K-word use sparks protest

Matrics act against alleged racist incident at Pretoria school

THE black teacher who was allegedly called the K-word by a white colleague at Voortrekkerhoogte High School in Pretoria on Friday was so hurt and traumatised that she immediately resigned.

This prompted matric pupils to abandon classes and protest against the incident, believed to have been sparked by a dispute over a parking spot.

It was alleged the black teacher had parked in a wrong spot when the white colleague referred to her by the derogatory word in front of several witnesses.

The pupils were extremely angry about this and, on their return to the school yesterday after the weekend, decided to boycott classes.

“We are so angry and hurt because she was the only engineering and graphic design teacher at the school,” said a pupil. “This (other) woman has always treated us black pupils like trash. We also pay our school fees to her, and she shouts at us for paying just a few minutes late.

“We abandoned classes and protested because we have had enough. We will not tolerate racism in our school any more. We want the school to expel the racist teacher. We don’t want her any more.

“Another white female teacher admitted today she has been (aware) that this particular teacher was a racist.”

After the intervention of the school governing body and principal, Gerald Venter, the pupils accused them of wanting to silence them and prevent them from speaking against an incident they deemed wrong, inappropriate and intolerable.

Venter said he could not share specific details about the alleged incident as this was against department regulations.

He said the pupils eventually returned to their classes after an agreement between themselves and the governing body.

Venter said the school merely wanted pupils to return to their classes and allow management and the governing body to handle the matter according to standard procedure.

He said the pupils had just 30 days left before their midyear examinations and it was best they focused on their studies and left the rest to the school.

According to Venter, an internal investigation was under way to deal with the alleged incident, and the black teacher did not resign as claimed.

The Cape Times’ sister publication, the Pretoria News, said they had it on good authority that the teacher had indeed resigned but was, in fact, called back by the governing body as a strategy to get the pupils to return to classes.

Despite this, the pupils continued to protest in their classrooms, and some took photos of themselves holding placards calling for racism to fall.

In one placard, they urged the principal, Venter, not to take sides on the issue.

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the allegation had been investigated and due process would be followed to get to the bottom of the matter.

“Yes, we are aware that pupils didn’t attend classes, and they were addressed and discouraged from disrupting schooling,” Mabona said.

“It is important to inform them that it is difficult to recover curriculum time lost; pupils must focus on learning.

“According to information at our disposal, no pupils were threatened in any way following the incident.”