{"id":89509,"date":"2025-09-10T17:38:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-criticizes-witch-hunt-after-court-ruling-on-mec"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:54:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:54:42","slug":"da-criticizes-witch-hunt-after-court-ruling-on-mec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-criticizes-witch-hunt-after-court-ruling-on-mec","title":{"rendered":"DA Criticizes &#8216;Witch Hunt&#8217; After Court Ruling on MEC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The DA has welcomed a labour court ruling in favour of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie against the Gauteng education department (GDE), saying it exposes a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d by MEC Matome Chiloane.<\/p>\n<p>The court found the department violated grievance procedures in its handling of Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) principal Philippa Erasmus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis victory further affirms the DA in Gauteng&#8217;s position regarding the perpetual disregard for procedures by the GDE under the leadership of Chiloane,\u201d said DA Gauteng shadow MEC for education Sergio Isa Dos Santos.<\/p>\n<p>He said the case highlighted unfair and disproportionate disciplinary action taken against Erasmus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the beginning of the PHSG saga, the DA has consistently stated this is nothing more than a witch hunt and has flagged the selective and inconsistent application of disciplinary action by the GDE in this case,\u201d said Dos Santos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile this case was pursued with astonishing speed and vigour, processes were not properly followed. This is in stark contrast to alleged serious misconduct incidents at other schools, which tend to be pursued with abysmal speed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The party said the labour court judgment sends a clear warning that the GDE cannot \u201cdisregard due process and the rights of employees\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe DA demands that MEC Chiloane immediately reverse his department&#8217;s decision to suspend Erasmus for three months without pay. We further insist that the report be made public, redacting the names of witnesses,\u201d added Dos Santos.<\/p>\n<p>He called on Chiloane to end what he described as a culture of selective discipline, saying every school, educator and pupil \u201cmust be treated with fairness and dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The DA has welcomed a labour court ruling in favour of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie against the Gauteng education department (GDE), saying it exposes a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d by MEC Matome Chiloane. The court found the department violated grievance procedures in its handling of Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) principal Philippa Erasmus. \u201cThis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-89509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DA Criticizes &#039;Witch Hunt&#039; After Court Ruling on MEC - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The DA has welcomed a labour court ruling in favour of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie against the Gauteng education ...\" \/>\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\/da-criticizes-witch-hunt-after-court-ruling-on-mec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DA Criticizes &#039;Witch Hunt&#039; 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