The Human Rights Commission down plays racial tensions at Mpumalanga’s Ben Viljoen High School despite a stone throwing incident between black and white students.
SIZWE SAMAYENDE reports
THE Human Rights Commission played down racial tensions at the troubled Ben Viljoen High School in Mpumalanga on Friday, even after white and black pupils threw stones at each other during the commission’s visit to the school, African Eye News Service reports.
Commissioner Charlotte McClain said the three-member delegation witnessed the stoning incident between pupils on Thursday, but “it was not a fight”.
The delegation had reported the matter to the principal, Andre Franken, who spoke to the pupils. McClain said it was too early to tell how the commission would deal with the racist accusations between black and white parents, but the tensions were not unique to the school in Groblersdal.
Allegations of racism were common in schools throughout the country, although no specific complaints had been lodged by other schools. “We have generally heard such allegations from other schools. That is why we say Ben Viljoen is not unique,” she said. The commissioners met separately with disgruntled black parents, the school’s governing body and the Mpumalanga department of education. Their fact-finding mission followed complaints from a group of black parents called the Concerned Parents Group about racism against black pupils and a lack of transformation at the school. McClain said the delegation had noted a dispute of fact because the governing body denied allegations made by the black parents.
“We’re going to develop a plan so that we can monitor the school and make long-term contributions such as race-sensitivity training,” she said. The commission and the education department had reached an agreement to collaborate in addressing the problems at the school, she said. The school has been plagued by racial tensions since 1996. A black pupil was arrested after allegedly stabbing a white girl because she allegedly called him a “kaffir”, and the school tried to expel a Grade 8 pupil when he accidentally touched a white girl’s breast. Black parents complain that white pupils regularly use derogatory language, and that their children are discriminated against by the largely Afrikaans-speaking teaching staff.
— African Eye News Service, January 25, 2000.