BULAWAYO - A teacher here has been convicted for sending sexual messages to his 15-year-old ex-student, luring the teenager to be intimate with him.
Nkosilathi Gadhlula, a tutor at St Columbus High School in Makokoba, was embarrassed when sexual messages he was sending the complainant who cannot be named due to his age through WhatsApp, were presented in court.
Gadhlula pleaded guilty to the offence of contravening the Postal and Telecommunications Act and tormenting the complainant by trying to lure him to bed.
He appeared before magistrate Gladmore Mushowe.
Mushowe fined Gadhlula $200 or three months in prison.
The offence came to light when the boy’s parents, who also cannot be named to protect complainant’s identity, discovered the messages in their son’s mobile phone.
In a police statement, the boy, who was doing Form Four at the school until February 4, 2014 when he transferred from the institution, confessed that he was afraid to tell his parents as he was not sure how they would react.
It is alleged that during the period extending from February 8 up to 16, the teacher sent obscene messages by mobile phone to the boy, proposing love and asking for intimacy with him.
The statement states that Gadhlula tried to take advantage when the boy asked for phone numbers of his classmates to ask the teenager for intimacy in exchange.
It is further alleged that Gadhlula told the boy to ignore girls but be with him as he claimed it is a proper thing to do. But, his luck ran out when his messages were intercepted by the teen’s parents who questioned the boy.
The student confessed that his ex-teacher always sent him offensive texts and he kept on persisting despite the fact that he had told him to stop.
The teen’s parents then reported the matter to the police. Printed messages were produced in court as evidence.