Teddy Bear Foundation takes Education, Social Development departments over child protection register failures
The Teddy Bear Foundation is taking legal action against South African government departments for their failures in managing the National Child Protection Register.
Image: Pixabay/File
The Teddy Bear Foundation (TBF), represented by SECTION27, has taken the Departments of Social Development, Justice, and Basic Education to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for allegedly failing to uphold their constitutional obligations to protect children from sexual abuse in schools.
The application, filed against multiple state entities including provincial education departments, the South African Council of Educators (SACE), and the Educators Labour Relations Council (ELRC), seeks a court order compelling them to maintain and implement the National Child Protection Register (NCPR).
According to SECTION27, the legal action follows a 2022 case in which it represented a learner who was raped by a caretaker at a school in the North West province.
The organisation said that despite a Mahikeng High Court order directing education authorities to act, “the North West Department of Education failed to place the caretaker on the NCPR despite requests from SECTION27.”
The NCPR, established under the Children’s Act of 2005, is intended to prevent individuals found unsuitable to work with children, whether or not criminally convicted, from being employed in positions of trust. Provincial education departments are required to report offenders for listing on the register and to vet staff against it.
“The case highlighted the failures of the North West Department of Education to report a case to the Department of Social Development to have a perpetrator placed on the NCPR,” SECTION27 said.
“These are essential steps to ensure that perpetrators never have access to work with children in schools.”
SECTION27 and the Teddy Bear Foundation said that over the past two years, they have engaged with the Departments of Social Development, Justice, and Basic Education, as well as SACE and the ELRC, to assess the state of the register’s implementation.
“These engagements revealed a failure by the DBE and provincial departments to ensure and conduct the mandated vetting,” the statement read.
SACE’s latest report showed that during the 2023/24 reporting period, it received 606 cases against educators, 148 of which related to sexual abuse.
SECTION27 said the figures “tell a story of a country failing to protect a generation.”
The organisations are asking the court to compel the respondents to comply with their reporting and vetting obligations under the law. “Schools ought to be places of safety where children can thrive and be free from all forms of violence,” they said.