Durban - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says she is worried about the way pupils’ rights are violated by “predatory” teachers, but also how the rights of good teachers are violated by cronyism and maladministration.
Maladministration, and not apartheid, she said, was to blame for the impoverished state of certain schools.
Madonsela was guest speaker at a breakfast meeting of the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in Durban at the weekend.
Her address was titled “In search of the teachers’ moral compass”.
Madonsela, who worked as a Grade 8 science teacher before she studied law, said there were two types of teachers: those who went beyond the call of duty and those who dropped the ball.
She used the example of the principal of Aurora Girls’ High in Soweto, who ensured that the school’s pupils received a good education in spite of few resources.
At the other end of the spectrum was a Grahamstown school where the gates were locked to keep teachers from leaving the premises to drink during school hours.
Madonsela was worried that many schoolgirls who had had unintended pregnancies had fallen pregnant because they had been in an inappropriate relationship with a teacher or had been raped by a teacher.
Section 29 of the constitution guaranteed the right to basic education, included teachers refraining from “predatory” interactions with pupils. A teacher’s absence from school also violated that right.
But the rights of teachers were also violated – by maladministration, cronyism and nepotism.
She said “often” deserving teachers who went beyond the call of duty were not given promotions. It was sometimes the case that promotions were instead given to teachers who “sucked up”, or were related to those in authority.
It was her belief that maladministration, and not apartheid, was to blame for the impoverished state of certain schools.
“It’s a combination of two things: maladministration and the violation of section 237 of the constitution.
“Resources targeted toward schools are diverted elsewhere. The appointment of the wrong people is also maladministration. So is the diverting of resources to other things through corruption. Education is a right. Section 237 says the constitutional responsibilities must be given priority and must be implemented with diligence. That means before we put money into ‘nice to dos’, we must put money into education.”
A third way in which the rights of teachers were violated was when wrongdoing occurred with impunity.
She said her office had investigated the violation of meritorious appointments, and it had stepped in to ensure that there was accountability rather than impunity. She said “unsustainable persons” were appointed in the education sector because of nepotism, bribery and sexual exploitation.
Such allegations regularly came to her office – but she did not believe this was true of the majority of public servants.
But doing the right thing was not enough. “You must make sure that your colleague is also doing the right thing.”
Asked if an ombudsman for education and a whistle-blowers’ hotline for education were feasible, she said she would write directly to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to suggest just that.
The Mercury