Fraudulent sick notes have been treated with severity across South African commissions, courts and regulatory bodies, with scholars and judges emphasising that such acts constitute dishonesty, obstruction of justice, and professional misconduct.
The most urgent solution lies in co-ordinated HR, judicial and regulatory action, with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) empowered to investigate and punish doctors who collude in issuing false certificates.
The abuse of medical certificates before the Madlanga commission mirrors evasive tactics seen in courts and tribunals. Prof Alan Rycroft at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has argued that dishonesty in labour relations erodes the trust relationship and justifies dismissal, citing Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA ) precedents where fraudulent sick notes were treated as gross misconduct.
Similarly, University of the Western Cape Prof Darcy du Toit emphasises that procedural fairness requires both investigation and sanction when fraudulent documentation is presented, aligning with the Labour Relations Act’s insistence on substantive and procedural fairness.
Courts have consistently rejected “sick note tricks”. Magistrates and judges have demanded independent verification and treated fraudulent medical certificates as contempt of court. In S v Mamabolo (2001), the Constitutional Court underscored that obstruction of justice undermines constitutional imperatives. Sethene AJ in Epibiz v CCMA (2023) warned that doctors must remain true to the Hippocratic Oath and not become accomplices in deception.
The CCMA has upheld dismissals for fraudulent sick notes, reinforcing that dishonesty undermines trust in employment relationships
— Grant Reagon Son
Regulators across sectors have acted decisively. The Legal Practice Council has disbarred attorneys for fraudulent documentation, while the South African Council for Educators has struck educators off the roll for fraudulent medical claims.
The HPCSA is central to resolving this issue. Prof Ames Dhai of Wits University’s Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics has argued that issuing misleading medical reports violates ethical duties and must attract harsh sanctions. The HPCSA’s disciplinary framework allows for suspension, deregistration, and criminal referral. Co-ordinated action should require commissions to refer all dubious sick notes to the HPCSA, mandate urgent investigations, and impose sanctions that send a clear deterrent message.
Comparative case law from the Truth & Reconciliation Commission and Zondo commission demonstrates that evasive tactics undermine truth-seeking. Prof Hugh Corder of UCT has emphasised that commissions must uphold constitutional values by rejecting fraudulent excuses. The CCMA has upheld dismissals for fraudulent sick notes, reinforcing that dishonesty undermines trust in employment relationships.
Fraudulent sick notes undermine justice, governance and professional ethics. The solution lies in decisive, punitive and ethically grounded accountability, with the HPCSA playing a central role.
— Grant Reagon Son
Strangers to ubuntu
For years, we have raised the alarm regarding xenophobia in South Africa. Each time, we are met with a tired chorus of excuses: “South Africans are not xenophobic; they are simply raising genuine socioeconomic concerns,” or “they are under pressure”.
If we accept this logic, we must be prepared to apply it universally. If economic strain justifies the targeting of fellow Africans, are we prepared to excuse all criminal activity born of poverty? Shall we excuse gender-based violence (GBV) and bigotry by claiming the perpetrators are merely “frustrated men”? If we validate xenophobia as a “genuine issue”, we strip ourselves of the moral authority to condemn any other form of social transgression. We can no longer demand awareness; we must accept the chaotic consequences of our own double standards.
The tragedy of this xenophobic sentiment is its profound ignorance of our own history. Proponents of this “South Africans first” ideology seem blissfully unaware of the migration patterns that define the Bantu-speaking peoples. Linguistic and archaeological evidence, most notably the Bantu expansion, confirms that our ancestors were not static inhabitants of this land. Research, including findings in the Journal of African History, traces the origins of the Nguni, Sotho-Tswana and related groups to migrations originating from the Great Lakes region through Central Africa and the Congo Basin. To claim “indigenous” purity over our fellow Africans is to reject the very history that defines who we are as abantu.
Where is the ubuntu we brandish on our foreheads like a badge of honour? Compassion, love and care have been replaced by a barbaric glee at the displacement and suffering of others
— Khotso KD Moleko, Mangaung
Furthermore, by weaponising colonial borders, we become the unwitting agents of the Berlin Conference. If we treat these arbitrary lines — drawn by European powers to carve up our continent — as sacred, how can we legitimately claim that colonialism was an evil? We are effectively completing the colonial project by doing the work of the oppressor: dividing and conquering ourselves.
Consider the irony: as a nation, we have shown immense, perhaps unprecedented, grace. We chose to forgive centuries of slavery, colonial subjugation, and the brutal reality of apartheid. We enshrined the rights of our former oppressors within our constitution and have not once marched to demand that white South Africans return to Europe. Yet, within a mere 30 years of democracy, we are dismantling the hope that the rest of the continent placed in us. We have traded the pan-African dream for a petty, provincial hatred.
It is no longer white supremacists calling Africans “baboons”; that dehumanising slur has been adopted by black South Africans against their own kin. Where is the ubuntu we brandish on our foreheads like a badge of honour? Compassion, love and care have been replaced by a barbaric glee at the displacement and suffering of others.
We cannot demand to be taken seriously on the global stage when we act as the primary saboteurs of our own African identity. If we continue to view our brothers and sisters as “foreigners” on African soil, we ensure that we remain foreigners to the very values of humanity we claim to uphold.
— Khotso KD Moleko, Mangaung
Retract this foul smear
Dear Mr Tsedu, I enjoy your articles so much but I was thoroughly disappointed to read “Why I supported France against Morocco”, where you repeat a thoroughly disputed claim that “some powerful Cameroonian official” demanded a bribe for Mbappé to play for Cameroon.
This puts Africa in a very bad light and reinforces the oft-repeated lie that we Africans are the most corrupt people in the world. Never mind that the story itself has been disputed several times by Mbappé’s father.
And this, coming from a journalist that I hold in very high regard is so heartbreaking for me. I hope you retract that in your next column and restore the dignity of us Africans and that of the Sunday Times.
— Raphael Mlauzi, Cape Town
Buy satellites for Telkom
Former DA leader John Steenhuisen exposed a clique that pulls strings behind the scenes from within and without the party walls. The minister of communications & digital technologies, Solly Malatsi, is not even ashamed to feign innocence. This is despite Malatsi’s complicity in machinations to scrap the 30% sale of equity for broad-based BEE ownership in favour of Starlink.
Malatsi is an enabler in the ambition to circumvent the law. Malatsi’s policy directive sought to introduce a façade investment programme as an alternative to a working model of equity equivalents. It was plain manoeuvring for the exclusive benefit of Starlink, whose proprietor has no desire to comply with B-BBEE.
The government should intervene and allocate capital for Telkom to venture into the satellite service space in a similar fashion to how it entered the mobile telephone market. That would be a foundation for stimulating a flow of foreign investments to broaden participation and increase job opportunities.
— Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni
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