Transfer fight teacher sent to Labour Court

THE Bulawayo High Court has referred a Kwekwe primary school teacher who is challenging her transfer to a rural school in the Midlands Province to the Labour Court.

The ruling by Justice Nokuthula Moyo follows an urgent chamber application by Gamuchirai Chabata who is fighting her transfer back to Vulamatshena Primary School in Zhombe, barely a year after she left the same school.

Justice Moyo said Chabata presented her case to the wrong platform and urged her to approach the Labour Court.

"This is purely a labour issue and the Labour Court has a statutory jurisdiction to deal with such matters. The Labour Court is clothed with capacity to handle urgent applications on labour matters and to stop any labour situations it would have found unjust," ruled the judge.

In papers before the court, Chabata, who is the sole applicant cited the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) as the respondents.

Chabata said she received a letter from the Education Ministry on January 5 notifying her of the transfer with immediate effect.

Chabata, through her lawyers, Mutatu and Partners, sought an order that permanently interdicted Dokora and the CSC from transferring her to Zhombe without her consent.

"The primary reason for my application is that I'm a married woman and my husband and family are resident in Kwekwe and therefore it's important for us to stay together. It's my belief that our custom and even the law supports and respect the union of a family," argued Chabata in her founding affidavit.

She said last year in March, she successfully requested for a transfer from Zhombe to Kwekwe.

Chabata said she was shocked when she received a letter on January 5 this year ordering her to return to Vulamatshena Primary School.

She said the transfer was prejudicial and detrimental to her and her family and urged the court to reverse it.

Chabata argued that in terms of transfer regulations, a transfer has to be planned to minimise discomfort on the part of the affected person or his or her family.

The teacher's case comes at a time when the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) has also dragged the Education Ministry and the CSC to court for cancelling teachers' vacation leave.