By Sinegugu Ndlovu
The Education Department has suspended six teachers from an Umlazi, Durban, high school who allegedly had sexual relationships with their pupils in exchange for money and alcohol.
KwaZulu-Natal Education Department head Cassius Lubisi said the six teachers were suspended on Wednesday and the department was taking steps to replace them with temporary educators while finalising an investigation into their conduct.
The pupils concerned were receiving psychological support.
The department's Umlazi district director, Mlungisi Ntombela, said on Tuesday that about 20 female pupils from the school had visited his office on Friday and alleged that the six teachers regularly had sex with girls in the school's science laboratory.
It was alleged that the girls were given R100 after performing the sexual acts. The teachers allegedly also consumed alcohol with pupils at the laboratory.
The department had established a team to investigate the allegations and a preliminary report was expected within two weeks.
The news came as education stakeholders expressed concern about the lack of information dissemination to schools about sexual harassment.
They said this failure was one of the reasons behind the incidents of sexual violence at schools.
An Education Department strategy and various laws existed which dealt directly and indirectly with the sexual misconduct of teachers at schools.
However, there was concern that this information was not adequately distributed to teachers and pupils.
Almost 80 teachers have been struck off the roll by the South African Council of Educators in the past seven years for misconduct which included sexual violence.
They included 31 struck off in the last financial year. The council's Rej Brijraj cautioned, however, that the increase did not reflect more incidents of misconduct, but rather more transparency around the issue.
Salim Vally, of the Education Policy Unit based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Joburg, said that while legislation regarding sexual misconduct at schools was sufficient, understanding of the laws by teachers was narrow.
He said the lack of information among teachers, pupils and parents around the matter was concerning.
"Policies are vital, but they are just words on paper. There must be information and education campaigns on the issue, which doesn't seem to be a priority for the education department. We need more campaigns. The climate in which education takes place adds to the quality of education," said Vally.
Allen Thompson, of the National Teachers' Union, said that while the union did not condone teachers having sexual relations with pupils, poverty also played a role in the issue. He said pupils should be educated on how not to fall prey to teachers.
"You find that some teachers only learn that what they were doing was illegal when they are in trouble. Why are such pieces of information not included in the teachers' induction course?" he asked.
The national Education Department's Granville Whittle said district officials were trained and were expected to disseminate the information to schools.
He said that it was difficult to remove teachers from the classroom to educate them about such matters.