Durban - A scandal has erupted at a high school in Nquthu, where at least one male teacher has been suspended and several others face an investigation of allegations that they had sex with pupils.
The suspended teacher is accused of abusing as many as six female pupils believed to be aged 14 and 15, and recording the abuse.
The teacher was suspended after a video, which he allegedly recorded of himself having sex with a pupil, was leaked on social media this week. This was not the only video featuring the teacher in a compromising position with a pupil. There are several other recordings and six girls have come forward to report incidents.
It’s believed the sexual encounters happened at a cottage behind the classrooms, on the school premises.
The level of abuse at the school could be one of the worst in the province’s recent memory, with suspicion that many victims are still going to come forward.
On Tuesday irate pupils stormed the teacher’s cottage where he lived with his fiancée. He was not there and they removed his fiancée.
On Thursday morning, they again protested outside the school and allegedly started stoning teachers’ cars. Parents called for the teacher’s head.
Kwzaulu-Natal MEC for Education Mthandeni Dlungwane visited the school on Thursday after learning about the video on Wednesday night.
Members of the student body said there had been rumours for a while that the teacher was sleeping with pupils. “The anger became real when the video surfaced. On Wednesday afternoon the students went to his cottage. His fiancée was there and they chased her away,” one said. Some of the teacher’s belongings were burnt.
The pupil, who cannot be named to protect him from being victimised, said the anger grew on Thursday morning after the video had gone viral overnight.
“When I got to school this morning the students were standing outside the gate and I struggled to control them.”
He said this was not the first time allegations of a teacher and pupil having sex were made. “There are many others.”
Another member of the student council said the videos were contained in a memory card that the teacher was said to have dropped in the street. ”One of the boys picked up the memory card and inserted it in his phone. He then found the teacher’s pictures and realised the memory card belonged to the teacher. “
Then he found the videos.
She said the boy showed the videos to other boys. “They realised the girls were from the school and went as a group to confront the teacher, who was not there.”
Dlungwane said the teacher had been suspended and he would push for his dismissal. ”I do not want him to enjoy being a teacher while he is sitting at home. I want this matter finalised as quickly as possible,” he told the pupils.
Dlungwane, who went to the Nquthu police station to open a criminal charge against the teacher, told The Mercury that at least six girls had come forward. ”I have always said that if you are a teacher and you are sleeping with students, you have fired yourself from the department. I was truly disturbed after watching that video – it is most graphic. I did not want to see it, but because of my responsibilities I had to get the finer details. I hope none of you have seen it, and those who have it, please delete it,” he told the pupils.
He said the department would launch a further investigation following fresh allegations made by pupils that many teachers were involved. He said it would be completed within the next two weeks.
Dlungwane, who promised counselling to the students, urged them not to ostracise those in the video. He profusely apologised to the pupils. “Although we did not send this thug to come here and do what he did, we apologise. This person is not a teacher, he is a thug, there is no other way to describe him.”
While addressing the teachers, Dlungwane urged them to come forward if they had information about abuse at the school.
* This is not the first time a KZN school has been rocked by a teacher-pupil sex scandal. In April 2009, a group of female pupils at an Umlazi high school reported to education authorities that fellow pupils were frequently having sex with teachers in the school’s laboratory in exchange for money and alcohol.
There were also claims that some of the girls were romantically involved with teachers.
After months of investigations by the Education Department and the South African Council for Educators, four teachers were cleared because of lack of evidence, leaving one facing a rape charge. The teacher was struck off the education sector roll.
In July the same year, a 33-year-old Lamontville teacher was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old pupil at school.
In August, 2009, a 54-year-old Zululand primary school teacher was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old pupil in Enseleni Township near Richards Bay.
In November that year, allegations of sexual assault surfaced at a Durban school for children with special needs, after a 12-year-old pupil told her parents she had been molested by a 56-year-old employee at the school.
The Mercury