Bukelwa Mbulawa, a cleaner at Luhlaza Secondary School in Khayelitsha, is an animal rights hero. On realising a stray dog was being buried alive by two colleagues on the school field, Bukelwa called animal welfare organisation International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to alert them to what was going down. The dog was saved and later called Warrior. IFAW says she’s a hero. But Bukelwa has now been fired.

She took a day off to care for Warrior after he was rescued, and on her return to work on Friday discovered she had been dismissed. Colleagues informed her that the principal of the school held a meeting with her fellow cleaners while she was away, to tell them she should not come back as she no longer had a job. She believes the principal got wind of the fact that she had called IFAW and took pictures of the attempted burial of the dog.

Principal Manono Makhaphela has denied that Bukelwa was dismissed for any such reason and has said they simply don’t have the funds to pay her salary anymore. Bukelwa has been called a hero by IFAW for her act of compassion. She is the only breadwinner in her household.

[Source: Cape Times]