REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
IN THE LABOUR COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA, PORT ELIZABETH
JUDGMENT
Not Reportable
Case No: P 276/12
In the matter between:
NOMANDLOVU EDNA PETER	Applicant
and
THE MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE	First Respondent
THE HEAD OF DEPARTMENT 
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION	
EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE	Second Respondent
THE MINISTER OF BASIC EDUCATION	Third Respondent
THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION	Fourth Respondent
Heard:	26 February 2014
Delivered:	5 March 2015
Summary:	The applicant cannot seek this court to compel the Department to determine her application for a transfer when she has not submitted a completed application form in terms of the transfer policy.
JUDGMENT
LALLIE J
[1]	The applicant is employed by the Department of Education of the Eastern 	Cape Province (“the Department”) as an educator, attached to the post 	establishment of Lilithalethu Junior Secondary School (“Lilithalethu”) in 	Idutywa. She has, for some time requested the second respondent, to 	consider her transfer in terms of section 8 of the Employment of Educator’s 	Act of 1998 (“the EEA”). Her request is based on her need to work in Port 	Elizabeth, closer to her family. In this application she seeks an order directing 	the respondents to consider her application from Lilithalethu to another post 	and thereafter to advise her through her attorneys of the outcome of her 	application. The application is opposed by the respondents on the grounds 	that the applicant has not submitted an application for transfer in accordance 	with the required procedure as set out in circular 19 of 2007 which provides 	for the procedure to transfer permanent serving employees (“the circular”). 	The circular requires an employee who wishes to be transferred to complete 	an application form for transfer.
[2]	It is common cause that the applicant’s headmaster told her in 2010 to 	complete the transfer application form. The applicant conceded that she 	submitted an incomplete application form on or about 11 August 2011. I have 	perused the applicant’s transfer application form. It is incomplete and does not 	comply with the circular. The applicant indicated in the form that she seeks an 	inter district/ inter provincial transfer. The form required her to complete and 	submit the whole of sections A and C for the inter district transfer and the 	whole of sections A and D for the inter provincial one. The way the directions 	for the completion of the transfer application form are couched is telling. It 	requires specific information for a specific application. I have perused the 	application form and it supports the respondent’s version. The applicant has 	given no valid reasons for her failure to complete the application form 	properly. The correspondence between the applicant and the Department did 	not sanitize her omission to complete the form properly. The form forms 	part of the transfer policy which the Department has to enforce as part of its 	obligation to manage its many employees properly. The information the 	applicant did not provide would have placed the Department in a position to 	determine her transfer application properly. The correct completion of the 	application form is a prerequisite for the consideration of the application for 	transfer. This court 	cannot compel the Department to consider the applicant’s 	application for transfer when she has not completed and submitted her 	application correctly and in terms of the transfer policy. 
[3]	In the premises, the following order is made:
3.1	The application is dismissed.

__________________________
Lallie J
Judge of the Labour Court of South Africa

APPEARANCES
For the Applicant:		Advocate Grobler
Instructed by:		Michael Randell Attorneys
For the respondent:		Advocate Gauss
Instructed by:		The State Attorney