The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporter
A Solusi Adventist High School headmaster has dragged the school and the Seventh Day Adventist Church to court to fight the termination of his employment contract by the South Zimbabwe Conference (SZC), SDA.
The headmaster, Mr Phanson Tshuma, in a letter written by the education director, Pastor Thamsanqa Ndlovu, was told to vacate office and surrender all school property to his juniors in May this year.
The headmaster then approached the courts in an urgent chamber application through his lawyer, Mr Ephraim Ndlovu of Mabundu and Ndlovu Law Chambers, challenging the decision to have his contract terminated.
In papers before the court, Pastor Ndlovu, Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education were cited as first, second and third respondents respectively.
The headmaster argues that the decision of the first respondent to terminate the contract of the applicant was unlawful and unjustified.
In his grounds of appeal, Mr Tshuma argued that first respondent had no right to terminate his employment, as it violates the Education Act (Chapter 25:04) and the Public Service Commission Act as he was not employed by the first or second respondents but by the third respondent.
“First respondent had written to me a letter terminating my employment at Solusi Adventist High School. The letter written and so titled ‘NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF YOUR SERVICES AT THE MISSION’, I fail to make good comprehension of this notice as I am not employed by a ‘Mission’ but I’m employed by the third respondent. To that effect, I move in the main that on the return date, the letter so authored by first respondent who is the ‘Mission’ be declared a nullity, to the extent of its intended purposes, albeit it in error,” read part of Mr Tshuma’s founding affidavit.
Mr Tshuma further stated that he had been carrying out his duties at the school accordingly. Pastor Ndlovu refused to comment on the matter saying he was not allowed to speak to the Press.
“I hope you understand that I am not the spokesperson of the church or the school, the best person to talk about anything that is happening at the school is the headmaster, if you need a comment from the church you should be able to give time for whoever will respond to find out from the school what the situation is. And this means that you should send questions in writing,” said Pastor Ndlovu.
