Sexual harassment scandal complete

The sexual harassment scandal involving a patroller and scholar at Pholosho Junior Secondary School is currently awaiting expert opinion before a final pronouncement is made on the matter.

This was a comment from Gauteng Department of Education former spokesperson Charles Phahlane, in response to questions from Alex News about progress of the investigation.

On whether the findings would be communicated to the affected parties, which not only includes the victim and perpetrator but the school governing body, the school and the Community Policing Forum which runs the school patroller programme under the Department of Community Safety in the Gauteng government, Phahlane said they would cross that bridge once the expert had commented on what he called ‘a crucial aspect’ of the case.

He would not also disclose the nature of the sanction to be given to the guilty party. Phahlane has since left the department and Gershwin Chuenyane has taken over.

The scandal arose on Valentine’s Day this year when a patroller was accused by one of the girls in school of making sexual advances on her in a love letter that got viral in the school. It was being passed from pupil to pupil when one of the teachers intervened and handed it over to the principal, who then passed it on to the department. The department then suspended the patroller while it probed the allegations.