DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, February 7, 2017 (IOL): A Northdale Hospital operations manager, who was ordered to remove her Hindu deities from her work locker, is undergoing psychiatric treatment to help her come to terms with the ordeal. Last week, the manager was forced to remove her religious items – which included an incense stick, a statue of Hindu Deity Lord Muruga, and a framed photograph of Sai Baba – from her locker at the Pietermaritzburg hospital and show them to the hospital chief executive officer (CEO), Buhle Maphanga, as well as seven members of the hospital’s executive committee.
Noel Desfontaines, general secretary for the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa), said, “On the facts available, the operations manager can lodge a grievance for the manner in which she has been treated and also consider lodging a dispute with the CCMA for discrimination. If true, the actions of the CEO, Maphanga, appear to be extremely high-handed, ignorant and intolerable of an employee’s religious belief. Maphanga’s actions could certainly constitute a sufficiently serious offence that could justify dismissal,” Desfontaines said.