Four teachers face sexual abuse charges

FOUR educators in the King Cetshwayo District are being investigated for alleged sexual assault of learners.

The KZN Department of Education has handed precautionary suspension letters to the educators, pending an investigation into separate cases of reported sexual abuse at Dlangezwa High School, Zinqobele High School and Manqamu.

‘At Dlangezwa, precautionary suspension letters have been handed to the acting principal, a teacher and a security guard pending an investigation into the allegations. The security guard has left the school.

‘Letters were also handed to a teacher at Manqamu and Zinqobele for a similar offence,’ King Cetshwayo District Director of Education David Chonco said.

The teacher from Dlangezwa appeared at the Empangeni Regional Court earlier this month and was granted R2 000 bail.

Thami Mkhize (42) was arrested for allegedly raping a 17-year-old school girl.

The teacher had been giving her a lift to school from Empangeni to Dlangezwa. The girl alleges that the teacher began raping her in February and did so repeatedly until she finally reported it to her mother.
Mkhize will be back in court in November.

The national Department of Basic Education (DBE) has expressed ‘shock and disgust at the dastardly acts of people trusted to do right’.

DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga confirmed that police are on board to assist during the investigations.

The South African Council of Educators (SACE) has also confirmed it has begun a preliminary investigation into the matter.

‘We have already started with the preliminary investigation and the SACE investigation team will visit the area on Monday (today) and Tuesday,’ SACE spokesperson Themba Ndhlovu said.

During the period of April and August this year, the council has reportedly received 21 reports of sexual allegations against teachers.

In a report earlier this year the SACE said they need to work closely with Provincial Education Departments when teachers are charged with misconduct, so that their SACE membership could be revoked and they are prohibited to teach (blacklisted).

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Lashing out

These allegations against teachers has sparked widespread outcry with the United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation lashing out at the increasing level of sex and violence which has invaded places of learning.

‘What is going on in our schools? It’s no longer just a case of plain ill-discipline of teachers and/or learners. Sex and violence have invaded our places of learning. Our children, especially girls, are under siege and the authorities must act speedily and definitively to protect them.

‘Justice must take its course and any teacher found to have violated the trust of our children, in any form, must be given the harshest punishment described in law.

‘Such punishment would be a lesson to any educator who sinks so low,’ the secretary general of the women’s organisation Thandi Nontenja said.

The DA in KZN has called for ‘swift and stern action to be taken both criminally by the SAPS and internally by the Department of Education in this province. We also expect the harshest consequences. Certainly, they must never be allowed to teach young people again’.

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