IT is the end of the road for a Nelson Mandela Bay sex pest teacher with a string of sexual and other offences under his belt, after Education MEC Mandla Makupula denied his bid to have his dismissal over his latest sexual harassment case against female pupils overturned.
Newell High School teacher Mpumelelo Deli had his teaching contract terminated two weeks ago and will be hauled before the South African Council of Educators (SACE), where he faces being struck off the teachers' roll.
The teacher – once described by Port Elizabeth district director Nyathi Ntsiko as unreformable – was given a dismissal verdict by the district department's disciplinary committee after he was found guilty in May of sexually harassing three pupils over a period of seven months.
He is still awaiting the outcome of two other appeals relating to insubordination and corporal punishment, dating back to 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Ntsiko welcomed the MEC's decision. He said Deli had been notified of his dismissal. "The matter is being taken to the SACE, but he has been discharged by the department and his contract terminated on September 5," Ntsiko said.
Deli, 44, left Newell High after he was approached by Zwide's Phakamisa High to teach English at the school earlier this year, but lasted only a month before being asked to leave for harassing female pupils.
Phakamisa principal Lungile Notshe said: "[Deli] taught here for about a month over March and April before we told him his services were no longer needed." It is believed that hardly three weeks into his time at Phakamisa, complaints started pouring in from female pupils.
The displaced teacher then returned to Newell High at the beginning of the third term and carried on teaching.
Acting principal Mpilo Ngqele said Deli was last at school on Monday. "He has been dismissed," he said.
A district Education Department official, who would not be named, said Deli had shown no remorse.
Deli began teaching in 1994 and his first reported sexual offence case happened five years later after he was caught having sex with a Grade 9 pupil on a chair in the Newell High staff room.
His offences and sanctions include:
ý1999: He was found to have "committed sexual acts with pupils" and was handed a three-month suspension without pay, which he never went through because he was redeployed;
ý2007: He was found guilty of insubordination after failing to hand in pupils' moderation marks and was ordered to pay a R1000 fine. He appealed against this in February 2008;
ý2010: He was found guilty on corporal punishment charges and for proposing love to a pupil. He was fined R8000 and given a final written warning, which he appealed against; and
ýMay 2011: He was found guilty of sexual harassment after being charged with, among other things, "making unwelcome utterances and innuendos towards three pupils".
Attempts to get comment from Deli were unsuccessful.
