Pupils hit back over ‘racism’
PRETORIA: Sometime last week, a pupil at Pretoria High School for Girls presented an assignment highlighting inequality in South Africa.
The girl was allegedly taken to the principal’s office and reportedly threatened with suspension.
On Saturday, during the Spring Fair, black pupils at the school marched, claiming they were fed-up with institutionalised racism and discrimination at the school.
Yesterday, anger vibrated across the country as footage of heavily armed security personnel patrolling the school yard appeared. They threatened to arrest the pupils.
The pupils were protesting against the school’s hair policy and for being questioned whenever they were in groups of two or more. They also claim they were barred from using their home languages in their private discussions.
Yesterday, the girl who presented the assignment was highly emotional when she told MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi that she was labelled racist by staff members and white pupils.
Her guardian, Lebo Madiba-Lokotwayo, wrote on Facebook that her niece was subjected to racism under the guise of school policy.
“The girl gave a speech in class about employment in South Africa. She compared the politics of employment preand post-apartheid and highlighted the ills of apartheid and the role of trade unions,” Madiba-Lokotwayo posted.
When her parents fought the suspension, the school used the hair regulations against the pupil.
“Her mother is black (Zulu) and her father is Indian. Doesn’t that just make her proudly South African? She represents everything that is beautiful about this country. #SheIsHerHair,” Madiba-Lokotwayo stated.
An online petition was created requesting Lesufi and headmistress Karen du Toit to ensure the school’s code of conduct did not discriminate against black and Muslim girls.
It also requested that disciplinary action be taken against teachers and staff who have implemented racist policies or racist actions, while also demanding that pupils who protested not be victimised.
Lesufi met with pupils, management and the school governing body to resolve the problems.
Hundreds of young black girls emerged from their classrooms at break-time, repeatedly chanting “we are tired”.
In an emotion-filled twohour meeting, pupils relayed some of the incidents they had experienced at the school.
“I was called a monkey by a teacher. It pains me even now because we are treated differently at this school. We are made to feel that we do not belong,” recounted one tearful girl, who cannot be named because she is a minor.
Another learner narrated her story. “A white girl called me a dirty k-word. I didn’t report her to authorities because she has called other children the same and nothing was done.”
A pupil told the MEC that her Afro hair was likened to a bird’s nest, and that she was forced to comb it. “I have a natural Afro, but a teacher told me I need to comb my hair because it looks like a bird’s nest.”
She said she was given a brush and told to look at herself in the mirror and tidy herself up.
About 10 pupils spoke of the treatment they had received regarding their hair.
“Teachers find it offensive when we speak to our friends in our mother tongue. We are stopped and told to stop making funny noises,” said one of the girls.
A former pupil, meanwhile, told the Cape Times’s sister newspaper the Pretoria News that the protest by pupils was necessary as it had been an issue before.
“This was necessary because race has been an issue for a long time,” said Neo Kgobane. “We should have done something about it a long time ago. The school needs to step up its efforts in changing some of the rules that have kept many girls oppressed.”
The 19-year-old said the issue of racism at the school was not just limited to hair, but extended to how they had been instructed to behave.
“There are other aspects of institutional racism that we have been subjected to at the school,” Kgobane said.
Lesufi told the pupils the matter would be attended to, and that such actions would not be tolerated by his department.