Pregnant man fined in SA court

[compilerbitch]

(From BBC News)

A South African man has been fined $140 for taking a week off work, telling his employers he was pregnant.

Charles Sibindana, 27, stole a certificate from a clinic during his pregnant girlfriend's checkup, a court near Johannesburg heard.
He then added his own details to the note and submitted it and took seven days off work, seemingly unaware that only women consult gynaecologists.
His employers became suspicious and investigated the matter. On passing sentence Magistrate Bruno Van Eeden warned Mr Sibindana "not to walk around faking sick letters from gynaecologists" as if he was pregnant, the South African Press Association news agency reported.

Comments

[simont]

You hardly need to fine him. He'll never live it down among his colleagues!

(Also one would have thought his employer's normal internal disciplinary procedure ought to be more than sufficient without having to involve a court, surely? Unless the point is that faking a sick note is falsifying a legal document and the court might reasonably take a dim view of that regardless of whether or not he then used it to defraud his company of a week's work.)

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

That aspect was a little chilling, yes -- sounds a little too much like indentured servitude. I posted the link partly because it was funny, but also because of that particular insight.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

He also stole the certificate, which might also explain the court's involvement.