Gauteng teacher dismissed for sexual misconduct with a Grade 12 learner.
The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) has upheld the dismissal of Gauteng teacher and departmental head after finding that he engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old Grade 12 learner at Lotus Gardens Secondary School, a relationship that the arbitrator concluded resulted in the learner's pregnancy.
In a scathing arbitration award, arbitrator Mmamahlola Gloria Rabyanyana ruled that Andile Malusi Kunene, a teacher at Lotus Gardens Secondary School, committed gross misconduct. In addition to losing his job, the council recommended that Kunene be permanently struck off the roll of the South African Council for Educators (SACE).
The ruling also declared Kunene unsuitable to work with children and ordered that his name be entered into Part B of the National Child Protection Register.
The matter arose after allegations surfaced in September 2025 that Kunene, then a departmental head at Lotus Gardens Secondary School, had impregnated a former Grade 12 learner identified in proceedings as KMM.
