Johannesburg – Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s meeting with the parents of Hoërskool Jan Viljoen’s pupils today, following racial tensions at the school, has been postponed to Thursday.
On Monday Lesufi met with the school management, teachers and pupils in an attempt to understand the cause of a brawl between black and white pupils last week, which is widely believed to have been motivated by race.
During the visit, Lesufi said the pupils in question were minors, and that the police were investigating the matter. He also confirmed that evidence, in the form of WhatsApp messages sent by pupils and parents, had been handed over to the police and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
The SAHRC has since launched an investigation, while two assault cases have been opened.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has also condemned racially motivated incidents at the Randfontein school, saying it supported the MEC’s call for an investigation.
In a statement, the union said: “Sadtu Gauteng is outraged by reports of racism at Hoërskool Jan Viljoen in Randfontein. It is unacceptable that racism still rears its ugly head in the 28th year of our democratic dispensation.
“This backward behaviour undermines the collective aspirations of ordinary South Africans to build a non-racial, non-sexist and inclusive country as espoused in the constitution.
“We support MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s call for the investigation of racism by the SAPS and the SAHRC. Racism is a gross violation of the constitution; it is a human rights issue. Those who are found responsible for promoting or deliberately ignoring this behaviour must be held accountable.”
The teachers’ union also called on the provincial education department to conduct diversity management programmes at the school and put in place measures to transform the racial composition of staff at the institution.
It said while these processes were unfolding, all stakeholders must work hard to restore calm and to recover teaching and learning time lost during the protest on Monday.
Meanwhile, there has been another racial incident reported at the Milnerton High School in Cape Town. Reports said today that the head of the school’s disciplinary committee allegedly made a black pupil kneel and bow to a white pupil after an argument over a bench.
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