Johannesburg – A teacher who spanked a Grade 10 learner on her buttocks has been axed, thanks to his victim’s no-nonsense stand that he should face the music for the sexual assault.
Lucky Baloyi, a physical science teacher at Kgomotso Comprehensive High School in Soshanguve, Pretoria, learnt his fate this week.
Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) arbitrator Monde Boyce found Baloyi guilty as charged and ruled that he should be summarily dismissed over the sexual assault that happened in April.
The Gauteng Department of Education had proffered a charge of sexual assault against Baloyi. He spanked the learner’s buttocks at the school’s laboratory.
But had Learner A, as his victim is identified in Boyce’s ruling, listened to the advice of a teacher, Baloyi would have remained untouched.
She reported the sexual abuse to a number of teachers. One of them advised her to write a letter to Baloyi and explain to him that she did not like what he did.
This approach appears to not have made any sense to her and, as Boyce pointed out in the ruling, she “did not write the letter because she felt she was not being taken seriously”.
Said Boyce: “She decided to report the incident to her parents. She was angered by what Mr Baloyi did because she did not expect that he would do such a thing to her as a learner.
“She had also told a fellow learner, Learner C, who had advised her to report the incident …”
Baloyi was accordingly charged after Learner A told her father and her aunt.
She testified before Boyce that Baloyi spanked her buttocks while she was writing her name on a CD in the school laboratory.
It became common cause before Boyce that Baloyi had called Learner A into the laboratory by WhatsApp to help her upload her work onto the CD.
She found him alone in the lab. The pupil testified that she told Baloyi she was going to report him.
Her father and two other learners that she informed about the assault also testified against Baloyi.
Like Learner A, the father, Learner B and Learner C - as they identified in the ruling - told Boyce they had nothing against Baloyi and described him as a good teacher.
For his part, Baloyi sought to create an impression that Learner A was being used against him by the two learners who testified and teachers.
Boyce shot this down: “After having heard evidence, it is my finding that this claim is far-fetched and could simply not be sustained.
“The employee, in supporting the claim that the learner was used, referred to an incident of a class change that happened a year before which supposedly caused the other two learners, in particular leaner C, to be upset with the employee.
“Learner A however did not have knowledge of the same and stated that C never said anything about the incident. Strangely, this version was not put to learner C,” said Boyce.
He concluded that the evidence before him proved Baloyi’s guilt on a balance of probabilities.
“The question that then begs an answer is: Why would the four witnesses called, who appeared to have no serious issues or history of animosity towards the employee, suddenly gang up against him without sufficient cause?
“Is it probable that their version is a mere fabrication? The answer, based on the evidence before me, is an emphatic ’No’,” said Boyce.
He proceeded to find Baloyi guilty and imposed a sanction of summary dismissal.
@BonganiNkosi87
The Star