Increase in rape charges against teachers

ited financial statements tabled in Parliament, SACE said a total of 97 pupils were sexually abused in the past financial year.

The council also said that 25 teachers were fired for several misconduct charges, but did not indicate in the report the nature of the charges.

This is an increase from 15 teachers who were fired last year for several misconduct charges.

SACE has also said the problem of parents refusing to cooperate with them to pursue sexual offenders still persists.

SACE has said in the past they were forced to drop some of the cases because parents refused to give evidence against the teachers involved in raping their children.

This was because the teachers offered financial help to some of the parents and families of the pupils.

Recently, a teacher in KwaZuluNatal was arrested after a post on social media of him having sex with a pupil at his school went viral.

Implicated

The teacher has been implicated in several other cases after more pupils came forward.

Four other teachers at the same school were suspended by the prov- incial Department of Education after pupils reported similar cases of rape and sexual abuse against them.

One official in the department said this was the tip of the iceberg.

The Department of Basic Education last week said it was concerned about the prevalence of pregnancy among pupils.

Last year alone 99 000 pupils across the country fell pregnant. In one school in Limpopo about 20 pupils fell pregnant in one year.

The same happened in another school in Tembisa on Gauteng’s East Rand where 16 pupils got pregnant.

SACE said out of 97 cases of sexual abuse against teachers most were in the Western Cape where the council recorded 23 such cases of rape and sexual abuse of pupils. It is followed by Mpumalanga with a total of 20 cases reported against teachers.

Gauteng is in the third spot with 13 cases of sexual abuse and rape reported, followed by KwaZuluNatal with 11 cases.

In the Free State there were nine cases of sexual abuse reported against teachers while in the Eastern Cape there were six cases.

In Limpopo there were also six cases of sexual abuses reported against teachers while in the North West there were three cases.