A teacher at Westerkim Primary School in Upington has been fired for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl — causing her to be frequently absent and her performance to drop — and has also been declared undesirable to work with children.
The matter, which came before the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), was instituted by the superintendent-general of the Northern Cape education department against Cyprian Makoloane, who taught science, technology and languages at Westerkim Primary since 2012 until he was suspended and charged with misconduct in November 2021.
ELRC commissioner David Pietersen was asked to hear the matter and decide on Makoloane’s guilt or innocence, and in the case of a misconduct finding, to decide on an appropriate sanction.
In September 2021 Makoloane was served with a charge sheet accusing him of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in his class.
Three charges were listed, with charges two and three being “that you conducted yourself in an improper, disgraceful or unacceptable manner in that you forced a learner to kiss you”. Both these charges were withdrawn.
Count one, for which Makoloane was suspended a month later, was that he was guilty of sexually assaulting the girl by touching her inappropriately.
Makoloane pleaded not guilty to the incidents that were said to have taken place in his classroom and involved a grade 7 girl.
The child, who was the first witness called, testified that Makoloane would pick on her and regularly asked for favours. She had dressed up as a doctor on careers day when Makoloane asked her to lend him R10. She went to class to fetch the money from her bag after Makoloane asked her for lunch, but then wanted the money after she said she did not bring food to school, but had money.
She said she was at the staircase when Makoloane touched and pressed her breasts then apologised.
The following day she was going into his classroom when he grabbed her and forced her to kiss him while he had bubblegum in his mouth. She said his grip had been strong as he stood with one arm against the wall and the other covering her. She tried to pull away but was unsuccessful.
The girl said she disclosed the incidents to Juanita van Kraudenburg, her Afrikaans teacher, after the woman asked her why she was repeatedly absent from school. She explained that she was anxious and the reason for her staying away was her fear of Makoloane.
The child also opened up to two other teachers — Carmen Jansen and Arrie Willemse. She was emotional and tearful when she told him how uncomfortable she felt in the presence of Makoloane.
The girl did not change her story in any way during cross-examination.
Jansen testified she came to know about the incidents after her colleague Van Kraudenburg had noticed that the girl’s work was not up to standard, and she was frequently absent.
Jansen testified that when she spoke to the girl about this, the child grew tense and was taken to the staff room to address the complaints with Willemse.
Van Kraudenburg testified that the girl’s work had always been up to date, but she had suddenly dropped her standards and stayed away from school. When she spoke to the girl about this, she found out about the careers day incident and the child’s discomfort with Makoloane.
She said she reported the matter to Jansen and grade head Willemse — and that the girl had been extremely emotional when explaining her distress to them.
Willemse also described the girl’s emotional distress as she claimed that “Mr Makoloane does not want to leave me alone”.
He said he asked the girl to write everything down for him, and he went on to report the matter to the deputy principal, who escalated the matter further.
Makoloane denied having had any physical contact with the learner on careers day. He said she was lying about his having asked to borrow money and he had just received his salary.
Makoloane denied making the learner uncomfortable, suggesting that the allegations had come up because he had recently been promoted. In his 21 years as a teacher he had never been accused of anything like this.
He said he felt terrible about the allegations against him, with it reminding him of a similar case that had happened to a late colleague who had been suspended then passed away immediately after his case was finalised.
Makoloane told the hearing that the girl had once made similar allegations against a grade 7 boy, and claimed that Willemse had once made a racial complaint — but did not offer any evidence to show this. He said his suspension had been lifted twice before the hearing.
A mere denial of everything that the learner said cannot suffice as not truthful, mainly when Mr Makoloane blamed his colleagues and racism at the school for what happened.
— David Pietersen, ELRC commissioner
He said at the first lifting of his suspension two teachers had petitioned the community about his return and a teacher had opened a WhatsApp group to discuss him. He said Willemse had refused to treat him as before, causing him stress.
He claimed the stress had caused the early death of his father and he had not been able to attend a school ceremony in which his daughter was made head girl.
In cross-examination Makoloane spoke well about his accuser, and admitted he could think of no reason she would make up false allegations against him. He said he knew only that black people were not welcome at the school, that there were no English teachers employed there and that black children were not welcome.
He said the girl was a single witness, and her evidence should therefore be treated with caution because she could be lying. He said he believed the case against him was therefore unproven.
In his analysis of the evidence before him, Pietersen found that Makoloane was the only witness to testify in his own defence. However, the four witnesses representing the Northern Cape department of education had all been consistent in their versions, and the learner’s claims were corroborated.
Pietersen said the girl had given a proper account of what had happened, with no reasons emerging why she would possibly fabricate the account.
“Mr Makoloane himself could also not explain why the learner would make such allegations against him, and why the learner would pick him from all the male teachers as the one who sexually assaulted her,” he said.
The girl had described Makoloane touching her then immediately apologising, making out it had been an accident. Instead of giving an explanation of any kind, Mokoloane had blatantly denied it happened.
“A mere denial of everything that the learner said cannot suffice as not truthful, mainly when Mr Makoloane blamed his colleagues and racism at the school for what happened,” Pietersen said.
“I am of the view that an act of sexual assault has taken place at the stairs described by the learner, in that the breasts of any female are part of her sexual organs and that the unauthorised touching thereof amounts to a sexual assault. The learner, a child at the time of the incident, could not consent to such an act.”
He said the child was a reliable and credible witness, and that, as testified by the teachers, the drop in the learner’s academic performance and absence from school confirmed that she had been “disturbed in one way or another”.
She had been extremely emotional when she finally dared to disclose the abuse.
“It is my finding that the employer has proven, on a balance of probabilities, that Mr Makoloane sexually assaulted the learner on September 23 2021.”
The department was ordered to dismiss Makoloane for serious misconduct with immediate effect. The director-general was also instructed to forward Makoloane’s name to the department of social development to have it entered into the register of persons found unsuitable to work with children. His name was to also be listed in the Child Protection Register.
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