Every day Siviwe Cuba, a teacher at Brenthurst Primary School in Brakpan on the East Rand, spends his day at the Gauteng education district offices blankly staring through the window worrying about his future.
Cuba has been reporting at the district offices for the past six months and he said he has no clue what the future holds for him.
The 47-year-old teacher said his problems started when he stood up for teachers at the school last year after the principal allegedly threatened that no one will be paid if they tested positive for Covid-19 and go into isolation.
“At the time I was working as the head of psycho-social for Covid-19 at the school and I confronted the principal about these allegations. Unfortunately, the school management team told me to report at the district offices without giving me the reason. It has been six months since I started coming here at the district and I really don't know what my future holds," Cuba said.
"I feel like I am losing my mind because I sit here doing absolutely nothing. Even though I am getting my salary, I don’t know what will happen after this and where my future as a teacher stands."
Cuba said he was never welcomed at the school from the first day when he started working there in 2015.
“I was accused by school management team of sexually harassing six pupils between the ages of nine and 10. The allegations came a month after I had been with the school. Ever since then I have been fighting to have my name cleared and I even handed myself to the police to be arrested if I was on the wrong side of the law but nothing happened. The matter was investigated by the department and I was cleared of all the charges,” he said.
Cuba said he doesn’t know if he will have enough courage to face the pupils as his reputation has been damaged.
“I have asked the department to remove me from the school and (let me) go teach elsewhere as I am not sure if I can stand in front of those pupils. I will not be comfortable at all because I will always have to look behind my back because I don't know what will happen to me next,” he said.
School principal Razia Ganchie-Badassie refused to comment.
Sowetan sent questions to Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona by e-mail early yesterday but he had not responded at the time of publication.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.