By Anita Dangazele
Learners at Queenstown Girls High School in Komani have accused a teacher of having sexual relations with a pupil.
Grade 11 and 12 learners sent an anonymous letter to the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), which leaked it on social media on Wednesday.
The letter claims the principal and other teachers ignored reports about a teacher dating a Grade 12 student.
“The grade 12s know that Mr [name hidden], a new SGB [school governing body] educator, is involved with a Gr 12 learner [name hidden], and everyone knows about the affair, but when we report to some educators, they tell us they cannot do anything because he is a favourite of the principal,” the learners wrote in the letter.
Learners say the relationship is well-known, with the teacher buying the student gifts and teaching her to drive.
Learners fear reporting these kinds of issues.
“We are scared to report matters in this school because we become victims after,” the students wrote. “When it is assembly [the school principal] will speak to us in a bad manner, and other teachers will have comments when teaching that you can report us to the same department that is useless.”
The Eastern Cape Education Department is investigating. The South African Council for Educators (SACE) is also conducting its own investigation into the allegations. Meanwhile, the accused teacher has been suspended with full pay pending the outcome.
Spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said they’ve sent a team to the school and will provide counselling.
“Should prima facie evidence be obtained from this investigation, a recommendation would be to impose precautionary suspension. This will also ensure that victims are protected,”
Mtima said.
In October 2023, the Department of Basic Education announced that it had fired 36 teachers for offences including rape, sexual abuse, and impregnating learners across the country.
In September, a creative arts teacher from Tembisa was sentenced to five life terms for repeatedly raping a Grade 7 learner between October and November 2019.
Around 120,000 teenagers have given birth this year alone, with 2,716 girls aged 10 to 14 and 119,587 teens aged 15 to 19 becoming pregnant or giving birth recently.
Pictured above: The entrance of Queenstown Girls High School in Komani in the Eastern Cape.
Source: Facebook
