FIVE teachers, including a principal in a Limpopo school, continue to draw their salaries from the provincial department of education while doing nothing.

The teachers are attached to Mahlontebe Secondary School in Marble Hall in Sekhukhune and have been reporting to the district offices of the department since January this year.

The teachers were chased away from the school by parents and pupils who accused them of having sex with pupils.

The teachers were also accused of playing truant and doing business outside school at the time they were supposed to be teaching.

Other teachers were accused of having a personal vendetta against other pupils and punishing them by not teaching. Matters came to a head when a Grade 11 pupil damaged a teacher's car after accusing the teacher of cheating on her. The pupil had allegedly caught the teacher red-handed having sex with her classmate.

Education spokesman Pat Kgomo said departmental investigations were at an advanced stage and believed that by the next quarter, the affected teachers would be transferred to other schools or returned back to the same school pending the outcome of the investigations.

Spokesman for the South African Council of Educators Temba Ndlovhu said the association has concluded interviews with the circuit managers for the department, educators, the school governing body, the parents, the pupils and the alleged victims.

- This story was first published in the newspaper on 7 March 2012