Parents must always be first in line to protect their children

Nearly 100 cases of sexual misconduct by teachers were reported to the SA Council for Educators between April 2015 and March 2016 but many of these cases were never concluded.

A Sace report recently presented to parliament said dozens of cases were dropped because of "withdrawals by parents or their disappearance", TimesLive reported last week.

Council spokesman Themba Ndhlovu said he was aware of at least two incidents in which the teachers paid the parents money. The parents dropped the cases. In one of these matters, a teenage daughter was impregnated by the teacher, who then started paying her father R1000 a month.

The family said they did not want to put their daughter through the trauma of going through the disciplinary hearing against the teacher.

"The chances of finding this teacher guilty were very high but he got off scot-free," said Ndhlovu.

The council has set up a meeting next month with the family to explain the implications of the decision.

In another case a teacher accused of having sex with a girl paid R20000 into her father's bank account, after which the mother said their daughter would no longer testify against him.

Earlier this year the council said it planned to name teachers found guilty of misconduct in the Government Gazette and a proposal had been sent to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga for approval.

Although this is a step in the right direction, the fact of the matter is that a child's first line of defence is his or her parents. They have one job - to protect their children from harm.

Yesterday a Durban teacher was due to appear in court after he allegedly sent a string of sexually explicit photographs and messages to a 14-year-old girl's cellphone. In this case the father noticed the teacher's behaviour was out of place. Once the text messages were discovered on her phone, the parents informed the school immediately.

If parents abdicate their responsibility to protect, they are not only failing their children - they are also failing society.