| (a) | Subject to paragraph (b), the power to dismiss an employee shall vest in the relevant executive authority and shall be exercised in accordance with the Labour Relations Act. |
| (b) | The power to dismiss an employee on account of misconduct in terms of subsection (2)(d) shall be exercised as provided for in section 16B(1). |
| (a) | incapacity due to ill health or injury; |
| (c) | incapacity due to poor work performance; or |
| (i) | An employee, other than a member of the services or an educator or a member of the Intelligence Services, who absents himself or herself from his or her official duties without permission of his or her head of department, office or institution for a period exceeding one calendar month, shall be deemed to have been dismissed from the public service on account of misconduct with effect from the date immediately succeeding his or her last day of attendance at his or her place of duty. |
| (ii) | If such an employee assumes other employment, he or she shall be deemed to have been dismissed as aforesaid irrespective of whether the said period has expired or not. |
| (b) | If an employee who is deemed to have been so dismissed, reports for duty at any time after the expiry of the period referred to in paragraph (a), the relevant executive authority may, on good cause shown and notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, approve the reinstatement of that employee in the public service in his or her former or any other post or position, and in such a case the period of his or her absence from official duty shall be deemed to be absence on vacation leave without pay or leave on such other conditions as the said authority may determine. |
| (i) | dismissed in terms of subsection (2)(d) for misconduct, including misconduct relating to the offering or receipt of any undue gratification or the facilitation of such offering or receipt; or |
| (ii) | deemed to be dismissed in terms of subsection (3), |
may only be re-employed by any department after the expiration of a prescribed period.
| (b) | Different periods may be so prescribed for different categories of misconduct. |
| (c) | Notwithstanding the condition contained in paragraph (a) that an employee may only be re-employed in any department after the expiration of a prescribed period, the Minister may prescribe acts of misconduct in respect of which no period need expire before a person is again employed in a department. |
| (d) | Subject to paragraph (a), a decision whether or not to re-employ a person dismissed in terms of subsection (2)(d) shall be taken with due regard to the nature of the misconduct concerned. |
[Section 17 substituted by section 25 of Act No. 86 of 1998]
