Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says it is engaging with Hoërskool Strand following an uproar over a picture posted on social media of a new all-white staff contingent.
The EFF said they were shocked by the blatant display of perceived “white supremacy and institutionalised racism” by the school.
EFF spokesperson Wandile Kasibe called for the WCED to probe the recruitment process of the school.
“The school had posted on its official Facebook page a picture of its newly appointed whites-only personnel with no single black person, to show the depth of racism at this school.
“EFF Western Cape has it on good authority that almost more than 95% of the school personnel is constituted by whites and the rest are people of colour and black Africans.
This sad state of affairs at Strand High School and many other similar schools sends out a wrong message that seeks to suggest that only white people are worthy of either studying or being employed by this school, and that the school sees no need to bring in people from other cultural backgrounds to form part of the school,” Kasibe said.
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said they were looking into the matter.
“The WCED notes the allegations by the EFF and requests that they engage with the department on their concerns. The WCED is engaging with the school to determine the facts.”
A parent whose son attends the school refuted allegations of racism.
“It is our understanding that Strand High is an Afrikaans-medium school primarily as the surrounding neighbourhoods are predominantly Afrikaans, as can be seen by Statistics South Africa demographic census data.
“Statistically speaking, one could visit every school in the Helderberg including in Nomzamo, and you will find a likely probability that the majority of teachers and students reflect the demographics of their surrounding communities on account of proximity to the school and efficacy of travel to and from the school coupled, with the language medium of the school,” the parent said.
South African Democratic Teachers Union acting provincial secretary Sibongile Kwazi said they were aware of the matter.
“We are concerned with the lack of transformation regarding the staff of the school. The staff should also portray the demographics of the learner population. We would like to make a call to teachers of colour to apply to such schools in order to transform them. Because one of the excuses that sometimes is given by the employer is that the teachers don’t apply to those schools. Parents of colour must make themselves available to serve on the school governing body (SGB) in order to be part of the recruitment processes at the schools,” Kwazi said.
ANC Education MPL Khalid Sayed said this was not an isolated case.
“There are many other (schools), which, due to WCED’s complacency, are allowed to be white enclaves. The WCED is complicit in this due to its poor management and lack of proper and effective oversight.
“The kind of composition of the teaching staff and SGB at this school will surely impact on the admissions and language policy, which will in turn affect rejection of black learners to keep the school white.
“We will be requesting more information from the MEC regarding the number of schools that have zero blacks in their staff, SGB and learners,” he said.
Cape Times