South Africa: Committee On Education Demands Accountability and Progress On Rape of Seven-Year-Old Bergview College Learner

Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp
Hundreds of people have marched in Cape Town to call for justice for a seven-year-old child raped in the Eastern Cape in October last year.
31 March 2025
Parliament of South Africa (Cape Town)
press release

The Select Committee on Education, Sciences and the Creative industries has voiced its disappointment with the handling of suspected child rape by the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Makhi Feni, said the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape needed to make noise and act decisively when the incident happened in October.

Mr Feni said deregistration of Bergview College, a private school, does not address the sexual violation of a child and that it's not clear what this action from the department in the Eastern Cape seeks to achieve.

He said: "We therefore demand accountability which in essence means the alleged perpetrator and those he could have colluded with should be arrested as in yesterday. A lot of educator regulatory bodies like the SACE need to look into this matter, with the end result being that the alleged perpetrator is added to the national register of sexual offences."

Mr Feni said it would be best and in the interest of the child if psycho-social support had been provided, and ongoing trauma counselling administered. The provincial department announced on Friday that it looked to deregister Bergview College, a school in the OR Tambo region, following inaction with regards to rape accusation against the school principal. The incident allegedly occurred in October 2024, and it is not clear why the department is acting now.

Mr Feni said he did not understand how officials would ignore responsibilities on straightforward matters as a rape of a child. "All we do is wait until there is a social media storm, and, only then do we act like something is being done. The approach of waiting for hashtag campaigns should stop; we demand accountability now."

Mr Feni added: "The department should avoid a situation where their reactions are seen as knee-jerk. There are disciplinary issues on this matter; there is suspected criminal conduct; but also there is an impact on the entire college community."

Mr Feni said a sustainable solution, like suspending the perpetrator and disbanding the school governing body while investigations were ongoing, seemed plausible.

In line with keeping with its oversight responsibilities the committee had proactively written to the provincial departments of education, social development and SA Police Service on Friday after hearing of this disturbing news. Responses are yet to come.

Read the original article on Parliament of South Africa.

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