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A furious and frustrated former English teacher at Mmabatho High School in Mahikeng, North West, is set to appear before the Education Labour Relations Council’s arbitration committee on July 19 in a bid to get his job back.
This comes after he was dismissed by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in June last year.
Simon Liholo believes he was targeted after he exposed alleged corruption at the school.
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Senior officials were implicated and found to have fraudulently applied for and received R200 000 as a Covid-19 relief grant.
In Liholo’s view, the officials were shielded by the provincial department of education.
The attempt by the North West education department’s labour relations unit to help mend the relationship between Liholo and the school principal in August 2020 failed.This followed a decision by the SA Council for Educators (SACE) to lift Liholo’s suspension.The intervention by the provincial department aimed to establish the reasons behind Liholo not being allowed to go back to the school, despite his suspension being lifted.
The investigation by the department was also aimed at identifying the origin of the disharmony between Liholo and the principal. After his suspension was lifted, Liholo lodged a complaint with the SACE alleging that the principal assaulted a pupil.
But the matter was closed early last year at the alleged victim’s request, he said.
According to a report released in August 2021 by the department of employment and labour, titled Follow the Money, the school applied for the temporary employer/employee relief scheme (TERS), which was meant to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on staff and employers.
However, the report found that “the employer [the school] applied for non-qualifying employees”.
The damning findings confirmed Liholo’s initial allegations of fraud and malfeasance at the school.
“When I first arrived at that school in 2016, I was confronted by corruption. I tried to ignore it, but it was just too much for me to ignore. I took action in 2020 during the hard lockdown when the management of the school defrauded UIF-TERS by applying for 31 workers who are employed by the school governing body,” Liholo said.
“The sad thing is that these people, whose names were used to apply for this money, never received a single cent from the school. The money was shared among those in management, hence my decision to expose this rot.
Liholo said:
According to documents seen by City Press, Liholo’s disciplinary hearing was held on July 9 2021. His dismissal letter only arrived three months later, signed by the head of the provincial education department. He said he appealed his dismissal within five days, but he didn’t receive a response until 12 months later, when a “suspicious letter” arrived from the minister’s office last July.
Liholo claimed that the disciplinary process went ahead without him because the officials refused to postpone the hearing due to the fact that Liholo’s lawyers were not available on that day.
“We have briefly consulted with Mr Liholo regarding this matter, but due to short notice, we have not been able to properly prepare for the hearing,” reads the letter from Maree & Maree Attorneys.
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The lawyers claimed to have received communication on March 5 2021 that the matter was going to be heard just four days later – on March 9 2021.
North West education spokesperson Elias Malindi said: “The employment of teachers rests with the provincial department. However, during the period wherein Liholo underwent disciplinary hearing, the department was placed under section 100 (1)b.
“This meant that the powers of the provincial department had been taken over by the national department.”
Asked if Liholo was fired for being a whistleblower, Malindi said:
