Wake-up call as HRC is alerted to 29 cases of alleged racism in schools, reports Mukoni T Ratshitanga
South African schools are set for a major shake-up as the Human Rights Commission begins a nationwide investigation into racism in schools. The commission said last week it was investigating 29 cases of alleged racism in six provinces since 1995 – in Gauteng, Free State, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Mpumalanga.
Its inquiry is likely to result in tougher measures against teachers, pupils and parents implicated in racist practices. The commission can recommend disciplinary action against educators, that legislation be changed and that suspensions of pupils be lifted.
“There is a vast range of options available to us. The South African Schools Act prohibits racism,” said HRC representative John Mojapelo.
Gauteng MPL and the African National Congress’s East Rand deputy chair, Pule Malefane, would like racist teachers and principals fired and their qualifications scrapped.
“This [racism] should be regarded as a serious crime that has a high potential for destroying children at their early stage,” said Malefane.
But the Ministry of Education does not have a race relations programme to ensure racial harmony prevails in schools. Ministry representative Khumeleni Khangala added that it does not envisage launching such a programme, as “racial discrimination is outlawed by the Constitution and the schools Act”.
One of the schools being investigated is Pretoria West’s Elandspoort High School, where classes were suspended for a week in May after a racial fight that ended in two black students hospitalised.
The clash erupted after a verbal dispute between two black students and an Afrikaans teacher. Black students alleged racial tensions were being fuelled by a group of white boys from the first 15 rugby team they called the “pie gang”, who had called them “kaffirs and niggers”.
They accused the principal of turning a blind eye to the remarks because the pie gang’s parents sponsor the rugby team.
An irate Afrikaans-speaking parent told the Mail & Guardian black students were not welcome as Elandspoort is a white school. “I don’t know why they must go to white schools. Why can’t they go back to Soweto or somewhere else?” she asked.
University of the Witwatersrand education policy unit researcher Salim Vally said apartheid education “structured the social consciousness and identity of parents” which they pass on to their children. This problem could be solved if “an explicitly anti- racist curriculum” is introduced at schools.
“It is not enough to say we must accept each other’s cultures. That might even mean accepting what a racist defines as his or her culture,” he said.
Vally added that the “rainbow nation” concept is too simplistic, and might perpetuate racial prejudice “by stereotyping and pigeonholing people. We should move away from a narrow multi-cultural concept by applying a broader analogy of the Groot Karip River, where you have different sources – from Africa, Asia and Europe – of tributaries that flow into the river.
“The tributaries might have different sources, but they flow into this big river called the Karip which is the body of humanity. That is the cultural heritage of all South Africans.”
Elandspoort’s acting principal, Sarel du Toit, this week said he was unaware of the commission’s inquiry.
Du Toit said the provincial department of education in a separate inquiry had cleared the school of racism. “The report only points to communication and managerial problems.”
The provincial department last week convened a two-day anti-racism workshop at the school. But Du Toit described the workshop as “a success”.something that you must handle when they occur”.
“There are definitely cultural differences between learners, but we must not focus on that.
I realise you can’t change a situation overnight, but I’m certain we will succeed.”
Some academics said comments like this show the extent to which parents shape their children’s social consciousness, which could b