FF Plus calls for probe into suspension of workshops

THE Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has announced that the party had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) over the recently suspended diversity workshops held at Fish Hoek High School.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) initiated workshops in response to outrage over an alleged racial incident in May this year in which a teacher used a racial slur during a lesson.

The incident highlighted a systemic problem of racial discrimination at the school, decried protesting learners.

FF Plus said it lodged the complaint against Education MEC David Maynier and the group who presented the session on behalf of parents who had reached out to the party.

FF Plus asked the HRC to probe the matter and material used during the workshops and to rule on their constitutionality, dubbing the workshops “traumatic” and “unconstitutional”.

“Firstly, learners’ right to freedom and security was violated seeing as they were held in the school hall against their will and without the lawful supervision of teachers, who were told to wait outside,” FF Plus national chairperson advocate Anton Alberts said in a statement.

“Under these circumstances, the presenters stated that white people are the only ones who can be racists, while black people cannot seeing as they have no power.”

The party slammed critical race theory, stating that the pupils were “set up to be vulnerable subjects of this propaganda”.

Education MEC David Maynier said an investigation was ongoing.

“We have been very clear: what happened at Fish Hoek High School should never have happened, and a full investigation is under way.”

The Social Justice Agency’s Edwin Cleophas said Diversity training or Diversity Equity and Inclusion work had a very specific role to play in organisations and institutions.