Following the emergence of a shocking and explicit video on Facebook of a female learner, who appears to be dazed, being sexually assaulted by male learners, Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, must launch a full-scale investigation.
As the country marks Child Protection Week, it is shocking that so many of our learners are still not safe from sexual and physical violence at school.
Earlier this year, the DA embarked on its #SafeSchools campaign, urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to make our schools safe for children so that they can realise their full potential.
One aspect of the campaign is to ensure that the pandemic of sexual and physical violence at schools is addressed through a collaborative effort by the national Police, Basic Education, Social Development and Justice Departments, together with provincial departments of education.
We have also asked Minister Motshekga to support our call, but our plea has so far fallen on deaf ears. It is clear that Minister Motshekga is failing at her mandate to keep children safe at school.
This was confirmed again by the DA who revealed this weekend that SACE have failed to vet a single teacher against the Sex Offenders Register or the Child Protection Register for at least a decade. This means that the Minister and SACE have failed to keep our children safe by issuing licences to teachers who may be sexual predators.
The two registers are meant to protect children from predatory school staff and the fact that SACE has not checked them for at least 10 years shows that the government clearly has little regard for learners’ safety or their rights.
Minister Motshekga must now prove that she cares about the safety and well-being of learners by taking action to ensure that learners can go to school without fear of being sexually abused either by their fellow learners or by those teachers who are meant to educate and protect them.