Kimberley - A Nothern Cape teacher has been suspended after he allegedly sent a pornographic video, via his cellphone, of himself playing with his penis to several learners at a school where he teaches in Kuruman.
The Northern Cape Department of Education on Thursday said that it has suspended the teacher, who works at Wrenchville High School, after the incident was reported to it earlier this week.
The department said that it is also investigating other cases of teachers at the school who are alleged to be having sexual relations with the learners.
“We will remove all the monsters from our schools to ensure that our children are safe. We acted swiftly on suspending this teacher because we have a responsibility and duty to protect the children at our schools. This matter was reported to us on Monday and the next day we suspended the teacher in question,” the department’s spokesman, Sydney Stander, said.
He indicated that the department will soon suspend more teachers at the school after allegations emerged that they were having sex with the children.
Stander added that the department was also in the process of reporting the currently suspended teacher to the South African Council for Educators (SACE) - a body that licences teachers in South Africa.
The teacher allegedly sent the video to a boy learner at the school last week.
The learners then passed the video on to their peers in the school and to other schools in the area.
Wrenchville High School is not one of the 55 schools in the Kuruman area that have been closed down by violent protest in that area.
Community leaders in Wrenchville expressed shock at the emergence of the teacher’s pornographic video.
“In the video, this teacher is seen seated on in his bed and he is fully clothed with his blue jacket and what looks like blue jeans. He is then seen taking out his penis and starts stroking it. After a short while, his facial expression changes and one can see that he is getting excited. He continues rubbing his penis until he ejaculates. The video stops immediately after this action,” one community leader said.
Community members also expressed surprise at the teacher’s action, with some describing him as a “upstanding member of the community”.
“He is liked by all the learners and even other educators at the school because of his good work. It’s unfortunate that this thing has happened to him,” they said.
One of the community members said that when the teacher was questioned at one point about the video, he appeared to be “oblivious about its existence”.
“After showing him the video, he said that he did not know how it ended up in the cellphones of the children.”
Other community members, however, tore into the teacher’s conduct, saying that he should be “fired and jailed for life”.
“Clearly our kids are not safe at that school with people like him there. They must lock him up and throw away the keys. He is sick!” they added.
Although SACE on Thursday said it would comment on the incident, it had not done so by the time of going to print.
Northern Cape police spokesman, Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana, said that they were not aware of any police case that has been opened in connection with the teacher’s pornographic video.
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