WATCH | Return of fired ‘sex pest’ teacher after appeal sparks anger

“You are fit and you would make a perfect makoti for my family.”

This is what a grade 10 teacher allegedly told one of his pupils repeatedly during class at Boksburg High School in Ekurhuleni last year. The comments led to the teacher’s dismal following a hearing which found him guilty of sexual harassment.

During the hearings, four cases by pupils and one by an educator were heard and 18 witnesses were called to testify.

But on Thursday last week, the Gauteng department of education wrote to the school, saying the teacher would return to the school on Monday, citing his successful appeal against his dismissal.

In response, angry parents and pupils protested outside the school against his return.

The SGB said his successful appeal had not been communicated to them properly.

Department spokesperson Steve Mabona yesterday confirmed that the teacher, whose name is known to Sowetan, had successful appealed his axing.

“Subsequently, an internal investigation revealed that the educator did not sexually assault four girl learners. However, the investigation reportedly found that he made inappropriate remarks to a learner ... he appealed the verdict, and his appeal was favourable to him. Hence, a decision to reinstate him was made,” said Mabona.

According to Brownyn Basson, the school’s SGB member, they were surprised when they received an email from the department last week informing them that the teacher would be returning to the school.

“The news was very disturbing, and we have expressed our dismay with this to the department and fully support students with the call for him not to come back and be completely dismissed from being an educator. An official from the MEC’s office was sent and assured us that the matter was being treated with a sense of urgency.”

She said initially, the teacher was found guilty of sexual assault on a fellow educator as well as four female learners at the school and was dismissed.

Basson said the teacher had joined the school in April last year.

“Within a month after he joined, the school started receiving reports and accusations of sexual harassment. The suspension came about early December and there were many witnesses to the case, resulting in his dismissal,” she said.

The panel that dismissed him included SGB members and officials from the department of education.

“But when the appeal was made, none of the victims were notified about the process. His victims -the teacher and the learners - are incredibly disturbed. We can only hope he is taken to justice in a criminal capacity where he will be barred from being an educator,” said Basson.

One of the protesting parents said she was worried when she noticed her 15-year-old daughter’s unwillingness to go to school last year.

The woman said her daughter then opened up to her that the teacher had been marking suggestive remarks about her body and that one day she would make a perfect makoti. “I found such comments disturbing because we send children to school to learn not to be courted by a man old enough to be their parent,” said the parent.

However, last night the principal, Enoch Thango, wrote to parents informing them that they had met with the department and the teacher has been removed from the school with immediate effect.

“Furthermore, the MEC for education, Mr Matome Chiloane, has confirmed that he will personally preside over the review of the appeal verdict to ensure fairness, transparency, and justice in this matter,” said Thango in the letter.

Mabona said following the accusations against the teacher, he was transferred to report at the district office.

He, however, re-emerged at the neighbouring Windmill Park High School in the third term this year to teach tourism and maths.

Bongani Dayimane, SGB chairperson at Windmill Park Secondary School, said the department had alerted him that the teacher had been temporarily placed at their school by the district office pending disciplinary action at another school.

“Charges against the teacher were not disclosed to me as the SGB chair. I learned about them when I started getting inquiring calls about allegations of similar sexual harassment in our school, none of which so far have been officially reported by neither educator nor pupils. I am aware he has since left our school, ”said Dayimane.

Mabona said the educator will continue to report to the district office until further notice.

Sowetan