Western Cape Education MEC and HOD meet with EE leadership
On Thursday evening (24th May 2018), we held a very productive meeting with the leadership of Equal Education (EE) regarding the current concerning allegations of sexual harassment against three of their senior leaders.
EE briefed us on all three cases that have been raised in the media and the processes of investigation that are being followed in each case. The investigations will be done by people completely independent of the organisation, and will be conducted as speedily as possible.
They explained to us the processes they have in place to train and sensitise their members at all levels of the organisation regarding matters of sex and power abuse.
We all agreed that sexual misconduct is unacceptable and have agreed to work together on a new policy for NGO’s and NPO’s working in our schools.
Given that the three accused have also resigned their positions at EE, and that there are no planned activities at our schools in the next few weeks because of the exams and holidays coming up, we have agreed that we will await the outcome of the investigations, which EE is hoping will be finalised within the next few weeks, before deciding whether we need to take any further action.
They have agreed to inform us of the findings and we will meet again once the investigations are concluded.
We wish to remind our learners that any abuse they suffer at schools from any party can be reported to our Safe Schools Helpline - 0800 45 46 47. We encourage them to do so.
Statement issued by Debbie Schäfer, Western Cape Minister of Education, 27 May 2018
