SAIM HEAD BLAMES DEPUTY FOR TROUBLES

MBABANE – SAIM Christian High School Head teacher Stanley Mdluli has accused the deputy head teacher of being the source of infighting at the school. 

Mdluli was responding to the application that was filed by the Africa Christian Mission (ACM) and SAIM High School in court to stop him from hiring staff to replace an ICT teacher, cook and gardener he is said to have dismissed for refusing to sign new contracts. 

High Court Judge John Magagula yesterday dismissed with costs the application after hearing the parties. The judge noted that the matter was pending before the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) and that it was not urgent. In his answering papers, the head teacher stated that the deputy head teacher of the school is the wife of the grantee, Sicelo Nxumalo, hence the infighting. He submitted that the grantee wanted to exercise powers he did not have. “As a word of caution, may I plead with the ACM not to appoint members of its management who have spouses within the school because I have noted that previous head teachers with splendid experience have been found to be wanting and not worthy to run the school and I can only suspect that the problem lies with this arrangement.

“Maybe the ACM should in future nominate the spouses of those appointed by it to oversee the school as head teachers because, honestly, it cannot be said that the past three head teachers can be wrong and disobedient yet they are armed with previous good experience from schools they managed before,” Mdluli said.

Parents

According to Mdluli, all decisions taken by the parents, through the school committee, were imputed to him by the representative of first respondent (school committee), which he described as an insult to the men and women elected into the school committee, who are of good standing by implying that they cannot stand on their own. The grantee, according to Mdluli, is not the overseer of the school, but a gateway to acquiring government teachers through the TSC and deals with professional disputes and not be a cause of disputes himself. 

Saim Christian High School, according to Mdluli, is not a private school. He said this was a public school built on government land. He argued that the ACM and parents under Mbabane West Constituency built the school. He said the hiring and discipline of staff was the responsibility of the school committee. The school is situated at Mahwalala Zone 6. Mdluli said Nxumalo was the former chairperson of the school and auditors raised a query during his tenure that the support staff should have employment contracts. 

The head teacher submitted that the founder of the ACM, Reverend Kim, was the previous grantee and he never treated them in the manner that Nxumalo was said to be doing. The application by the ACM, according to Mdluli, was abusive and only meant to bring chaos. The ACM wanted the High Court to stop the head teacher from hiring replacements for the staff members he dismissed. 

The staff members were dismissed after being suspended and taken through a disciplinary hearing. The ACM did not accept the suspension and dismissal of the staff members as well as the process to replace them. The trio was dismissed for refusing to sign new contracts, arguing that they were not consulted and the contracts were never negotiated with them.

In its, application to the court, the ACM was seeking an order restraining Mdluli and the school committee from conducting interviews for the created vacancies. It also wanted the court to order that the applications received by the respondents in relation to the said vacancies be cancelled and any the interview process declared null and void.

.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: