The three Jules High School pupils who engaged in sexual relations on school premises, while their schoolmates made a cellphone video of the act, have been spared the humiliation of a trial.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Advocate Menzi Simelane has withdrawn the charges against the three after they completed a diversion programme whose completion was made an order of court.

“It is better that they did not go through the courts which would have resulted in criminal records.

“The court was just a conduit to the diversion programme,” NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said.

But Simelane is very concerned at the high number of similar cases the NPA receives about similar acts.

“So concerned is he that he’s made a plea for community involvement,” says Mhaga. “He feels the NPA cannot win this battle otherwise.

“Communities must help in the moulding of the behavioural patterns of the young. There’s no reason why a parent shouldn’t monitor what is in their child’s cellphone.

“With modern handsets able to connect to the Internet, and able to make videos and generate other content, it is necessary for parents to know what their children get up to on their phones,” Mhaga says.

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