[Image: PickPik]
A Western Cape doctor who blamed his bizarre on-the-job behaviour on prescription meds has just had the Labour Court slam the door in his face, ruling that his dismissal for showing up high on cocaine was fair game.
Dr A. Kleynhans apparently waltzed into work off his rocker three times in August 2019, reportedly clocking in while clearly intoxicated. Unsurprisingly, he got the boot.
But, plot twist, he briefly won round one when an arbitrator declared the dismissal “procedurally unfair” and handed him six months’ pay as a consolation prize.
That victory was short-lived. The Western Cape Department of Health wasn’t having it and took the case upstairs to the Labour Court, which promptly flipped the script and ruled in favour of the department, The Citizen reported.
“Prescription meds,” or just coke?
Kleynhans initially faced two charges of misconduct. One, about botching a drip insertion, was dropped. The other? Not so lucky. He pleaded guilty to the remaining charge but swore it wasn’t cocaine, just good ol’ epilepsy and mood disorder meds messing with him. Right.
A nurse at the arbitration hearing said she had to physically stop him from performing a lumbar puncture… on the wrong patient. On another day, he mixed up prescriptions and insisted 24 patients were waiting when the real number was just six. Who knew math goes out the window when you’re under the influence of illicit substances?
An expert was brought in to settle the medication debate and made it clear that nope, those drugs wouldn’t make you act drowsy, even with another med thrown into the mix.
Oh, and Kleynhans himself admitted to dabbling in cocaine now and then. Just recreational, you know?
White residue and wild excuses
A nursing manager at Uniondale Provincial Hospital testified to seeing the doctor stumbling, slurring, pupils dilated, with a suspicious white crust around his mouth. Twice. He didn’t tell her he was on meds. Instead, on three different occasions, staff had to send him packing after deciding he was unfit to work.
Dr H Louw, medical manager for the George sub-district, said patients even complained about him looking unstable.
When asked about the mystery white powder? “It was peppermints,” Kleynhans claimed. Because apparently, Mentos now comes with side effects.
“I didn’t lie… I just wasn’t truthful”
Kleynhans tried to paint himself as an overworked medic with a tough medical history. He’d previously been medically boarded from the navy for epilepsy and now blamed his mess-ups on sleep deprivation from hectic weekend shifts.
Dry mouth? That’s why he was chewing mints. The confusion? All the nurse’s fault, he claimed he just followed her advice.
Despite pleading guilty at the disciplinary hearing, Kleynhans insisted it was conditional on his belief that medication was the culprit and not drugs.
He denied ever being high at work. But he also couldn’t explain why he once claimed he’d never touched a habit-forming substance, despite admitting to cocaine use at home. No proof of prescriptions, no medical records. And he refused a blood test because – get this – he says there were no illegal substances in his system. Sorry, but that sounds like a textbook addict.
Yet he admitted to all the symptoms his colleagues described. He also agreed with Louw’s claim that his personal hygiene was shot and confirmed she’d even offered him help and rehab. Not his finest hour.
He mentioned she gave him a verbal warning back in 2017 too – not that it ever made it into the record books.
The arbitrator’s mercy… revoked
The arbitrator, after hearing from a laundry list of unimpressed colleagues, concluded that Kleynhans was probably on coke during the 2019 incidents. She noted his refusal to take a drug test, the lack of any medical proof, and the expert opinion that his meds wouldn’t cause intoxication.
Still, despite all that, she decided a full dismissal was too harsh. Six months’ pay, she ruled. A slap on the wrist and back to business.
Then the Labour Court shuts it down
The department wasn’t about to let that slide. They took it to the Labour Court on 19 June 2024, and Judge Robert Lagrange brought the hammer down.
He said Kleynhans posed “an imminent threat to patients, the liability of the department and himself.”
“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,” Lagrange added.
Kleynhans had the gall to argue he’d never officially been dismissed, but the judge wasn’t buying it.
“In any event, it was clear he did admit to having been under the influence of an intoxicating substance, but qualified his admission by stating it was his prescription medication which was the cause of his condition,” the ruling, handed down on 2 April, read.
And with that, the judge tossed out the arbitrator’s decision completely – both on the process and the final outcome – calling it.
[Source: Citizen]
