{"id":229394,"date":"2022-06-21T19:26:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/cape-town-teacher-sentenced-to-five-years-imprisonment-for-sexually-assaulting-learner-in-2017\/"},"modified":"2022-06-21T19:26:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:26:07","slug":"cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town teacher gets five years for sexually assaulting a learner"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/marecia_damons\/20220621_1114172.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photo of Ayanda Ntuthu \" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Ayanda Ntuthu sits outside court on Tuesday where he was sentenced for sexually assaulting a learner in 2017. Photo: Marecia Damons<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">A teacher who sexually assaulted a boy at a Cape Town school in 2017 has been sentenced to five years in prison.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">Ayanda Ntuthu continued to teach at the school for most of the past five years. The boy he assaulted remained a learner at the school during this time and the education department did not charge Ntuthu.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">A criminal case against Ntuthu had also previously been withdrawn due to delays by the prosecution.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ayanda Ntuthu, who sexually assaulted a boy at Thandokhulu High School in Mowbray, Cape Town in 2017 has been sentenced to five years in prison. His name will also be added to the National Register for Sex Offenders, the Wynberg Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>This is more than five years after the assault and for most of that time he has continued teaching at the school.<\/p>\n<p>Ntuthu was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault on 18 March. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for each count, and these will run concurrently.<\/p>\n<p>While delivering the sentence, Magistrate Nontuthuzelo Ralarala said the court needed to regard Ntuthu\u2019s personal circumstances, the seriousness of the offence, and the interests of society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crimes are serious and the nature and prevalence cannot be overlooked. The aggravating factor is that you did not only sexually assault a child, but you did it in your capacity as an educator in a school environment,\u201d Ralarala said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou abused your position as a teacher. You took away his innocence \u2013 spoiling his whole high school experience because he was in his first year when the incident happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its submission, the defence told the court that Ntuthu, 43, has a three-year-old child, and that he financially supports both the child and its mother who live in the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n<p>He also financially supports his older sister, 49, who is unemployed.<\/p>\n<p>A report by a probation officer recommended that Ntuthu\u2019s sentence be suspended \u201cbecause he does not pose a threat to society and is not affiliated with any gang,\u201d the court heard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe court cannot agree with this,\u201d Ralarala said. \u201cAlthough a suspended sentence and rehabilitation are recommended, the court finds that it will not fit the nature of the crime. Imprisonment will fit the crime, the interests of society, and make you (Ntuthu) a better citizen and better role model for your child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ralarala also recommended that the judgment be sent to the Department of Basic Education.<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, the defence argued for a non-prison sentence, while the state argued for Ntuthu to be imprisoned.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\">Defence pleaded for no prison sentence<\/h2>\n<p>Ntuthu\u2019s lawyer, who refused to give GroundUp her name, asked the court to consider that two households are dependent on Ntuthu\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n<p>She also asked the court to consider that Ntuthu has no previous convictions of a similar nature (sexual assault) and that he only has one traffic offence for driving under the influence in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The defence argued that Ntuthu is a \u201csuitable candidate\u201d for correctional supervision as this sentence would prevent him from reoffending, and allow him to contribute to society and take care of his responsibilities.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\">\u201cThe accused was in a position of trust as a teacher\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>In its submission, Xolani Ncobo, for the state, told the court to consider the nature of the offence and the interest of society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very serious offence,\u201d Ncobo told the court, \u201cit involved a learner and that learner is a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the court has a duty to protect the vulnerable in society, particularly women and children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe accused was in a position of trust as a teacher, and it wasn\u2019t expected of him to commit such an offence with a child in his care,\u201d Ncobo told the court.<\/p>\n<p>He said although the state is cognisant of Ntuthu\u2019s responsibilities for taking care of his child, the child\u2019s mother and his older sister, the court needs to consider what is in the best interest of society.<\/p>\n<p>Ncobo argued for an adequate prison sentence to \u201cprevent a situation where society takes matters into their own hands\u201d. He said Ntuthu\u2019s sentence also needs to deter would-be offenders, and instil confidence in society that sexual assault is not tolerated.<\/p>\n<p>In its final argument, the state told the court that the victim is still affected by the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Citing the victim impact report, Ncobo said the assault negatively affected the learner\u2019s emotional, social and scholastic functioning. He also struggles to trust people, the court heard.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of the assault, the learner said he felt empowered by how his peers showed their support by attending court hearings and marching outside the court, Ncobo told the court.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\">Victim\u2019s family relieved by the sentencing<\/h2>\n<p>Outside of the court, the learner and his aunt expressed their joy for the sentencing. The learner\u2019s aunt, who did not wish to be named, said the family feels relieved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past five years, we\u2019ve been running up and down. It cost us a lot. So much so that he (the victim) failed grade 10.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said the incident happened while the boy was still mourning the loss of his mother who passed away in 2016 \u2013 a year before the sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was traumatised. People struggle to believe that this happened because it involved a boy and a man. But I\u2019m relieved because the state did the work,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Ntsiki Dlulane from Equal Education welcomed the sentence, and said she hoped that the education department will not allow Ntuthu to ever teach again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that the family feels that justice has been served. Young people and children should feel safe at school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Ntuthu\u2019s family refused to comment.<\/p>\n<p><em>GroundUp has tried to follow this case since 2017. You can find our reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/advanced_search\/?adv_search=Ayanda+Ntuthu&amp;search_type=article&amp;is_simple=true\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ayanda Ntuthu sits outside court on Tuesday where he was sentenced for sexually assaulting a learner in 2017. Photo: Marecia Damons A teacher who sexually assaulted a boy at a Cape Town school in 2017 has been sentenced to five years in prison. Ayanda Ntuthu continued to teach at the school for most of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-229394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cape-town-teacher-gets-five-years-for-sexually-assaulting-a-learner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}