'Sex pest' accused teacher 'had her eye on minor', court hears

A former Harvester Primary Grade R teacher returned to the Mitchell's Plain Magistrates Court on Thursday, which heard shocking details from the minor she is accused of sexually grooming. 

The 35-year-old accused teacher returned to court to proceed with her bail application while facing charges of sexual grooming of a child and exposing a child to explicit material.

The court heard details claiming that the teacher "had her eyes on the minor for a while" while a criminal case is under investigation against the school’s principal.

The investigating officer in the matter, Warrant Officer Roland Peters, returned to the stand, and said the case was reported to Lentegeur police station on June 9.

The court heard that he went to the school on June 10, when the principal said she was made aware of the allegations of an explicit video sent by the teacher on June 4.

Peters said the principal went to the house of the victim on June 6 to collect the cellphone to gather evidence on the allegations, however, the court heard that she did not report the matter to SAPS but rather the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) as that was the correct process to follow.

The court heard that police officials were given an address in Athlone where they found the accused at her home and arrested her.

Peters said that he took a statement from the 13-year-old minor who told him that he was uncomfortable with those chats he had with the teacher.

Peters said: “They chatted on TikTok and he asked her if they can rather chat on WhatsApp because he is more familiar with WhatsApp. He indicated that on the chats she asked him not to call her ma’am and to call her by her first name. He reported that it made him feel uncomfortable calling an adult person by their first name yet alone an educator. The chats later evolved to where he asked her specifically what she wants from him. She indicated that she likes him, that she has been watching him at school, she wants to kiss him and that she wants to do things."

The court heard that the boy did not know how to respond to this and showed the chats to his friends as the nature of the chats involved words that he did not know like “vibrator" and "dildo.”

Peters added: “The teacher sent him this video, he was shocked and surprised as he did not expect that video of that nature. He said the very next day he blocked her on WhatsApp because it was disgusting."

The case was postponed to July 15 for arguments and judgment for the teacher’s bail.

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