The department of basic education has raised concerns about the rising number of sexual misconduct cases against teachers as it revealed that 132 cases of sexual misconduct had been reported so far in the current financial year which started in April.
Last year, 122 cases of sexual misconduct were reported against educators.
Members of the portfolio committee on basic education heard the shocking statistics on Tuesday.
During the presentation, the department’s acting director-general Granville Whittle said the top three provinces with the highest rate of sexual misconduct cases reported were Free State with 27 cases, followed by Gauteng with 10 cases and KwaZulu-Natal with nine.
“We also have 275 cases of sexual misconduct that were reported in the provinces for the period of 2019-2020 and 2021 financial years. Out of the 275 cases, 166 have been finalised and 92 are still pending. The number of finalised cases include those that have been withdrawn due to lack of sufficient evidence or implicated educators who resigned and parents who refused to give permission for their children to testify,” he said.
Whittle said three accused teachers passed away in KZN.
“Out of the total number of reported cases, there are 50 dismissals that have been reported. We have been very concerned about the extent of sexual violence against learners in schools, particularly perpetrated by teachers. The power to discipline educators of course lies with provincial departments and the South African Council of Educators (Sace).
“The challenge we are faced with at the moment is the uniform implementation of framework on the disciplinary procedures. We still have different ways on which the provinces are implementing the disciplinary procedures; for instance, a teacher who has been found guilty of sexual misconduct in one province will resign and emerge in another province,” he said.
Sace CEO Ella Mokgalane said the council is working very closely with the department of justice in terms of vetting teachers against the national register of sexual offences.
“However, we are not finding educators in that register because of the extent at which we are not reporting these cases to the police so that they can be processed and those educators can be convicted to be in the national register of sexual offences,” she said.
Mokgalane said in the past five years, the most common reported sexual offences between educators and pupils were sexual harassment, abuse and assault, rape and improper sexual relationships.
“This includes sexual-related gender-based violence with the participants generally being male teachers-on-female learners, male teachers-on-female teachers, male teachers-on-male learners (prevalent in single-sex schools), female teachers-on-male learners (emerging trend – abuse of high school boys) and taking advantage of learners in special schools (deaf, blind, autism, physical disability).
“Following guilty verdicts, Sace ensures that perpetrators’ names are struck off the register of educators, in line with the Sace Act and Sace policy of mandatory sanctions. The names are then submitted to the provincial department so that they can be blocked on the public servant verification system,” Mokgalane said.
