A GAUTENG teacher who administered corporal punishment when he hit pupils with a PVC pipe and sexually harassing a grade 11 pupil will never work with children again.
The teacher, who taught geography at a school in Pretoria, was found guilty of five charges relating to assault and sexual harassment by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) on 15 June.
He was accused of proposing love to a grade 11 pupil and further asking her when they could have sex.
During her testimony, the 17-year-old pupil revealed that the accused teacher "told her that she was still fresh, and when was she going to have a love relationship with him".
She said they were alone in the classroom when he made those remarks to her, and that wasn't the only time the accused teacher and the pupil interacted.
In another incident, the pupil said the teacher beat them with a PVC pipe and called them with a vulgar word while he was shouting at them not to disturb the grade 12 pupils who were writing exams.
When the pupil told him that she would report him to her mum for beating them and asking her to be in a relationship with her, the accused teacher grabbed her hand very tightly and told her "if she told her mother, he would deal with her".
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According to the pupil, the accused teacher always had a dirty mouth and would use sexual examples when he taught them about weather systems.
But when the accused teacher took an oath, his testimony was a blanket denial of wrongdoing.
He denied all charges against him and said they were all a "fabrication of lies stemming from the fact that he administered corporal punishment on them on that day".
When the senior ELRC arbitrator Coen Havenga analysed evidence from both parties, the arbitrator said it was highly improbable that the complainants' evidence was a fabrication, and the accused teacher could not prove otherwise.
“He merely made unsupported allegations in that respect. [He] could not provide any substantial evidence that the alleged conspirators had anything to gain by falsely implicating him,” the council said.
As a result, the accused teacher was found guilty of all five charges. He was dismissed and found unsuitable to work with children.
