Expelled Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann will be challenging his dismissal by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
On Monday 11 October last year, WCED found Neumann guilty of misconduct, failure to carry out a lawful order without just or reasonable cause and breaching the employer’s social media policies.
Neumann faced six charges, including that of insubordination and misconduct for allegedly going against the department’s decision to have children back at school at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Following an internal appeal process and the outcome on Friday 13 May, Neumann was dismissed unless he accepted an offer of demotion at another school.
According to his attorney Vernon Seymour, Neumann has agonised over these issues.
“On the one hand, he is a committed educator; for him to be given a choice like that.”
Seymour said Neumann would be challenging the decision based on several factors.
“After consideration of all the issues and factors involved in the case, Mr Neumann informed me of his decision. Mr Neumann regrettably declined the offer of demotion which means he stands dismissed in the employ of WCED, effective today, Friday 20 May.”
At a media briefing held at the school on Friday 20 May, Seymour said there were “oddities” in the case which included the department’s spend on lawyers. He claimed WCED spent close to R1 million on lawyers to have the principal dismissed.
“The WCED spent an exorbitant amount of money in their pursuit of the dismissal of Mr Neumann. In July last year, the MEC responded to a question in the legislature about legal bills they had, for this one case. It was in excess of R600 000 and that was before the case was completed.
“It finalised a month or two later. If you add the appeal costs, because if you look at the judgment, we know it was not done by an official in the department, it was done by a very senior lawyer. So, we estimate the cost of this case is probably close to R1 million.”
As his legal team, Seymour said that, in their view, the decision to dismiss Neuman was “deeply flawed” in several respects.
“Which, in our view, renders his dismissal unfair. He has decided to challenge the dismissal in the Education Labour Relations Council, which is the bargaining council that has a mandate to resolve the disputes within the education sector.”
He added that the dismissal would be challenged due to various factors.
“The Education Labour Relations Council is independent of the WCED and impartial by definition so, therefore, we now have a chance to go before a panel to look at the case on its merits,” said Seymour.
Meanwhile, Neumann said it was a bittersweet moment for him.
“Bitter in a sense and sad that I am leaving today. Sad, that I’m leaving something that I really enjoy doing which is teaching.
“I’m going to miss the children. The children are my purpose for coming to school in the morning and doing what we do. So that’s the sad part of today.”
He thanked his family, learners and the community for their support.
“I’m also grateful for the learners and the Heathfield High community for giving me all the opportunities to develop into the person that I am. It has afforded me the opportunity to do what I love; to teach and serve the community.”
He added that the past two years had been very emotional.
Vasoula Bailey, ex-school governing body chair, said Neumann always acted in the best interest of the children.
“My daughter started Grade 8 when Mr Neumann started here as acting principal and at the time I was questioning my decision on sending my child here because there wasn’t real order or discipline. The school was a mess.
“Mr Neuman’s appointment took almost a year before the WCED accepted our recommendation and from that time already they started to not be happy with the way he does things.
“Then Covid came and nobody really knew what was going on. We were all paranoid, everyone was locked in their houses. We were scared of this thing.”
She said after schools were reopened for matriculants, the WCED wanted more grades to return, which is when the issue began.
“At that point the toilets were horrific. We had a picket that morning and the Human Rights Commission walked in at the school and they said the school is so unsafe and the school must be closed; there is no way for the school to be safe to come back.”
She added that there were not enough funds to purchase sanitisers and to sanitise the school.
“The school really was unsafe for the children and we, as the governing body, took the decision to urge the parents to keep their children at home and other ways of education would take place.
“But according to them, Mr Neumann did not follow an instruction to have all the children return to school, irrelevant of whether it was safe or not.
“And that is where the whole thing started. We are temporarily saying goodbye to Mr Neuman today, but the fight is not over. The battle may be, but the war is only starting,” said Bailey.
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