A Western Cape teacher has been found guilty of eight charges of sexual misconduct by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), which has recommended his dismissal.
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Earlier this month, Zamani Edwin Nyaniso Diniso, a grade 4 mathematics teacher at a primary school in Plettenberg Bay, was found guilty of kissing and fondling 10 and 11-year-old pupils in the first term of 2022.
He was only suspended, pending the outcome of an inquiry, in July, after the pupils came forward with the allegations.
The inquiry included testimony from the school’s acting principal, a fellow teacher, the head of the department (HOD), and nine pupils who were in Grade 4 at the school last year.
The accused did not attend the hearing, which continued in his absence.
Diniso’s colleague testified that she was preparing for a class when the pupils told her they had something they wanted to say to her, claiming that Diniso hugged and kissed them and that he touched their buttocks.
In his testimony during the inquiry, the HOD said that she was told Diniso would wheel his wheelchair over to pupils, placing his hands between their legs, touching their legs and buttocks, and calling them “babes” while they were working on the computer.
When questioning the victim’s male peers, the boys said they knew about it because the girls had talked about it.
The pupil’s account of events was then reiterated to other staff members, including the principal, who were called to the classroom.
Diniso never denied the allegations when confronted with the allegations, stating that there was nothing wrong with his actions “because some of the [pupils] did not get love from their homes, and they got love from him”.
The accused added that he loved children, and they loved and pitied him because he was in a wheelchair.
One of the pupils testified that the accused kissed her on the mouth and touched her buttocks.She added that she asked him to stop but that his behaviour continued “multiple times for a long time”.
Testifying at the hearing, another pupil said that Diniso promised to take her to a bed and breakfast in Cape Town “for a honeymoon”.
The hearing also heard about a phone call to the school’s acting principal, warning her that Diniso had taken out a hit on her and another teacher, which was due to be carried out a week earlier before the caller decided not to follow through with the murders.
After analysing the evidence, panelist Alta Reynold said that there were motives for the witnesses to fabricate their version of events, conceding that Diniso had a clean slate before the allegations were levelled against him.
However, Reynold emphasised that his failure to attend the inquiry and his disappearance contributed to the negative inference she had drawn and the probability that he was guilty of the charges.
“In light of the best interests of the child being paramount, no other sanction than dismissal would, in any event, have been appropriate since the employee can, as a result of his conduct, no longer be entrusted with the emotional and physical safety and welfare of, in particular, female learners placed in his custody,” Reynold said.
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