An email sent to Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi by a former Northcliff High School learner on allegations of racism at the school has resulted in the MEC calling for an investigation at the school.
The former learner claimed in his email that a ‘vicious cycle of racism continues to be perpetuated at the school’. This prompted Lesufi to tweet a screenshot of an email he sent to one of his heads of department to ‘immediately institute an investigation on allegations of racism at Northcliff High School (NHS). “I may request that this investigation be extended to other schools but would like to use NHS as a case study,” Lesufi wrote.
ALSO READ: Former Northcliff High learner calls out schools alleged racism
— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) June 3, 2020
The learner also claimed that this was not the first time Northcliff High School has been accused of being racist. In 2012, a Grade 8 learner at the school had to undergo counselling after a black teacher racially abused her. The 12-year-old girl was told ‘Ingqondo yakho imnyama njengawe’ by the teacher which means ‘your mind is black like you’ causing her schoolmates to tease her about her dark complexion. The teacher later faced disciplinary processes on the charges of misconduct. In 2017, Muslim learners at the school who wore headscarves during Ramadan were made to carry ‘concession cards’ for identification. The card-carrying process was reminiscent of apartheid’s Dompas books that black people had to carry and were ultimately withdrawn.
So there's #RacismAtPMBGHS n now Northcliff high demanding Muslim girls wear a card to practice their religion #Discrimination #Racism #SMH pic.twitter.com/EG7VBdPa9h
— Zafar Shaik (@IamZafie) June 5, 2017
Northcliff High School stated that the matter was under investigation but could not comment on it. They advised that the Gauteng Department of Education would release all statements on the allegations and investigations taking place. The department has been contacted and they had not responded at the time of publishing.
