A former law enforcement officer in Cape Town just lost her bid to get her job back after she misplaced her service firearm, along with ammo and magazines, during a grueling overtime shift amid a taxi strike. The Labour Court sided with the city, saying her firing was fair despite some procedural hiccups.
In the ruling, the judge noted that while there were mistakes in how the case was handled that allowed her appeal to go forward, she couldn’t prove her dismissal was unjust.
The officer, Venus Bianca Jansen, worked in the city’s Safety and Security team. Back in March 2023, she was pulling extra-long hours because of the taxi strike violence. That’s when she lost her gun, 34 bullets, and two magazines. She didn’t report it right away, it took days and she couldn’t say how or where it happened.
After an internal investigation, she was fired in October 2023 for not taking care of city property, delaying the police report, and improper storage of the weapon. Her appeal inside the city didn’t change anything; it was upheld in December.
She tried to fight it at the bargaining council for local government workers, but her claim was filed a few days late. The arbitrator wouldn’t overlook the delay, saying she and her lawyer knew about the deadline and let it slip. So, she took it to the Labour Court for a review.
Things got messy with court paperwork delays in filing records and mix-ups with notices. The city argued her case should be tossed out because of it.
The judge decided to let the review proceed anyway, since the city wasn’t really hurt by the delays. But then, looking at the merits, he wasn’t convinced by her arguments.
Jansen claimed she was so exhausted from the long shifts that it messed with her head and led to the loss. She said expert testimony could back that up.
The court wasn’t buying it. The judge pointed out she never even gave a rough idea of how such a big bunch of items could just vanish. He stressed that losing a police gun is super serious because it could end up in the wrong hands and cause real harm.
In the end, her fatigue excuse didn’t hold water, and the court said she had no shot at winning. The review was dismissed, and her firing stands. No costs were ordered, but it’s the end of the road for this drawn-out battle over misconduct and paperwork snafus.