The ruling is the first document a CCMA commissioner reads when the dismissal is challenged, and it is the document your managers rely on when the employee's representative asks why. Every hearing chaired through the panel ends with a structured written outcome, delivered within three working days, in a form that can be handed to the employee, filed, and placed before a commissioner without a word changed.
As framed, with any amendment allowed and the reason for it.
Representation, postponement, the bundle, recusal: each one raised and how it was decided.
Witnesses named, documents identified, and a finding on each disputed fact with reasons.
Did the rule exist, was it known, was it broken, was it consistently applied, and, since the 2025 Code, why the rule matters in this workplace.
Decided before sanction. The two cannot be charged on the same facts.
Length of service, record, remorse, the effect on trust and consistency with similar cases, expressly weighed.
With reasons why a lesser sanction would not do.
That is the point: the outcome already provides the employer's defence if the matter is referred, because it covers the issues the commissioner will cover, in the order the commissioner will take them.
The panel is built for employers and schools with five or more staff that discipline employees a few times a year and do not have an HR department behind them.
An admitted attorney and registered HR practitioner, available on five working days' notice, or sooner by arrangement.
Preparation, the hearing, travel and travel time anywhere in Gauteng, and the structured written outcome. No hourly meter and no travel surprises.
Your disciplinary code and hearing notice templates are reviewed when you join, so the charge sheets that reach the chair are ones that can succeed.
A checklist and guideline for your managers covering the notice of hearing, changes to charges, postponements, representation, suspension, evidence and the outcome. Procedure is where employers lose; the checklist is how they stop losing.
Whether the matter is misconduct or incapacity, and whether a hearing is the right step at all.
Hearing fees are credited in full against an OptiHR HR retainer taken up within 60 days of any hearing.
Employers with five or more employees, up to a few hundred, that discipline staff a few times a year and want every hearing to end in a ruling that stands.
Educator hearings carry SACE and reputational consequences. Teacher performance is assessed on lesson observation, results, pastoral and co-curricular work and the school's ethos rather than on corporate measures, and the employer is usually a non-profit company or trust with a volunteer board. The board wants one chair who understands the classroom, the law and the governance together. That combination is rare, and it is the one OptiHR's director brings as an attorney, HR practitioner and former educator.
The same standard of hearing at every site, from one chair who knows the group's code. Ask for the group rate.
All rates exclude VAT. Both hearing rates include preparation, the hearing, the structured written outcome delivered within three working days, and all travel and travel time within Gauteng.
Half-day hearing
Panel members: R5,500
For most single-charge misconduct and incapacity hearings. A hearing that runs beyond the booked time is charged at the applicable rate.
Book a hearingFull-day hearing
Panel members: R9,500
For multi-charge matters, several witnesses, represented employees and educator hearings. A second day is charged at the same rate.
Book a hearingPanel membership
Twelve month agreement, payable by debit order. Includes the code and template review, the procedural fairness checklist, priority booking and the member hearing rates.
Join the panelNotes
Outside Gauteng, travel and accommodation are charged at cost. Schools and franchise groups with more than one site can ask for the group rate. If you join the panel within 60 days of a once-off hearing, the difference between the member and non-member rate is credited to your first year.
Panel members receive a two-page checklist and guideline. Each item is a yes or no question with a short note on what the law and the Code expect.
Investigated by someone who will not chair. Misconduct or incapacity decided first. The rule exists in writing and the employee knew it. Suspension only where necessary, on full pay, with a chance to make representations.
Each charge set out separately with date, place, conduct and rule. Date, time, venue and chairperson named. Rights to representation, witnesses, cross-examination and an interpreter stated. At least 48 hours' notice, five days for serious charges. In a language the employee understands, with proof of receipt and the documents relied on.
An amended or added charge means a fresh notice and more time. A first reasonable request for postponement is granted. A change of chairperson is disclosed with an opportunity to object.
Process explained, pleas taken on each charge, the initiator's evidence first with every witness open to cross-examination, the employee heard on the merits and separately on sanction, no contact between initiator and chair outside the room, and a full record.
Each charge, each preliminary point, the five rule questions, misconduct versus incapacity, mitigation and aggravation, and the sanction with reasons. Delivered in writing with the date and the right to refer to the CCMA within 30 days.
Book a free consultation. We look at your code, your notice templates and your last year's matters.
Sign the panel agreement and we do the template review and issue the checklist in the first month.
When a matter arises, send the charge sheet and bundle. We confirm the date, chair the hearing and deliver the outcome within three working days.
If the matter goes to the CCMA, the same practitioner who chaired can advise, and the fees you have paid count towards a retainer.
OptiHR acts for employers only. Tell us about the hearing or the business and we will confirm availability and the rate the same day.
Book a free consultation and find out exactly where your business stands — no commitment, no pressure.