A long-serving Zulu employee at Durban’s Toyota plant, who was fired on the grounds that he abused compassionate leave, has been reinstated after a judge found that the company’s policy and rules should have been better explained.
Previously, commissioner Nonhlanhla Dubuzanethe at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration had found the dismissal of Lungani Njilo to be unfair and ordered that he be reinstated.Njilo was dismissed after being found guilty of dishonesty for “providing false information” on three occasions about his relationship with certain people who had died when he applied for and was granted compassionate leave.
Judge Whitcher said that if explained in Western terms, Njilo’s “mothers” were his late father’s second wife and his aunt. His “son” was his late brother’s son.Njilo said he had been unaware of the intricacies of the policy, and particularly that it did not cover people he regarded in Zulu culture as his immediate family. He said that in Zulu culture, a man assumes responsibility for his deceased father’s wives and the children of his deceased brother.
The commissioner had ruled that Njilo had not intended to be dishonest and that his dismissal was grossly inappropriate since he had 17 years’ service and an unblemished disciplinary record.