Issued by Ministry of Education
25 January 2002
The Ministry of Education has not yet received the report of the Medical Research Council, so we are unable to respond in detail to the information contained in the report. However, the Minister is extremely concerned about the escalating sexual violence in schools, especially where this is perpetrated by teachers against young girls, as well as by older learners. This concern was highlighted in the Conference on Sexuality Education, which we convened last year, under the theme "Protecting the Right to Innocence".
The Department of Education has taken a number of steps to deal with the problem. The primary focus is a massive "Safe Schools" campaign, which involves working in close collaboration with the SAPS, Community Policing Forums, school managers and communities, to try and ensure that schools at least are safe environments, as well as the routes that pupils use to get to and from school. School fences have been constructed and security personnel deployed to schools as a first step in securing the environment. However, even a high fence is of no use if the offenders are already within the school grounds - as teachers or fellow learners.
We have repeatedly made the point that a school cannot manage this campaign on its own - it needs the active support of all constituencies, including the teacher unions and the community, to ensure that schools are indeed safe. The prevalence of violence in society, especially sexual violence, cannot be expected to stop at the school gate. We need to build a more open environment in which children and their parents are not afraid to speak out and report sexual offenders, many of whom continue the abuse for many years.
In 1999, the Minister promoted legislation which provides that a teacher who is found guilty of having sexual relations with a pupil must be dismissed - there is no option of a warning or a fine. This is a strong message, and teachers have indeed been dismissed on this basis. We must, however, caution against the call by the Medical Research Council for teachers to be automatically suspended as soon as any allegation of abuse is made. There would need to be some substantiation of the allegation in order to avoid pupils making false allegations against a teacher they did not like, and teachers must at least be afforded the right of reply.
Having been found guilty and dismissed by the Department, even stronger sanctions may be imposed by the South African Council for Educators, who can expel the teachers from the profession, preventing them from working in any school ever again. SACE has been requested by the Minister to expedite such cases, and not to await the outcome of the criminal court system or departmental processes before investigating and prosecuting such cases.
This has been done because one of the difficulties which we face is the delay in securing a court judgement, and we are in discussions with the Directorate for Public Prosecutions to consider the establishment of special courts which could hear such cases on an urgent basis. The Department will also consider the establishment of a free hotline to enable pupils, teachers and parents to report these matters without threat or fear.
Enquiries: Molatwane Likhethe at 082 573 0397