A former teacher at Raslouw Academy in Centurion, who allegedly exposed some of the learners to pornography and sexually groomed them, was on Tuesday granted R10 000 bail by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
He is facing charges of three counts of exposing pornography to children and four counts of sexual grooming of two 13-year-old and one 15-year-old boy learners at the school.
It is alleged that in August 2024, the accused, who cannot be named until he pleads, contacted the three learners from the school, sent them nude pictures of himself, and requested them to send theirs in exchange.
After one of the victims sent his picture to the accused, he allegedly proceeded to call the victim through video call, where he demonstrated sexual acts. One of the victims reported the matter to one of the teachers, who then told them to bring their phones to school so that they could see for themselves what was happening.
The parents of the victims were informed about the incident by the school and a case was opened against the accused. After investigations by the SAPS, the accused was arrested in December at his place of residence.
In his affidavit, he asked to be released on bail because he is a first offender. He also stated that his elderly parents are dependent on him and that he has a chronic illness that requires medical attendance, the National Prosecuting Authority in Gauteng said.
However, State prosecutor Chris Maruma opposed the bail application, saying that the accused is a repeated offender to male victims because when he was employed as a principal at Sparks School, a case of a similar nature was opened against him in Randburg.
Furthermore, he said more victims have come forward; therefore, if released on bail, he will interfere with investigations by contacting the victims.
When handing down judgment, the magistrate said that the strength of the State’s case is currently unclear due to the unknown information on the devices. Moreover, he said that the accused has a chronic illness that he might not get treatment for in prison. Therefore, the accused was granted bail.
The case was postponed to March 27 for further investigations.
The Commission for Gender Equality in Mpumalanga in 2023 warned that child grooming is on the rise in South Africa.
Sandile Useni of the commission reported that gender-based violence and child abuse cases are prevalent in South Africa and one of the growing trends of child abuse is child grooming.
“Child grooming is an offence where an adult subjects a child to psychological manipulation and violation of their developing sexuality. A perpetrator will make use of their adult authority or economic resources to draw a child into a relationship that is for the benefit of the perpetrator’s sexual desires,” he explained.
According to Useni, child grooming has a long-lasting negative effect on victims and society at large.
“This form of abuse has a bad psychological and behavioural impact on the child and results in anger, hostility, and leads to aggressive behaviour later in life. Such behaviour contributes to high numbers of gender-based violence and child abuse cases in South Africa.”
He said it is imperative that our courts take a tough stance in these types of cases and prosecute the perpetrators of such offences.
“Harsh penalties should be imposed on perpetrators that are found guilty of child grooming in South Africa. Such penalties will likely serve as a deterrent for other perpetrators,” Useni said.