Northcliff under fire over Muslim card

OPPRESSED: ‘REMINDS ME OF CARRYING DOMPAS DURING APARTHEID’

A ‘concession card’ required to be carried by Muslim pupils at Northcliff High School has outraged a parent.

Mother hits out at concession card daughter was made to carry because she wears scarf for religious reasons.

A“concession card” required to be carried by Muslim pupils at Northcliff High School in Johannesburg has outraged a parent and child and caused a storm on social media.

But the school principal, Walter Essex-Clarke, cited this as a requirement for any pupil who wished to alter their school uniform for their own reasons.

However, he has since backtracked on this position.

The 15-year-old, grade 10 pupil, who cannot be named, said she felt that she was being oppressed by being instructed to obtain the card, allowing her to wear her scarf.

“The first thing that popped into my head was that it reminded me of carrying around a dompas during the apartheid era,” she said. “It made me feel oppressed.”

She added that while other pupils “didn’t see it as a big deal” that a card needed to be carried, the school should try to add diversity and educate pupils about other religions.

“During assembly, they would recite from the Bible, but why not from anything else like the Koran, Torah or Bhagavad Gita?”

She added that the school’s decision to remove the system was only for those wearing head scarves, but should apply to anyone needing to wear an item for religious reasons.

“There are many children, like Hindu children, who wear a red string, and in African cultures they wear a band on their wrists.”

Her furious mother yesterday posted a picture showing that her daughter needed to carry the school’s concession card to wear her headscarf.

She likened this to carrying around the discriminatory dompas – required to be carried by black South Africans under apartheid law. “If our daughters must now carry concession cards to wear their head scarves at a public high school, how is this different from the dompas black South Africans had to carry in the past? #NorthCliffHigh I’m not going to accept this,” the mother posted.

“Can we please help and advise as our girl wants to take on this fight with our support,” she asked under the comments section.

Essex-Clarke initially stated the concession card was a requirement not just for Muslim children attending the facility.

He told The Citizen that where parents requested a variation in school uniform of any kind, a card was issued to children to “cut out the admin” for any teacher querying the alteration of attire.

This included not having to shave, or having long hair required for a role in a play, for example.

How is this different from the dompas system?

“It could even be a request to wear takkies because of health reasons. We then grant permission,” Essex-Clarke said.

“It is not in our interests to discriminate against anyone. It is applied to all the children.

“If anybody is offended, let us know and you won’t need the card.”

He said the concession card system had been used for years when it came to exceptions.

He said that if parents were offended, or felt the card alienated their children, the school was willing to engage with them to amend the requirement.

“If that’s how they feel, we are prepared to change anything going forward. It’s not our intention to offend anyone. We have a lovely group of kids here. I would like to sit and talk to the parents – they guide me.”

Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said his department had contacted the principal, who had subsequently agreed to withdraw the concession card.

The department explained to him “how negative and divisive it now reflects in the public eye”, he said. –