A Johannesburg school teacher who was suspended without pay for three months for deliberately blocking a gas delivery to his school and swearing at the principal has lost his bid to have the suspension declared unfair and three lost salaries paid to him.
Masilo Lazarus Mahlo, a teacher at Cosmo City Secondary School in northern Johannesburg and SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) site steward, took his case to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) for review.
He argued he had been subjected to an unfair disciplinary process and the three-month suspension without pay imposed on him was excessive disciplinary action. He asked that the finding of guilt on the charges be reversed and that the three salary payments he lost out on during his suspension be paid to him.
The ELRC's commissioner MA Hawes heard Mahlo was informed in July 2023 of six charges laid against him relating to incidents that had taken place in April.
The delivery of gas, the subsequent cooking of food and feeding hungry pupils is part of everyday school activity. I find the applicant’s car blocking the front school gate prevented the Afrox truck from delivering much-needed gas supplies which affected the efficiency of feeding the children.
— ELRC commissioner MA Hawes
A disciplinary inquiry was held, and Mahlo was found guilty of three counts of misconduct.
The first was he “unjustifiably prejudiced the administration, discipline and efficiency of the department of education or the school” by parking his car in front of the school entrance gate, preventing a loaded gas delivery truck from entering the premises.
The second was for making it “difficult/impossible for other teachers to gain entry to the school premises”.
The ELRC was told police were called to the school when the gate was blocked and were given a 70-page document detailing the people who had been blocked from entering the school according to normal protocols. This was entered into evidence during arbitration.
Mahlo testified that when police informed him parking his car to block the school gate was unlawful, he had removed it immediately. The incident happened on the same day union members were planning to hold a peaceful protest against the school's permission slip policy, but it did not go ahead.
The third charge was for the disrespect Mahlo was alleged to have displayed on March 13 last year when “you demonstrated abusive or insolent behaviour in that you insulted your colleague, the principal Mr Moata, when you uttered the following words towards him, ‘wanya wanyeta, wa gafa, voetsek’ (you shit, you shit, voetsek)”.
Mahlo called two fellow union members to testify on his behalf and they confirmed the relationship between Mahlo and the principal was “not good”. They said Mahlo had been aggrieved by the allocation of classes, which he believed had happened without proper consultations and this grievance was not resolved.
Mahlo said he had prevented the gas delivery because of a payment issue.
The school principal testified the gas delivery had been blocked by Mohla, and that Afrox told him they were unable to leave the gas outside the school premises so their truck had left without making the delivery. The gas is used to cook food for the school children and had been ordered the day before the delivery.
The school’s security guard testified Mahlo had blocked the school gate and left the premises without permission. He could not be located when the Afrox truck arrived.
The principal gave evidence that Mahlo “had no time for Tshwana employees at the school”, and had regularly made this clear.
“It is noteworthy that at no stage during the course of the arbitration proceedings did [Mahlo] deny this. I find this incident together with his site steward union activities probably caused a breakdown in their relationship,” Hawes said when evaluating the cause for the conflict between teacher and principal.
She said Mahlo’s argument that he blocked the gas delivery because of a payment issue was not supported and therefore rejected as unreliable.
“The delivery of gas, the subsequent cooking of food and feeding hungry pupils is part of everyday school activity. I find the applicant’s car blocking the front school gate prevented the Afrox truck from delivering much-needed gas supplies which affected the efficiency of feeding the children. The exact degree of this efficiency breach is irrelevant. The fact that it has occurred is sufficient.
“The applicant displayed arrogant, selfish and unprofessional behaviour which is unacceptable in a school environment. His behaviour was also a clear middle finger to the principal of the school,” Hawes said.
The commissioner said Mahlo had been correctly found guilty at the disciplinary inquiry.
“I find the disciplinary chairperson clearly weighed up the influence of the applicant and the principal’s dysfunctional working relationship and the misconduct itself in deciding the appropriate sanction to be imposed.
“The chairperson, correctly in my view, did not impose the sanction of dismissal because he wished to afford the applicant an opportunity to mend his relationship with the principal and further give him an opportunity not to abuse his position as a Sadtu shop steward. In so doing the sanction imposed was corrective and punitive at the same time and serves as a good example of progressive discipline.”
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