Grooming case against ex-Harvester Primary teacher moves to trial
TRIAL Former Harvester Primary School teacher
Image: Kim Swartz
THE former Harvester Primary School teacher who allegedly ‘sexted’ a minor will go on trial early next year.
The 35-year-old accused appeared in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate's Court on Friday facing charges of sexual grooming of a child and exposing a child to explicit material.
The court heard that the investigation is complete and the case is set to be transferred to the Mitchells Plain Regional Court on January 20, 2026.
The court previously heard that the investigating officer Warrant Officer Roland Peters went to the school on June 10. The principal said that she was made aware of the allegations by a concerned parent of an explicit video sent by the teacher on June 4.
Peters said that he took a statement from the 13-year-old minor who told him that he was uncomfortable with those chats he had with the teacher.
Peters said: “They chatted on TikTok and he asked her if they can rather chat on WhatsApp because he is more familiar with WhatsApp. He indicated that on the chats she asked him not to call her ma’am and to call her by her first name.
“He reported it made him feel uncomfortable calling an adult by their first name yet alone an educator. He was also made uncomfortable because she used vulgar language and swearing.
“The chats later evolved to where he asked her specifically what she wants from him. She indicated that she likes him, that she has been watching him at school, she wants to kiss him and that she wants to do things to him.”
The court heard that the boy did not know how to respond to this and showed the chats to his friends as the nature of the chats involved words that he did not know like “vibrator and dildo.”
Peters added: “The teacher sent him this video, he was shocked and surprised as he did not expect that video of that nature. He said the very next day he blocked her on WhatsApp because it was ‘morsig’ and disgusting.
"The minor asked if he can send the video to his friends and she said she does not care, her life is already over and she will lose her job.”
The accused’s bail of R5 000 was extended with the condition that she does not enter Mitchells Plain unless it is to come to court, cannot contact the victim and cannot be in a setting where there are children.