Sex pest teachers are a big concern

A SURGE in misconduct findings against teachers, including sexual offences, has intensified kommer over South Africa’s fragmented review systems, with teacher union Naptosa warning that even the Western Cape is not immune to systemic failures.

- BY MURRAY SWART

This follows a parliamentary disclosure that the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) recorded 469 allegations nationally between 2018/19 and 2024/25, with 176 guilty findings issued between 2021/22 and 2025/26.

The Western Cape accounted for 16 of them.

National Professional Teachers’ Organisation SA (Naptosa) said the syfers raise a pressing question: how many offenders slipped through the cracks?