A creche principal is expected to plead guilty today to telling two young children to have sex.

The woman, 68, appeared in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg yesterday.

She could face prison time for the incident that took place in February last year.

The prescribed minimum sentence for compelled rape where the victim or victims is younger than 16 years old is life imprisonment, but a court can impose a lighter sentence if there are circumstances compelling enough to justify it.

According to the court documents, a teacher at the creche reported to the principal that a boy, 2, and a girl, 5, were found having sexual intercourse in a toilet at the creche.

The principal called the children to her office and, in the presence of other teachers, allegedly asked them to re-enact how they had intercourse. She recorded the demonstration on her cellphone.

She used the recording to show the parents of both children what the children did.

The girl's parents were upset that the principal asked the children to perform the sexual act again and recorded them. The parents complained to the police.

The principal faces a charge of compelled rape, which is defined in the Sexual Offences Act as someone unlawfully and intentionally compelling someone to commit an act of sexual penetration with another person without the consent of either of the people engaging in the sexual act.

The principal is still running the creche but it is not clear whether the two children still attend it.

Spokesman of the Gauteng department of social development, Thebe Mohatle, could not yesterday afternoon say whether the department, which is responsible for oversight over early child development centres like creches, has taken any disciplinary steps against the principal or whether the creche was being investigated.

National executive officer of Childline, Dumisile Nala, said the children's behaviour was not unusual, but the way the principal handled the matter was "unacceptable" and "really bizarre".

"This is definitely not the way of . handling the situation," Nala said. She said the children may have been doing something they saw other people do or that they saw on television.

But, the question is, what were the two children doing alone in the toilet in the first place, she said.

Nala said that the children would probably be more disturbed by having to re-enact the sexual intercourse than doing it in the first place.

She recommend that the boy and girl be taken for counselling.

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