A Central Methodist Church teacher accused of sexually abusing a Zimbabwean girl has been suspended and told to leave the church premises in Johannesburg pending an investigation, Bishop Paul Verryn said on Monday.
This was the second time the teacher had faced allegations of sexual abuse, Verryn said. Earlier this year, a case against him and two other teachers — one of whom had since died — was ”thrown out of court”, he said. The teacher was receiving counselling.
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa has condemned the allegations of sex abuse at the church, where hundreds of Zimbabweans have sought refuge.
”We, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, are gravely concerned about the situation at the Central Methodist Church and are committed to doing everything within our power to assist the investigations and redress the situation,” it said in a statement.
”The church has been aware of these allegations and has acted and fulfilled all fiduciary and statutory obligations by reporting these said accusations to the Department of Social Development and the National Prosecuting Authority.
”Three months ago, the church appointed a public concerns commission tasked with investigating these assertions of abuse of unaccompanied minors and is awaiting a report on their findings,” it said.
Verryn said on Monday that the latest allegations were contained in an anonymous letter sent to him at the end of June.
He believed that the child involved had since been transferred to a shelter away from the church.
He said girls staying at the church had been told that solicitation would not be tolerated. They had also been told that they should speak up if they were inappropriately touched, and had access to social workers.
In this instance, he was told that the man asked the girl if she would be his girlfriend, she said no and ”that was it”.
Verryn said he had ”a sense there was a sexual inappropriateness about it in that he [the man] was asking for sex”.
”I’m not happy with that.”
He said the church public concerns commission investigating the matter in tandem with the police consisted of two of the church’s ministers and other senior lay people experienced in the principles of child care.
News reports on Monday said that teenagers living at the church were being sexually and physically abused and recruited by adults to commit crime, and that, as a result, scores of children had left.
A child reportedly claimed that teachers were coercing young girls into performing sexual favours with promises of toiletries, clothes and food.
Verryn said that, at the time of the first sexual abuse court case, he asked the police to visit the church every day, if they could, and gave them permission to search it, using sniffer dogs where appropriate, to dispel concerns that it was harbouring criminals.
Admitting that about 10 children had been placed in shelters, he said any child who social workers believed was showing difficulty adjusting to life at the church was transferred. — Sapa