Pioneer black teacher quits over ‘supremacist’ culture
● Nozipho Mthembu expected no special treatment as the first black teacher at Rustenburg Girls’ Junior School. She believed her performance would be judged on merit rather than race.
But she says the discrimination she experienced made her aware of how hostile the school must feel to black families not familiar with its “elitist and supremacist” culture.
After a race row rocked the prestigious Cape Town school, Mthembu, who was adopted by white parents and attended some of SA’s top schools, said she was coerced into resigning just nine months into her job.
She took her dismissal to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, demanding compensation after consistent unpleasant treatment. She won.
Among her complaints was that the school had singled her out for a “mentorship programme”, which left her traumatised.
School principal Di Berry and governing body chairman Gavin Downward gave her an ultimatum to resign or face disciplinary action that would “ruin her reputation”.
The school said parents were unhappy about her “incompetence” and didn’t want her to teach their children.
But some parents have accused the school of racism, saying Mthembu’s experience was just the tip of the iceberg.
Berry is set to retire at the end of the year. The school has maintained that Mthembu’s constructive dismissal had nothing to do with her race, only her performance.
The governing body has, however, apologised, because she “did not experience these mentorship measures as supportive”.
Mthembu told the Sunday Times: “It [elitism] is a culture I’ve known all my life, but even I couldn’t fit in. I attended their schools and spoke like them, but I was still not good enough … What was I supposed to do to fit in?” The 26-year-old UCT graduate said the discrimination had shaken her to the core.
She said she landed in a psychiatric clinic for burnout in July.
She recalled an incident at a school camp when teachers were to meet parents. One parent apparently walked past Mthembu and a coloured colleague without greeting them.
“She ignored us as if we were invisible and went on to greet our white colleagues.”
Mthembu says she started to doubt herself so much after constant second-guessing by colleagues that she had an IQ test.
Her father, Professor Martin Wittenberg, director of UCT’s research unit DataFirst at the school of economics, said he was angry at his daughter’s treatment. “I find it shocking that in this day and age it was possible for my daughter to be subjected to attacks by parents that seem to have been frankly racist.”
Psychoanalyst and trauma specialist Sue Levy said it was important for the school to acknowledge the very real possibility that race played a part in whatever occurred.
The school’s governing body said it was making strides to transform the school. Its staff complement was only 53% white and employment equity candidates were prioritised for all permanent vacancies.
Three governing body members resigned last year due to resistance by the school to discuss inclusivity and diversity management. One‚ Rabia Mohidien‚ said she had left as it had become frustrating for the body’s plans not to be implemented by the school.
This “lack of inclusivity” at the school prompted Parents for Change — a group of concerned parents who broke their silence earlier this month, saying they could no longer sit back and watch young girls being exposed to an environment that didn’t prepare them for the future of the country.
One, Sarah Grant-Smith, said she wanted her daughters not to grow up in an environment where whiteness was the standard.