Parent protesting in front of the Gauteng Department of Education. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency(ANA)
Johannesburg - As the country commemorates 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, the Gauteng Department of Education finds itself having to account for why millions were spent on teachers accused of sexual misconduct.
The department reportedly spent nearly R10 million paying suspended teachers facing sexual misconduct allegations over the last five years. The Democratic Alliance claims that out of the 173 complaints of sexual misconduct against these educators, 29 teachers received precautionary suspensions and six more are still on them.
“The average number of days for precautionary suspension is 346 days for the last five years and has cost the department R10 595 744,89 to date,” read parts of the party’s statement.
To aggravate the issue of sexual violence, Police Minister General Bheki Cele revealed that close to 10 000 rape cases were opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS) between July and September this year when he presented the quarterly crime statistics.
The department confirmed that 131 educators were found guilty, and 42 were not guilty. Five of the accused teachers were female. The provincial departmental spokesperson, Steve Mabona, said, “accordingly, out of this number, 87 were dismissed after necessary investigations which led to their disciplinary processes were conducted. Also, in the remaining 86 who were accused, some were not found guilty, and in other cases, for those who were found guilty, sanctions short of dismissal were imposed, like a written warning, or three months without pay,” he said.
Mabona said the department could not estimate how much money it spends annually on similar cases since the numbers change yearly. Moreover, he said while this may be a financial loss, the GDE cannot recoup monies paid to the educators who were later found guilty after investigations, as the country’s labour laws prohibit the department from doing so.
“It must be noted that the department does not suffer any loss in the case of suspension as a sanction. However, in the case of precautionary suspension, the department suffers a financial loss as the employee is paid whilst not rendering service,” Mabona said.
He said such cases often take four to eight months to resolve. However, these cases rely on the facts and merits. The department works hand in hand with the South African Educators Council (SACE) to address sexual misconduct cases in schools and ensure pupils' safety, Mabona explained.
“Precautionary transfers or suspensions are affected. We wish to state that we do not have educators with pending sexual misconduct cases currently teaching our learners. Consequently, educators are reported to the SACE, Registrar for child protection, and the registrar for sexual offenders. Immediately after such cases are reported, the department decisively suspends implicated educators or precautionary transfer depending on the case's merit and conducts thorough investigations and disciplinary processes accordingly.”
“An insinuation that learners are not safe and that schools are not supporting parents is unfortunate. Parents are always advised to open criminal cases with the police,” Mabona said.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) national spokesperson Nomusa Cembi said the union is entirely against the sexual abuse of learners by teachers and that such conduct tarnishes the profession’s name and that of the union.
“To show our commitment to justice, we have supported and signed resolutions in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) that ensure justice prevails in cases where educators are accused of sexual misconduct involving children. These resolutions are there to ensure that matter of sexual misconduct involving learners is dealt with speedily,” she said.
While Cembi condemns these teachers. She said the rule of law states that one is innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, a sanction cannot be imposed before the person has been proven guilty.