Cover-up suspected

THE principal, teachers and school governing body (SGB) of a high school in the Seshego district are being investigated by the department of education after allegations were made by parents that a senior teacher had impregnated a gr. 9 learner.

Further allegations made included that this was the third incident of this kind at this school, and that all three incidents were being covered up by the principal and the SGB.

Further details were revealed in an anonymous letter faxed to CV’s offices, signed by “Concerned Parents”. The letter confirmed the above allegations and also alleged that the senior educator involved in this latest incident, promised to pay the pregnant learner’s parents R10 000 as compensation for impregnating their daughter. In the letter, the teacher and learner involved were identified by name, as was the school.

CV spoke to the 44-year-old teacher mentioned in the anonymous letter. He denied having had a relationship with any learner. He said he knew about the rumours and he had been to see the learner’s family to find out how he had been connected with these allegations.

“My wife and I had to go and ask for more information after hearing about these allegations at a funeral in our area. The family said someone else, and not me, was responsible for the pregnancy. It is not true that I had any affair with the learner,” he said.

The principal of the school involved first told CV she had no information that any learner of the school was pregnant. Later on during the same call she changed her mind, saying that the matter was a sensitive case that could get someone fired. “You must write me a letter before I can talk about these allegations. I want to see those people who are trying to paint my name black.

“Attach their letter so that I can know who I am dealing with,” she said, adding that she was not comfortable talking about such a sensitive case on the phone.

At the end of the call, she said the teachers’ association should comment on the matter, whereafter she ended the call.

Education spokesperson, Phuti Seloba, confirmed that the department was investigating the allegations. He could not confirm the ages of the girls involved. “We will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this matter.

If any of these allegations are true, the department will take severe steps against everyone involved, including those who covered up such incidents instead of reporting them,” he said.

“At our schools we prepare children for their future; we don’t teach them motherhood,” he continued, adding a warning to anyone found to be hiding such matters to come forward voluntarily with the information.

He said if the allegations were true and the learners involved were underaged, this would be reported to the police and criminal prosecution would follow.

He said the department and the South African Council for Educators worked together to ensure that educators found guilty of having sexual relationships with their learners were prevented from teaching again.

He acknowledged that, while these were not the first allegations of this kind made about educators at schools in the province, such allegations were isolated incidents and not a trend.

Health spokesperson Adéle van der Linde said teenage pregnancy was always a cause for concern to the department.

She confirmed that teenage pregnancies in the province were rife.