‘Abducted’ soldier wins battle to get reinstated
A SANDF soldier fired for being absent from work without permission told the court he had a good reason: he had been abducted.
|||Pretoria - A soldier in the South African National Defence Force who got the boot as he was absent for seven weeks without permission claimed he was abducted in the street and forcefully taken to an initiation school to be circumcised.
Jonas Mamasedi turned to the high court in Pretoria to get his job back, as he said he was never given the chance to respond to the SANDF’s board of inquiry’s recommendations to the chief of the defence force that he be fired.
From the start the SANDF did not believe his explanation that he was abducted and taken to initiation school. It also persisted with this during Mamasedi’s application to the high court.
According to the SANDF, there is no proof that he was abducted, other than his word.
In terms of the Defence Act, a member of the regular force who is absent from duty for more than 30 days without the permission of his commanding officer shall be dismissed.
Mamasedi was absent from November 29 2011, to January 18 2012. It is not stated in the judgment where he was based.
He told the court he had good reasons for not being at work and demanded to be reinstated, with full benefits, from December 15 2011.
Mamasedi explained that he was on his way to his grandfather’s house when he was abducted. He said it was his grandfather’s wish that he attend initiation school. He later asked his father to tell his commander what had happened, but his father never did this.
When he did not report for duty, his commander phoned his father, who then told him what had happened. By then Mamasedi had been absent for more than 30 days and the provisions of the act came into operation, and he was fired.
He said that apart from him telling his father to tell his commander what had happened, he also gave this commander a letter from the initiation school as to what had happened.
A board of inquiry considered his case, but recommended to the chief of the army that he be dismissed.
Although Mamasedi is only 21, one of the reasons stated in the recommendation for his dismissal is that “with his 18 years of work experience in the SANDF he was well aware of the channels to follow and the implications of being absent from work without permission”.
Acting Judge SM Wentzel, in response to this, said: “I am a bit perplexed how it can be averred by the board that the applicant had been in service for 18 years... and still an initiate at the circumcision school which I believe to be a rite of passage from teenagehood into manhood.”
The judge said he was unfairly given the boot, as he did not have the chance to tell the chief of the army why he should not be fired.
The judge ordered the SANDF to reinstate him with full benefits.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
Pretoria News