Legal action after school race row

Trade union Solidarity will be taking legal action to have the suspension of SchweizerReneke teacher Elana Barkhuizen lifted.

Barkhuizen was suspended on Thursday after a photo of four black children sitting at a separate table behind a door away from 18 white pupils in a grade R class at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke went viral.

The North West school dismissed any allegations of racism at the school last week.

“[On Tuesday]‚ Solidarity and suspended SchweizerReneke teacher Elana Barkhuizen will address a joint press conference on recent events at the school‚” the trade union said in a statement.

It would also announce certain steps to be taken following action taken by North West education MEC Sello Lehari.

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said Lehari’s hasty and populist actions had led to Barkhuizen’s unlawful suspension while she was innocent.

He said had Lehari listened to the other side of the story‚ he would have reached a different conclusion.

“However‚ he charged and convicted her in bundu court fashion in the presence of a worked-up crowd‚” he said.

Solidarity said it would also announce steps to be taken against political parties that had exploited the incident for political gain.

Barkhuizen would make a brief statement but would not take questions.

Meanwhile, the North West education department said armed security was not permitted on its schools’ premises.

This followed reports of security being called to Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke‚ where a protest was held last week.

“We have heard that parents have beefed up security by bringing in people with guns‚ but these are not permitted,” education spokesperson Freddy Sepeng said.

“The MEC will be meeting parents again this week to address the matter.”

The department is still investigating the circumstances which led to the separation of the pupils on their first day of school last week.

The school has dismissed any allegations of discrimination or racism at the school.

“A photo taken in a classroom of Schweizer-Reneke Primary is not a reflection of the true character of the school‚” the school’s governing body said in a statement last week.

Explaining the picture‚ school governing body chair Jozeph du Plessis said it was a reflection of a “single moment” and that the school did not tolerate racism.

“The governing body does not condone any distinction based on race.

“Learners from different backgrounds‚ including race‚ religion and language‚ are not merely accommodated but are fully integrated in all aspects of the school environment‚” Du Plessis said.

● The principal of a Johannesburg private school has been suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of an investigation.

Roedean School (SA) principal Murray Thomas and the school were in the news in December over the departure and rapid re-employment of a black teacher.

Thomas had informed staff in an e-mail that life orientation teacher Tshidi Mogodiri would be leaving when the school closed for the Christmas holidays.

Mogodiri had been at the school‚ where almost 90% of teachers are white‚ for more than 10 years.

Thomas also apologised at a school assembly in 2018 for saying that a black pupil’s poem‚ which was not meant to offend anyone‚ did just that.

The grade 9 pupil’s poem was about names being mispronounced.