Despite numerous requests, including email and phone calls, about whether a teacher with an attempted rape conviction should be allowed to teach at a primary school, the Department of Education has remained silent!
The teacher was sentenced to prison for attempted rape for five years and he spent two and a half years in jail. He was granted parole and released in 2010.
The incident occurred in 2005 when the victim, a 19-year-old, was lured by the teacher from her home in Ezakheni, believing he wanted to congratulate her on her matric results. The teenager was taken to a homestead in Steadville. Once they arrived at the house, the teen was taken into a bedroom.
She was thereafter forced to lay on the bed and remove her underwear. The teacher then got on top of the girl.
However, the girl fought him off, not giving him enough time to penetrate her. She later reported the incident to her family.
A case of attempted rape was opened and after a lengthy investigation and court case, the teacher was found guilty of attempted rape in 2008.
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At the beginning of this year, the teacher was appointed by the Department of Education to teach at a local primary school.
Questions were asked by fellow teachers and the School Governing Body (SGB) about how the teacher, who had been convicted and served time in prison for attempted rape, could be appointed to teach primary school children.
The teacher is currently still teaching at the school as they await feedback from the Department of Education.
Teachers and other interested parties have repeatedly raised the issue with the Department of Education, especially as the school the teacher is currently teaching at is a primary school.
“This teacher should have been struck off the SA Council for Educators the moment he was convicted of an offence, irrespective of whether it was a sexual case or not,” said an angry parent.
“How the department could have allowed the teacher to remain actually teaching children is baffling,” a former educator told the Ladysmith Gazette.
“If the department felt the guy had rehabilitated himself, by all means give him an admin job in the department, but to allow him to have access to children is wrong on so many levels,” added the former educator, who asked not to be named.
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