Axed a decade ago for dereliction of duty following the escape of rapist and killer Ananias Mathe from the high-security C-Max prison in Pretoria‚ former warden Paulina Phaho is now counting the days before going back to her old job.
She is also waiting for a back-pay bonanza from the Department of Correctional Services.
After a long legal battle over her firing‚ Phaho received a favourable judgment last week‚ when the Labour Court in Johannesburg ruled she was dismissed unfairly.
Also read: Gay inmate wins battle for special cell
Acting Judge AJ Jackson agreed with Phaho that an arbitrator who sealed her fate “committed a material error of law by relying on inadmissible hearsay [as] evidence”.
Phaho was axed on the grounds that she left her tower unmanned the night Mathe escaped in 2006. Jackson said it was wrong of the department to fire Phaho over this.
He said “it was common cause that the C-Max facility was understaffed [when Mathe escaped]. And also‚ “the catwalk‚ namely‚ the area from which Mathe escaped‚ was not regularly patrolled”.
Jackson ruled: “The applicant [Phaho] is reinstated into her position as a correctional services officer at C-Max Correctional Centre in Pretoria with immediate effect.”
Not only should she be given her old post back immediately‚ but “such reinstatement shall be fully retrospective”.
Labour law expert Saber Ahmed Jazbhay‚ who is not involved in the case‚ told Sowetan this means the “employer would have to pay the employee all remuneration and benefits accrued between the date of dismissal and the date of reinstatement”.
Phaho said on Thursday that she definitely wants the department to pay back remuneration she lost over the 10 years.
“I’m certainly going back to my job‚” she said. “I need them to pay me from the time they fired me from work until now.”
Life has been hard since she was fired‚ Phaho said.
A former athlete‚ at age 45 she had to find and hold piece jobs “to put food on the table”.
“I’ve ended up in the credit bureau because my debts piled up. I almost lost my bonded house too‚” she said.
“I’m happy the case is over because it had destroyed my life. My life was really dealt a blow.”
Phaho added she was confident from the start that the department had no case against her. “I’m not a lawyer but I felt I could stand up for myself.”
She is now grateful her union‚ the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union‚ never gave up on her case.
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela had not to responded to questions at the time of publication.
– TMG Digital/Sowetan
Warden unfairly punished for rapist’s escape to return to post 10 years later
Axed a decade ago for dereliction of duty following the escape of rapist and killer Ananias Mathe from the high-security C-Max prison in Pretoria‚ former warden Paulina Phaho is now counting the days before going back to her old job.
She is also waiting for a back-pay bonanza from the Department of Correctional Services.
After a long legal battle over her firing‚ Phaho received a favourable judgment last week‚ when the Labour Court in Johannesburg ruled she was dismissed unfairly.
Also read: Gay inmate wins battle for special cell
Acting Judge AJ Jackson agreed with Phaho that an arbitrator who sealed her fate “committed a material error of law by relying on inadmissible hearsay [as] evidence”.
Phaho was axed on the grounds that she left her tower unmanned the night Mathe escaped in 2006. Jackson said it was wrong of the department to fire Phaho over this.
He said “it was common cause that the C-Max facility was understaffed [when Mathe escaped]. And also‚ “the catwalk‚ namely‚ the area from which Mathe escaped‚ was not regularly patrolled”.
Jackson ruled: “The applicant [Phaho] is reinstated into her position as a correctional services officer at C-Max Correctional Centre in Pretoria with immediate effect.”
Not only should she be given her old post back immediately‚ but “such reinstatement shall be fully retrospective”.
Labour law expert Saber Ahmed Jazbhay‚ who is not involved in the case‚ told Sowetan this means the “employer would have to pay the employee all remuneration and benefits accrued between the date of dismissal and the date of reinstatement”.
Phaho said on Thursday that she definitely wants the department to pay back remuneration she lost over the 10 years.
“I’m certainly going back to my job‚” she said. “I need them to pay me from the time they fired me from work until now.”
Life has been hard since she was fired‚ Phaho said.
A former athlete‚ at age 45 she had to find and hold piece jobs “to put food on the table”.
“I’ve ended up in the credit bureau because my debts piled up. I almost lost my bonded house too‚” she said.
“I’m happy the case is over because it had destroyed my life. My life was really dealt a blow.”
Phaho added she was confident from the start that the department had no case against her. “I’m not a lawyer but I felt I could stand up for myself.”
She is now grateful her union‚ the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union‚ never gave up on her case.
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela had not to responded to questions at the time of publication.
– TMG Digital/Sowetan
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