Teacher Fired For Having Affair With Student Loses Supreme Court Appeal

An appeal by a fired married teacher from Bubi district was dismissed by the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed.

Mxolisi Mhlanga, a former teacher at Majiji High School in Matabeleland North was challenging a decision by his employer to fire him for having an affair with a pupil. Mhlanga proposed love to a then 20-year-old pupil in 2012 and had sex with her many times in the school’s storeroom, in the bush and near a river in Bubi. He was brought before a disciplinary committee for misconduct and violating a section of the Public Service Regulations of 2000.nHe was found guilty of improper association with the pupil and discharged from the civil service.

Mhlanga then approached the Labour Court in Bulawayo challenging his dismissal. Justice Mercy Moya-Matshanga upheld the disciplinary committee’s decision. Mhlanga then filed an appeal at the Supreme Court seeking an order setting aside the Labour Court’s ruling, citing the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as a respondent. Acting judge of appeal Justice Nokuthula Moyo, who was sitting with Supreme Court Judges Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza and Justice Lavender Makoni on circuit in Bulawayo, dismissed the appeal, saying it lacked merit.