A total of 16 teachers were removed from the roll after being found guilty of sexual misconduct .
The South African Council for Educators (Sace) says the caseload of ethical misconduct cases against teachers continued to rise, leading to a backlog due to a disconnect between the number of cases and available financial and human resources.
“Council is looking into additional funding and internal capacity to address this challenge,” Sace chairperson Mabutho Cele said.
Sace overall recorded a decrease in misconduct cases against teachers during the 2023/24 financial year.
In its report tabled in Parliament, CEO Mapula Ella Mokgalane said Sace received a total of 606 cases of misconduct during the period under review.
“This number is lower when comparing it to the number of cases received from the last financial year of 2022/23 where a total of 734 cases were registered,” Mokgalane said.
The Western Cape led with the highest number of misconduct cases at 213, followed by Gauteng with 131, KwaZulu-Natal 76 and Eastern Cape 42.
Both the Free State and North West recorded 39 cases, Limpopo 30, Mpumalanga 26 and Northern Cape only 10.
A total of 291 misconduct cases were for assault, followed by sexual misconduct at 110, humiliation or verbal abuse at 101 and others such as harassment, fraud, unregistered teachers, discrimination, incitement and racism.
The report showed that the Western Cape Education Department was a complainant in at least 191 cases, anonymous people reported 120 complaints, teachers were complainants in 115 cases, parents 96, the Education Labour Relations Council 29 and principals or their deputies 20.
Mokgalane said cases that were registered with Sace were investigated first with the exception that priority be given to cases of serious nature such as sexual and assault offences, among others.
“It is worth noting that the duration of each case is, by nature, unpredictable and as such the organisation will still likely carry over and process cases from previous financial years.”
The investigation after completion can recommend a disciplinary hearing be initiated against the teacher concerned or the closure of the case due to, among others, lack of evidence, no witnesses to substantiate allegations and various other factors.
She also said there were complaints which, after being registered and preliminary consideration of facts were conducted, cannot be investigated.
“This is largely due to the complainants withdrawing their complaints or complainants being untraceable, making it impossible to contact them and gather more information. It is also possible that alternative dispute resolution takes place, and an amicable solution is reached before the actual investigation is initiated.”
According to Mokgalane, Sace conducted and finalised a total of 227 investigations.
“From the total number of investigations conducted, 68 investigations were finalised on new cases while 159 comprised of older or roll over cases,” she said.
The council conducted and finalised 120 disciplinary hearings, resulting in seven disciplinary hearings being finalised in new cases and a total of 113 disciplinary hearings being finalised on older or roll over cases.
Mokgalane said the council removed a total of 28 educators from the roll of educators, which was less in comparison to the 2022/23 financial year where Sace removed 31 educators from the roll.
“A total of 22 educators have been removed from the roll indefinitely.
This implies such a teacher has no reasonable prospect of practising or teaching schoolchildren as they shall have lost their licence to teach indefinitely.”
The CEO said some teachers whose names were removed from the register ended up with their names entered into the register of persons declared unfit to work with children.
The register, which is held by the Department of Social Development, contains names of teachers who committed serious offences, including sexual misconduct such as rape, impregnating a pupil and sexual relations with pupils broadly, fraud, and severe assault of students.
A total of 16 teachers were removed from the roll after being found guilty of sexual misconduct .
A total of 64 teachers were fined and their removal from the roll was suspended for a certain period and different fines and reprimands.
Mokgalane also said 14 cases were withdrawn and nine teachers were not found guilty.
Cape Times