A 54-year-old school principal has been accused of rape by four teachers in KwaZulu-Natal. 

The man has been arrested and is due to appear in court on Friday.

The provincial education department said it is in the process of suspending him. 

The Phoenix man was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the rape of a teacher.

Since then three other teachers have come forward with similar allegations.

The department is to launch an investigation into the allegations and if he is found guilty, they will write to the South Africa Council of Educators (SACE) to have him removed from their list.

Kwazi Mthethwa, KZN education department spokesperson, told News24 the principal would be suspended soon.

“We are in the process of suspending this person, he is appearing in court tomorrow – but this is not our space… for us, we are going to wait for him and if we see him coming to school we will give him a letter of suspension,” said Mthethwa.

The reason the suspect has not yet been suspended is that he has yet to acknowledge and sign the letter.

“We have to follow proper procedures, we can’t just suspend, but he will definitely be suspended,” said Mthethwa.

He said the allegations were very serious.

“If you had to see some of these allegations, you would collapse instantly.”

“He has got nowhere to hide. Any person who thinks they are going to rape people at school, they have nowhere to hide,” said Mthethwa.

“In the middle of the 16 days [of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence]… here comes a person who is a senior official, he is a person who was supposed to know better.

“Come rain or sunshine… we don’t make a mistake when it comes to this, we want to send a clear message to people,” said Mthethwa.