The South African Council of Educators (SACE) has revealed that the number of reported teacher sexual misconduct cases has risen from 92 in 2019/20 to 169 in 2020/21 and 191 in 2021/22. These statistics were revealed to the Democratic Alliance (DA) by the Minster of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, in a parliamentary question directed to the Department.
Teacher misconduct cases continue to rise each year, these include cases of physical, verbal and sexual misconduct. However, a significant increase in reports of sexual misconduct has garnered attention from the DA as well as various stakeholders and unions.
In 2022, there were 199 school days, meaning that almost one case of sexual assault was reported to SACE per day. Furthermore, 2022 crime statistics revealed that 294 reported cases of rape occurred on educational institution premises. This includes colleges, schools, universities and even daycares. These alarming numbers have seen almost 30 teachers fired from South African schools over the past three financial years.
General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), Mugwena Maluleke, addressed these shocking statistics during an interview with eNCA. The Union has had to represent a number of teachers over the last few years, several of them being sexual misconduct cases. Maluleke reveals that not all of these teachers were found guilty.
Maluleke states that this dramatic rise in teacher misconduct cases can be attributed to the issue of moral decay within our society as well as more students coming forward to report incidences of sexual abuse at school. As school learners are protected by the Education Labour Relations Council and school support teams are encouraging victims to speak out, students may feel more comfortable reporting these types of cases.
Schools and school management teams also have the responsibility of protecting their children and reporting any events of sexual abuse happening in our schools.
The DA is concerned that only 12% of reported sexual misconduct cases resulted in disciplinary proceedings in 2022. Out of these 23 disciplinary proceedings, 19 educators were found guilty of sexual misconduct, however, only four teachers were struck off the roll indefinitely.
SACE states that some of these cases were closed due to a lack of evidence, the deliberate unavailability of complainants to assist with the investigation or disciplinary proceedings and witnesses refusing to cooperate with the Council.
Many victims are reluctant to cooperate with SACE and proceed with the disciplinary hearings against their alleged abusers due to the bias that is often directed towards victims of sexual abuse. The DA states that SACE needs to take responsibility for this perception and ensure that these disciplinary proceedings are environments were victims feel safe and protected, and where evidence from both parties is examined thoroughly and objectively.
Schools and other learning institutions are environments where children should feel safe, particularly in a country with such high crime statistics. SACE, educational institutions, as well as the Council, are responsible for creating this safe environment and ensuring that victims are protected when reporting these crimes and that abusers found guilty suffer the consequences.
