CAPE TOWN - Bellville Technical High School (BTHS) principal Michael Koopman has returned to his workplace and will claim more than R600 000 in back pay after his misconduct dismissal was recently found substantively unfair.
Koopman was found guilty and dismissed last year over allegations of sexually assaulting his personal assistance and being under the influence of alcohol while on duty.
He lodged an appeal with MEC Debbie Schäfer which was dismissed and proceeded to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC).
The ELRC ordered the reinstatement of Koopman, effective on Wednesday.
The assistant had testified that in July 2018, she attended a memorial service held in the school hall for a former pupil. She went to fetch the principal from his office because the pupils’ family wanted to thank him for the use of the hall.
As she was about to step out of her office into the hallway, the woman felt the principal pulling her back with both hands on her shoulders.
“She lost her balance and fell back with one foot in the air. She felt his erect penis pressing on her buttocks. She said that the applicant held it there for a few seconds. When she asked what he was doing, he laughed,” ELRC documents read.
The assistant explained that she felt embarrassed, hurt, and disgusted, and said nothing more to the principal, leaving him in the hall.
She had further testified about other incidents in May to September 2018 that Koopman had allegedly asked her to sit on his lap and placed his foot on her back.
The assistant also said the principal would smell of alcohol and had found an empty liquor bottle in his office.
Koopman had been fined R15 000 by the chairperson of the disciplinary inquiry regarding this incident. A 2017 sexual assault charge relating to hugging a teacher inappropriately was also dismissed.
Koopman denied all allegations levelled against him.
He testified that he was using chronic medication to control high blood pressure and experienced erectile dysfunction (ED). He explained that he is 1.76m tall and the assistant is about 1.55m and his genitals could therefore not have touched her buttocks.
Koopman further testified about tension between him and members of the SGB relating to alleged financial mismanagement.
Commissioner Jacques Buitendag said Koopman, through his medical practitioner, presented credible evidence of his ED and his applicant’s version that he was much taller than the assistant was not refuted.
“I find that the dismissal of the applicant is procedurally fair but substantively unfair.”
Buitendag requested that the South African Council for Educators (SACE) look into the matter of the fine, allegation of mismanagement of school finances and the dismissal of the 2017 allegations which had been done without the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing considering whether “there are any merits to these very serious allegations”.
“I believe it is only appropriate that SACE be made aware of these issues for its consideration. I am thus ordering that the ELRC file a copy of this award with the SACE,” said Buitendag.
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the department was still in the process of deciding to take the matter on review and Koopman returned to the school on Wednesday.
Cape Times