Mondli made his first appearance and through his legal aid appointed lawyer asked to be allowed an opportunity to write his exams. The state opposed the request saying other learners will experience further trauma if they sit for the exams together with him.

Mondli allegedly stabbed 35-year-old Matefo Mphosela on Thursday at her residence in Soutpan.

The 20-year-old murder accused now awaits his day to answer questions about why he allegedly stabbed someone who is said to have adopted him. This has brought the department’s learner support programmes under the spotlight.

Last Thursday, physical science teacher Matefo Mphosela took her last breath when her learner stabbed her. The two reportedly lived together. For now, the circumstances leading to the stabbing remain a mystery.

Free State Education MEC Tate Makgoe says the law should take its course. “So what exactly happened there I think it’s a matter of what the police are investigating. Don’t worry about what people are saying on the ground. You know when something like this happens, especially when there’s a woman involved, people always make assumptions but I think we are saying don’t make assumptions even if those useless assumptions were right. There is nobody who has a right to kill another person,” Makgoe adds.

Makgoe would, however, not be drawn into whether the deceased and her learner were having a romantic affair as they were reportedly staying together.

“It was not a legal adoption, it was just this thing of saying you identify weak learners coming from a poor background and all that you do is to give them support. And that support includes allowing the child to go to you to go to your place because most of the teachers here do that programme.”

The South African Democratic Teachers Union says incidents of this nature contribute negatively to the demand and supply of teachers in the country, where the youth see no need to take teaching as a career.

Mokholoane Moloi, who is the Free State Sadtu secretary, says: “This is Teachers’ Month where we should be celebrating the good work that the teachers are doing amidst the serious challenges of the unsafe work environment. Increasing gender-based violence, bullying and drug abuse by learners - all these socials ills find expression in schools, with teachers at the helm of having to deal with them on a daily basis.”

The case has been postponed to the 31st of October for bail application.

SABC News