{"id":45849,"date":"2023-03-16T19:21:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T19:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague"},"modified":"2023-03-16T20:28:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:28:45","slug":"dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague","title":{"rendered":"‘Dangerous’ special-needs school teacher fired after severly assaulting colleague"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Education Labour Relations Council has upheld the Western Cape Education Department’s decision to fire a teacher who severely assaulted her colleague, leaving her injured and semi-conscious. The victim’s 3-year-old child witnessed the attack.<\/p>\n

The teacher, Lulama Gagela, who has a history of violence, took the matter to the council, claiming the dismissal was unfair.<\/p>\n

However, the council arbitrator, Arthi Singh-Bhoopchand, said the department had dismissed Gagela to protect the school’s best interests and the learning environment.<\/p>\n

“It is evident that this is not the first time that the applicant [Gagela] has transgressed. It is unlikely that training and instruction will result in her not repeating the misconduct.<\/p>\n

“The misconduct is in any event too serious given that it impacts on the safety of fellow educators,” said Singh-Bhoopchand.<\/p>\n

According to the council, both Gagela and her colleague, identified only as Ms Sonkqayi, worked at Khayelitsha Special School – a facility for children with special education needs.<\/p>\n

Gagela, a traditional healer, is a qualified sangoma and Sonkqayi was an initiate under Gagela’s tutelage.<\/p>\n

On 14 August 2022, Sonkqayi went to Gagela’s house. Later, Sonkqayi wanted to leave but Gagela said she must stay longer.<\/p>\n

When Sonkqayi again said she wanted to go, Gagela said she tried to stop her from leaving by holding her hand.<\/p>\n

However, according to Gagela, Sonkqayi pulled her dreadlocks and she fell.<\/p>\n

Gagela said Sonkqayi hit her, pulled her beads from her neck, threw her beads away, and left.<\/p>\n

Gagela claimed she later went to Sonkqayi’s house to ask why she beat her.<\/p>\n

She said Sonkqayi picked up an iron rod and hit her on her left foot.<\/p>\n

In turn, she beat up Sonkqayi with the rod and her hands in self-defence.<\/p>\n

In Sonkqayi’s testimony, however, she said she was bent over the stove when Gagela suddenly appeared behind her and began beating her with an iron rod.<\/p>\n

She said she was assaulted in front of her child, who was left traumatised.<\/p>\n

She said Gagela hit her head, jaw, ribs, and fingers with the rod, fracturing her fingers and jaw.<\/p>\n

Singh-Bhoopchand said Sonkqayi was referred to the Tygerberg Hospital for specialised surgery to her jaw.<\/p>\n

The arbitrator said in her ruling:<\/p>\n

The matter was also reported to the police, and a criminal case was under way. The department fired Gagela, but she took the dismissal to the council, claiming the procedure had been unfair.<\/p>\n

In her testimony, Sonkqayi said she would not feel safe at school if Gagela was reinstated.<\/p>\n

She also said she would not recommend that Gagela be transferred to another school as she considers her to be dangerous.<\/p>\n

According to Sonkqayi, Gagela was prone to fits of anger which led to her becoming violent and had previously attacked another teacher who was her senior.<\/p>\n

In her ruling, Singh-Bhoopchand said Gagela’s dismissal had been procedurally and substantively fair.<\/p>\n

“Her conduct is unbecoming of an educator. It does not matter that the assault took place outside of school. The assault was perpetrated on a colleague, and this is bound to impact work relationships,” Singh-Bhoopchand said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Education Labour Relations Council has upheld the Western Cape Education Department’s decision to fire a teacher who severely assaulted her colleague, leaving her injured and semi-conscious. The victim’s 3-year-old child witnessed the attack. The teacher, Lulama Gagela, who has a history of violence, took the matter to the council, claiming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":45848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[274,315,279,2372,228,275,295],"class_list":["post-45849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-cape-town","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-education","tag-south-africa-2","tag-western-cape"],"yoast_head":"\n'Dangerous' special-needs school teacher fired after severly assaulting colleague - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Education Labour Relations Council has upheld the Western Cape Education Department's decision to fire a teacher who ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Dangerous' special-needs school teacher fired after severly assaulting colleague\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Education Labour Relations Council has upheld the Western Cape Education Department's decision to fire a teacher who ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-16T19:21:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-16T20:28:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678981881.00.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"‘Dangerous’ special-needs school teacher fired after severly assaulting colleague\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-16T19:21:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-16T20:28:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\"},\"wordCount\":536,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678981881.00.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"cape town\",\"crime and courts\",\"Education\",\"South-Africa\",\"western cape\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/dangerous-special-needs-school-teacher-fired-after-severly-assaulting-colleague\",\"name\":\"'Dangerous' special-needs school teacher fired after severly assaulting colleague - 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