News24 reports that a Grade 12 pupil had to deal with the trauma of being sexually assaulted by her accounting teacher while studying at a matric exam camp in 2024.

The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) dismissed Asiphe Mhana, a teacher from Bazindlovu Senior Secondary School in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, with immediate effect last Friday (7 November) after finding him guilty of sexual misconduct. The victim, known as ZM, and her peers, who had been quarantined at school for the duration of the exams as part of a school camp, were using the classrooms as a makeshift hostel at the time of the incident. Allegedly, Mhana called ZM to the library, where the teachers slept, and touched her inappropriately. ZM testified that she had cried throughout her ordeal in the library. Other pupils went to ZM’s rescue at the library. They witnessed the employee forcing himself on ZM. His hand was on the pupil’s private parts, and his pants were down.

Mhana pleaded not guilty to the charge. But, slamming Mhana’s actions, ELRC commissioner Siziwe Gcayi said: “The misconduct he committed goes beyond mere sexual exploitation of a pupil. It was criminal conduct, and such characters have no place in the schooling environment.” Gcayi also found Mhana unsuitable to work with children and directed the ELRC to notify the Department of Social Development to include his name in the National Child Protection Register.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Prega Govender at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)

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