by Muhammad Khalid Sayed
What we do in the privacy of our homes is our business but it still says much about us.
When we invite our friends over for a braai, we are reminded of the saying: “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are". So indeed, even if we do have a private party, it says much about the type of people we are and in South Africa, over two decades into democracy, we should be having friends across racial lines.
Yet what happened at Brackenfell High School and the event that the school allowed to go ahead at Skilpadvlei on October 17 last year was not a private affair.
Even though the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) report whitewashes the school and even though many white folk at the school insists it was a private function, a public institution was involved.
The report acknowledges the school had 261 Grade 12 learners in 2020. Of these 177, over two-thirds were white, 52 (19.9%) were coloured and 32 (12.2%) were “black African” [sic]. In fact, one class, 12A2, was lily white while another class, 12A1, only had one coloured in it.
The fact the school could allow for such demographics and not spread the few coloureds in 12A4 and 12A5, albeit totalling 6 learners, shows their institutionalised indifference to diversity.
Conspicuously the report omits the racial profile of the staff. The organising committee of the event was ostensibly all white parents.
The educators who attended were all white. The report is silent on which educators were invited. But then again, we know that the educators at the school were mostly white. Eventually, the learners who all attended were all white. A potent cocktail for a racial explosion and fertile ground for discrimination, based primarily on race. Even past learners spoke out about the racist institutional culture at the school.
We know what must not be done is to ignore the challenge. The WCED report into the incident did just this. We must imbue the non-discriminatory values and virtues of our Constitution in our children. Schools must be beacons of hope and integration in our divided society. As we saw with the demonstrations just how divided our communities still are along racial and economic lines.
The ANC has therefore written to the South African Human Rights Commission to request a possible date for the release of their independent report. We have also written to the Speaker of the Legislature to have this matter placed on the agenda of the House as a matter of public importance after the February 17 State of the Province Address. But we also need to introduce real change at schools such as Brackenfell High School, but the change must start at that school. The WCED must pay for training in diversity for all the educators at Brackenfell High with separate training by the same reputable company in diversity training to all the learners at the school.
The WCED must also draft a plan and implement it whereby educators, learners and parents throughout the province may raise concerns or complaints of discrimination, whether by race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, class, at their school. But the department must also implement a plan that will ensure that by 2025, at least half of the staff complement at Brackenfell High School are black, that is coloured, African and Indian.
Finally, the ANC calls on the WCED to facilitate, in conjunction with Brackenfell High, the introduction of school transport and enrolling, if needs be through bursaries, of black i.e. coloured, African and Indian learners, so that these comprise at least half of the Grade 8 intake in 2022. These learners must come from the feeder communities of Scottsdene, Bloemkombos and Wallacedene.
There are many schools like Brackenfell High throughout South Africa which still imbue indifference to discrimination and institutionalised cultures of exclusion. But we must start with Brackenfell High. The WCED certainly cannot be in denial about the challenge nor, even worse, should it be covering it up.
Our schools must be preparing our learners to be noble citizens of their country. Citizens who appreciate difference and diversity and who are not afraid to interact and socialise with people who are different than they are. If our learners are not learning these values at our family braai, then they must surely learn them at school functions advertised on a school’s official WhatsApp group.
* Muhammad Khalid Sayed is the ANC deputy chief whip and the spokesperson on education in the legislature.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus
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