A year and four months after two pupils from Daveyton Skills School drowned on a school trip that was not authorised by the education department, the Education Labour Relations Council has dismissed principal Bertha Letsoele for misconduct.
Sibusiso Sibiya, 17, and Siphamandla Peterson, 15, drowned in April last year in the Hennops River near Centurion while attending a “discipline camp” at Rock Falls Ranch Adventure.
After their drowning, it emerged that no-one from the Gauteng education department or district knew about the excursion and it was not sanctioned, as required by Gauteng Schools Education Act regulations on domestic and international tours for learners at public schools.
An independent inquiry appointed by the department to investigate the incident found in its report in July last year that Letsoele had ignored the department's procedure and policies when organising the trip. The inquiry recommended that disciplinary action be taken against Letsoele.
After the report, Letsoele was:
- placed on precautionary transfer;
- ordered to stay off the school premises;
- instructed to report to the district office; and
- told the transfer would remain in place for 90 days pending the outcome of the disciplinary or an appeal.
After the 90 days ended, Letsoele, who claimed not to have received any further communication on the matter, approached the ELRC, claiming her transfer was a suspension and therefore an unfair labour practice.
ELRC arbitrator Gcina Mafani found in Letsoele’s favour in February this year, ordering that she return to work.
The hearing was finally convened in March, where ELRC arbitrator John Siavhe was called to determine whether Letsoele was at fault as charged by the department, and if guilty, impose an appropriate sanction.
Letsoele was charged with misconduct in that she did not make an application or failed to obtain approval from the department before pupils undertook the fateful trip where the two pupils drowned. She pleaded not guilty.
The tears she is shedding are crocodile tears. That by itself makes me conclude that the remorse she is claiming is cosmetic, it is not genuine
— John Siavhe, ELRC arbitrator
The department presented the evidence of the first witness on March 26 and had started with the evidence of the second on March 28 when Letsoele changed her plea to guilty.
She conceded to have breached the policies as charged by not applying for approval for the camp as required in the regulations.
Letsoele further conceded she was aware or could reasonably be expected to have been aware of those policies and that she breached those policies.
After a thorough consideration of Letsoele’s concessions, Siavhe found her guilty. Parties then addressed Siavhe on arguments in aggravating or mitigating of sanction.
The principal still argued in her mitigation that she did not know the department's policy and/or could not be expected to have known the regulation that required her to obtain written permission from the employer to undertake the trip.
“In the same breath, she claimed to have been remorseful,” said Siavhe.
The department argued in aggravation that Letsoele was not genuinely remorseful because she first disputed having breached the policies. It was only after the department called its first witness and after his cross-examination and the examination of the department's second witness that she changed her plea.
The department said Letsoele changed the plea after she realised there was overwhelming evidence against her and the case was not winnable.
“In the matter before me, the employee did not give any motivation why she committed the offence she was charged with, what provoked her decision to change the plea.
“The tears she is shedding are crocodile tears. That by itself makes me conclude that the remorse she is claiming is cosmetic, it is not genuine,” said Siavhe.
Siavhe said when Letsoele argued in mitigation of the sanction, she reverted to the arguments in support of her first plea that she was not guilty.
Letsoele had also submitted she did not breach a serious misconduct that warranted dismissal and she was a first-time offender with a clean disciplinary record and 33 years of service. The department countered that the offence was of a serious nature as two pupils lost their lives during the course of the discipline camp.
“It will be unfair and unreasonable to expect the employer to take risk by keeping an unrepentant employee like Ms Letsoele in its employment,” Siavhe said as he summarily dismissed her in the award.
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