TimesLive Premium reports that according to research conducted by the SA Council for Educators (Sace), most teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct have “double personalities”.

A total of 19 educators were struck off from the roll indefinitely between April last year and March this year, most of them for sexual misconduct. Briefing parliament on their annual report for 2021/22, Sace’s CEO Ella Mokgalane said 191 of the 764 cases reported between April last year and March involved sexual misconduct, while a further 248 cases concerned corporal punishment. Mokgalane reported that their research indicated that about 7% to 11% of female teachers were abusing younger boys, but “the bulk of them are males with double personalities, who you could trust with all your heart.” The 19 struck off indefinitely included Lubeko Mgandela, the former principal of Luthuthu Junior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape, who ordered a pupil in March last year to search for a lost phone that fell into a pit latrine toilet. Mokgalane said school laboratories and halls, as well as offices occupied by principals and their deputies, were places where “sexual misconduct is being bred”. Of the 614 investigations conducted by Sace, 310 were closed because they were withdrawn or parents did not want to proceed with them, or because complainants “solved the matter with the perpetrator”. Out of the remaining 304 cases, 86 teachers were found guilty. Mokgalane said their target for finalising disciplinary hearings involving cases reported for the period had been 50% but they only achieved 24%.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Prega Govender at TimesLive Premium (subscriber access only)

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