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In North West, a primary school teacher has been suspended amid claims of inciting learners to allege that a senior teacher was in a sexual relationship with a learner.
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A senior teacher at Kloofwaters Primary near Rustenburg, North West, has been reported to education authorities for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a learner.
The revelations were reported in The Sowetan.
The teacher who was alleged to have a sexual relationship with the learner is known to Daily Maverick but cannot be named because a minor is involved and a criminal case has not been opened against him. Daily Maverick understands that he has not been suspended.
Instead, on 13 May 2024, the acting superintendent-general of the North West Education Department, Marupeng Seshibe, suspended teacher Batseba Moatlhodi, who told Daily Maverick that she had reported the alleged sexual misconduct to the School Governing Body (SGB).
Moatlhodi was suspended on full pay for “inciting learners” to make the allegations against the senior teacher.
Moatlhodi confirmed the incident and her suspension. “I was served with the suspension on the 14th and the department has 30 days to charge me.”
She said her legal representative has not received any charges relating to the suspension.
Daily Maverick contacted the senior teacher, who declined to comment and referred questions to the office of North West Education MEC Viola Motsumi.
North West Education spokesperson Elias Malindi said the department had received a report from the senior teacher, which was written by learners alleging that he had an affair with a learner.
He said the teacher was approached with the letter by an SGB member.
Later, Malindi said learners indicated that they were forced by Moatlhodi to write the letter.
Malindi said the mother and aunt of one of the learners approached the school.
“They then wrote letters to say their child was not involved in the whole thing,” he said.
Even the learner implicated in the alleged relationship wrote that she was not involved with the senior teacher, Malindi said.
“The two learners explained that the teacher [Moatlhodi] and one parent forced them to lie.”
Moatlhodi has an ongoing disciplinary matter at the school relating to non-performance. A hearing was held on 8 April.
Malindi said the parent who forced the two learners to write the letter later apologised to the senior teacher.
“The teacher [Moatlhodi] said to her, she must lie. She [the parent] requested an apology for the learners because they were innocent and they were just used by the teacher.”
He said the aunt had claimed that Moatlhodi used learners to fight her battles at the school.
But Moatlhodi has denied that she and a parent instructed the learners to write the letter.
Moatlhodi said she first met the parent in December, who informed her that there was a rumour going around that her colleague was having a relationship with a learner.
“I promised to investigate by observation. My hearing began in April where the same parent agreed to be my witness. The day before the hearing, I visited her to check availability. She then called me the morning of the hearing informing me about the letter, which she handed to me in the presence of the lawyer representing me.”
Malindi said psychologists were called to counsel affected learners.
The bigger picture
Currently, a total of 231 names are currently on the child protection register database of teachers in South Africa who have been found guilty of having committed sexual misconduct.
This information was provided by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) to the Department of Social Development (DSD), according to DSD spokesperson Lumka Oliphant.
ELRC is a bargaining council serving the public education sector to maintain labour peace.
These teachers worked in Gauteng (65), Western Cape (41), KwaZulu-Natal (39), Free State (34), Eastern Cape (16), Limpopo (14), North West (8), Northern Cape (7) and Mpumalanga (7).
Explaining how information on teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct could be accessed, Oliphant said the data came from the Child Protection Register and not the sexual offences register.
The register had two parts, with Part B comprising a list of individuals found to be unsuitable to work with children.
Oliphant said the department depended on the ELRC to provide names of teachers found to be unsuitable to work with children.
Section 122 (1) of the Children’s Act 38 0f 2005 states that the ELRC must notify the DSD’s director-general in writing if a person has been found to be unsuitable to work with children.
“Consequently, the ELRC must submit names of all teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct to the department for inclusion in Part B of the Child Protection Register,” Oliphant said.
Schools and SGBs, as employers, are empowered by section 126 of the Children’s Act 38 to verify whether a teacher has been found guilty of sexual misconduct.
To do this, they need to complete and submit a form (Form 29 of Regulation 44 of the General Regulations regarding children) to the national DSD.
The national DSD will respond within 21 days confirming whether or not the person’s name is on the register.
However, Oliphant said the Act does not authorise parents on their own to verify if a teacher has been recorded.
She said education authorities in departments are allowed to verify the status of teachers in the register.
They were granted access from the 2021/22 financial year.
Asked about the statistics of teachers recorded in the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO), Justice and Correctional Services spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said all those convicted of committing sexual offences are recorded but not the specific professions of offenders.
However, he said the Department of Basic Education is currently vetting employees, particularly in school environments, against the NRSO.
The South African Council for Educators (SACE), a professional council for teachers that aims to enhance the status of the teaching profession, tabled a presentation in 2023 indicating that it planned to embark on a research project to profile sexual offenders for the period 2019–2022.
SACE spokesperson Risuna Nkuna said the project is still ongoing and further details may be provided once the project has been concluded.
Nkuna said section 110 of the Children’s Act provides that any person, who on reasonable grounds suspects child abuse or maltreatment, has a legal duty to report such incidents.
“SACE has received reports from educators, be it school principals or fellow colleagues, reporting sexual abuse of learners. These cases are then investigated. SACE is not dealing with any case/s where an educator was suspended for reporting a colleague for being involved in sexual relationships with a learner,” Nkuna said. DM