said in October 2020, the department accused him of absconding from Driepan Primary School. This was after the department tried to place him at the school on a temporary basis after the attempt to return him to Umlambo failed.
“In 2020, the department suggested that I should report for duty at Driepan Primary School. I agreed and the district officials and circuit manager accompanied me to the school to meet the SGB. The SGB warmly welcomed me. The problem was the travelling logistics between Umlambo Primary School (my original school) and Driepan Primary School, which is 120km per day return trip,” said Ligege.
“I then requested the employer compensate my travelling costs because it wasn’t my fault which resulted to my displacement from my original school. The department agreed to compensate me, and they drafted the temporary relocation allowance. I then asked them how long am I going to work at Driepan Primary School so that I could determine if the time frame of the temporary relocation allowance will cover my travelling costs, but the department refused to tell me the period I will be expected to work at Driepan.
“As a result, I declined to accept the temporary allowance offered because I didn’t know how long it’s going to cover my costs. Had I accepted it, I could have been expected to be using that one-off allowance from 2020 to date. So I guess I made the right decision.”
The department accused him of absconding, and the matter went before the ELRC.
The ELRC issued an arbitration award, stating what had occurred did not amount to absconding and said he should be placed at Ithole Primary School.
Several months later, he was placed at Ithole.
“However, when I went to Ithole Primary School, the SGB refused to allow me to work. The employer [department officials] went to Ithole the following day, and they were chased away. Then the district director invited the SGB to discuss about this issue and the SGB refused,” Ligege.
Stuck in limbo again, Ligege says last year, the department dismissed him, claiming he had absconded from the post at Ithole Primary School.
An arbitration meeting was held where he was again vindicated.
“ELRC issued another ruling saying I didn’t abscond in April 2023, but the employer is still refusing to give my job back.”
Mpumalanga department of education spokesperson Jasper Zwane said the department had tried every effort to finalise the matter, but in almost all instances Ligege made it difficult to resolve the matter.
“In the last arbitration, which the incumbent failed to attend, the commissioner ruled in favour of the department that he must be dismissed.
“The department has since learnt that he has approached the labour court. Based on this, the department would await the labour court processes to unfold before proceeding,” he said.
Zwane added they are waiting for an invitation from the labour court.
“The employer [department ] is still refusing to pay. But I certified the arbitration award of June 2021 for it to become a court order. It was served to the department in August 2021 for it to comply with it but is still refusing to comply with it.
“As a result, I submit an application for contempt of court that is set down for February 1 this year. Therefore, the department must explain to the court why it failed to adhere to the arbitration award, which is now a court order. The award directed the department to reinstate me back to work, but it dismissed me before it could reinstate me,” he said.
Ligege said he spent nine years without teaching. Though he was earning a salary, his career progress has been negatively hampered.
“Throughout all these years, I’ve been worried about the education of working class children who are deprived of quality education because I was supposed to be teaching in exchange for the salary that I earned in the past nine years,” he said.
He added that he was worried about taxpayers’ money that he had been earning without providing service to the government, but his worries didn’t change the circumstances.
“The only solution that will assist me is to work for a private company while continuing to earn a salary from the Mpumalanga department of education. Though it’s currently frozen, they’ll ultimately pay it because I have never been charged or found guilty of any offence except to blow the whistle against the employment of a ghost educator at school.”
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