Senior professor, 72, challenges mandatory retirement age

A FORMER lecturer at the University of South Africa (Unisa) took the institution to court in an effort to get his job back after he unwillingly retired when he turned 65.

- SINENHLANHLA MASILELA [e-mail]

Jan Walters Kruger’s academic journey at Unisa began in 2001 when he joined as an independent contractor, eventually rising through the ranks to become an associate professor in November 2012 and later achieving the title of professor in January 2018.

He retired in January 2019 and following his retirement, he approached the Labour Court in Johannesburg seeking reinstatement or, alternatively, 24 months’ compensation.

In his statement, Kruger said that before retiring, in July 2018 he lodged a grievance with the employee relations directorate stating that compulsory retirement was a violation of human rights as it is discrimination against adults based on their age.

He also mentioned that he had no intention to retire.

He received a response in September 2018 stating that the policy for termination of employment that was adopted by all stakeholders in the Unisa bargaining council in July 2017 does not discriminate against employees based on age.

But the academic contended that his dismissal was automatically unfair because there was no normal retirement age, as there were people who were employed by Unisa who were over 65.