Stuck on the vetting merry-go-round: Slow sex-offender checks leave students vulnerable
· Citizen
Time’s ticking for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to vet educators, and portfolio members for the basic education committee are frustrated by the slow progress.
The law requires that all persons working with minors must be vetted against the National Child Protection Register (NCPR). Yet learners are still being sexually assaulted in various schooling institutions.
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According to a court settlement won in favour of Teddy Bear Foundation (TBF) in July, an NGO that advocates against child abuse, DBE, and provincial education departments (PEDs) have until 31 March 2027 to complete the vetting process.
As of 12 May 2026, 51 000 of approximately 500 000 educators had been vetted against the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO), up from 40 000 previously. This, according to the DBE’s presentation during the basic education portfolio committee meeting.
MPs were deeply concerned, and they scrutinised the slow pace of educator vetting.
‘A disaster’
Basic education committee member Siphetho Mkhize described the situation as a “disaster.”
Mkhize argued that the meeting felt “unproductive” because it focused on theoretical frameworks and “political opening statements” rather than providing hard data on outcomes from previously discussed initiatives on statutory rape.
“I think you have chaired the most unproductive meeting,” Mkhize said.
“You [have] not given us progress updates, but we are just listening to political opening statements by the ministers, and there are no results.
“We should be discussing outcomes that have already been seen from the initiatives that were introduced to us in the previous meeting.”
In that meeting, he said that members were provided with strategies to deal with rape in communities and Mkhize believed a follow-up discussion should have happened.
“How are we really helping these vulnerable adults and girls and young women…to see perpetrators dealing with their tendencies of being the vultures in learning institutions?”
“We are not even getting an explanation today why only 10% was vetted!” exclaimed Mkhize.
Bottlenecks and blame
According to the presentation, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s (DOJ&CD) processing capacity limits the pace of National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) vetting across the half-million-strong educator workforce.
Officials said that the POPI Act also constrains and legislative limits on inter-departmental data sharing restrict the DBE’s access to the NCPR and NRSO, even for child protection purposes, contributing to the pace.
But Mkhize continued that the department was also alerted in their last meeting to parents allegedly taking bribes from perpetrators not to report their sexual crimes.
“Is there any variable progress made on this one? No, we’re not hearing that,” he said.
What the meeting should have discussed, said Mkhize, were reports on awareness programmes, arrests, and relief strategies for adolescent girls and women in rural townships and farm communities where sexual violations are rife and underreported.
Reporting timelines tightened
The DBE said change would be measured once they “provide annual progress reports to the portfolio committee on basic education against the milestones”.
However, Maimela offered a tighter timeline to address Mkhize’s concerns.
“We are happy to provide the reports on a monthly, quarterly or bimonthly basis,” Maimela said, confirming that officials are gathering data to meet an end-of-September deadline.
She also emphasised that tackling statutory rape requires a multi-agency approach, noting that these crimes often occur in homes and communities before reaching schools. As a result, DBE officials argued that accountability cannot rest with their department alone.
The mandate for child protection also stretches across other state institutions following the recent court order.
Despite resistance from the Department of Social Development (DSD), the court ruled that DSD must set up systems to maintain and regularly update the child protection register. Additionally, the court ordered the DoJ to report all perpetrators convicted under the Children’s Act through court registrars, alongside quarterly reports on finalised sexual violence cases and their outcomes.