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The Citizen reports that a Western Cape doctor accused of treating patients while under the influence of cocaine lost his case after the Labour Court (LC) found his dismissal had been fair.
Dr A Kleynhans was fired after reportedly arriving at work at Uniondale Provincial Hospital on three separate occasions in August 2019 while intoxicated. His dismissal was initially overturned following an arbitrator’s finding that it was procedurally unfair and awarded him six months’ remuneration. However, the LC ruled in favour of the Western Cape department of health after a review application was lodged. A nursing manager at the hospital testified seeing Kleynhans unsteady on his feet, confused, with dilated pupils, slurred speech and a white substance around his mouth in two separate incidents. When asked about the white residue, the doctor claimed it was from peppermints. Kleynhans denied being under the influence of illicit substances at work, but he did not dispute to once having used cocaine at home. Judge Robert Lagrange agreed with the department, stating that Kleynhans’s conduct posed “an imminent threat to patients, the liability of the department and himself”. He said: “It is untenable on the evidence of the high risks Kleynhans posed, that the arbitrator could have formed a view that Kleynhans’s conduct was less serious than that and that dismissal was an unfair sanction for the department to impose.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Molefe Seeletsa at The Citizen
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