Traffic officer stripped of senior rank

A KwaZulu-Natal traffic inspector has been stripped of senior rank because he does not have a matric certificate.

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Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal traffic inspector has been stripped of his senior rank because he does not have a matric certificate.

In a recent judgment, Durban Labour Court Judge Benita Whitcher found that officer M S Mkabela should not have been promoted to the post of chief provincial inspector.

The matter had been brought on review before the judge by the Transport Department against an arbitrator’s decision, which found that the promotion had been unfair.

Judge Whitcher, however, disagreed with the arbitrator’s ruling that Mkabela’s promotion should not be set aside but that another chief inspector’s post be created.

She found that the creation of another post was unreasonable.

Instead, she ordered that Mkabela’s rank be reduced to that of a principal inspector, a rank he had initially held.

She said this should take place on or before Wednesday, but that his salary should remain unchanged.

In 2003, Mkabela, who works in the department’s public transport enforcement unit, was selected to provide bodyguard services to then transport MEC S’bu Ndebele.

He kept the same salary, but was given the title of senior protection officer.

When Ndebele became the premier in 2007, Mkabela was asked to return to the enforcement unit.

His union then complained that he should have had the rank of a chief provincial inspector as that was the rank equivalent to the position he had held in the special operation teams, and his rank was changed.

Other officers in the enforcement unit complained, as they said that they had also provided body guarding services for extended periods and had not been promoted.

They took the matter to arbitration and the arbitrator found that Mkabela’s promotion had been unfair yet did not set it aside, but recommended that another chief inspector’s be created.

The Transport Department took this decision on review, which has now been decided by Judge Whitcher.

The department had argued that Mkabela had not been promoted but had been a “translation in rank”, but the judge disagreed.

“It does not matter precisely when the promotion occurred or what the employer purported to call it.”

She said evidence showed that Mkabela did not have a senior certificate, which was a requirement of the position.

The judge agreed with the arbitrator that failure to meet this requirement was enough to make the promotion unfair.

The Mercury