Pretoria - The former Mbilwi Secondary School teacher, accused of rape, was yesterday granted R3000 bail by the Thohayondou Magistrate’s Court, in Limpopo.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Solomon Makhuvha, 50, is facing three counts of rape, after he was arrested and charged last month.
A former pupil of the school laid charges of sexually grooming and assaulting her, when she was still in matric at the school, in 2018.
Limpopo NPA spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Ndzangi said the case was postponed to August 16.
She said: “The court granted him bail on the following conditions – that he must not communicate with the victim in any manner, he must not leave Limpopo without informing the investigating officer, he must report to Sibasa Correctional Services every last Friday of the month, and he must appear on each and every court date.”
The Pretoria News reported last month that Makhuvha was alleged to have raped the pupil a number of times in 2018 – when she was 17 and still in matric. He allegedly lured her to a lodge, duping her by offering her private lessons.
The teacher offered her money for her silence, but she later contacted the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in the province, which intervened and convinced her to open a case.
She opened a case in May, three years after matriculating from the Sibasa-based school, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently.
It is the same school where Lufuno Mavhunga committed suicide, after being brutally assaulted by a 14-year-old pupil, early in April this year.
The bullying incident was captured on video by another pupil and was circulated on social media.
The incident also drew public condemnation and shone a spotlight on school bullying, and triggered the SAHRC to open an investigation – into school bullying, corporal punishment, and sexual relations between teachers and pupils – last month.
The three-day hearing saw the Chapter 9 institution blaming the provincial Department of Education for the rise in such incidents, saying it was not acting on the reports.
The commission also found that the incidents were on the rise in the province, with the Commission for Gender Equality’s Nkhensani Hlekani reporting there had not been any solutions to sexual harassment in schools, despite its long existence.
Makhuvha has since resigned as a teacher, after some political parties and civil organisations called for his head. He will appears again, at the same court, in August.
Pretoria News