In 2023 at an elite school in Pretoria East, St. Albans College, a senior boy on more than one occasion after lights out behaved inappropriately towards a junior member of the house. In the same year, at the same school, allegations of attempted grooming were made against a former teacher.
Later that year, a large-scale breach of POPIA was committed by another staff member. Neither a letter nor a notification to affected parents on the POPIA crime committed has been forthcoming. Both teachers have since left the school.
While South African Council of Educators (SACE), Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (ISASA) as well as a media outlet were informed anonymously by some parents on the POPIA breach, it is believed that at least one, or possibly even both ex-members of staff have now been re-employed elsewhere in the education sector and have not been “blacklisted”. For some reason, both cases have been dealt with discreetly.
‘School-ties’, the eye-opening and groundbreaking documentary series on child-grooming highlights a darker side of control, intimidation and manipulation by authorities in power entrusted with a duty of care.
However, this story is not about the toxicity of control, manipulation, bullying, or intimidation. It’s about forces more sinister than that. It’s about social conditioning, assimilation, acculturation, exceptionalism, ethnocracy, exclusionism, homogenisation and social framing.
It’s about the secrecy and malfeasant networks of centralised, elite groups of exclusive teachers and parents alike, who sometimes operate as informants for self gain. It’s about the roots of supremacy, the insatiable pursuit of capitalism, and a disconnection from the counsel of Anglican participation.
The Headmaster, the Housemaster, and the Cricket coach
The cover-up of the abuse happened in the same institutional silence and darkness that the abusive acts took place in. While neither teacher was blacklisted from the teaching profession, in the case between a junior and a senior learner, no school disciplinary action followed either.
Not only is the image of the school in this regard protected. The Housemaster too, whose close relationship with the headmaster from days at Oakhill College, is absolved from any accountability pertaining to a duty of care.
It is alleged that the same housemaster encountered past issues of racism through his failure to meet quota requirements as a provincial cricket coach in the Western Cape, bringing his relationship with the union to an end.
Yet, not only was he appointed as Housemaster at St Alban’s college, but within a short space of time, he was promoted into the role of senior housemastership.
During his housemastership, a minister’s son refused to return to the same boarding house after instances of bullying reported to the same Housemaster were constantly ignored. Also taking leave of the school was the junior, the victim of misconduct in the same boarding house.
White supremacy demands that it is the victim who must be afflicted, while the perpetrator should be comforted and accommodated.
‘This is not a township, this is not Mamelodi’
There is a parallel worth mentioning.
In 2021, another friend of the Headmaster was implicated by old boys during a broadcast of the Robert Marawa Show on “racism in Cricket SA” only to be hired in 2023 by the Headmaster. Within a short space of time, he too was promoted to the role of Director of Cricket.
While lawyers may have intervened on his behalf, more old boys have given testimony to statements made in the past by the same coach, some of which included “this is not a township”, and “this is not Mamelodi” directed at black cricketers.
As a Director of cricket, the deterioration of his relationship with a promising black cricket player resulted in the sudden departure of this young man.
There clearly exists a pattern. Both the Housemaster and the cricket coach, sharing a friendship with the Headmaster, also share a trail of previous discriminatory accusations levelled against them. Both found refuge at St Alban’s College.
Within a short space of time, both were promoted. Perhaps a trail of discrimination collected along the way serves as a badge of honour. It is worth noting that the Director of Sports is also a close family friend of the Headmaster, who in 2022 coached in the same rugby team with the headmaster’s son, a fast-track usually reserved for credentialled coaches of calibre.
Institutionalised racism enforced by ideology
There is an undeniable institutional racism in the school. This is the current state of affairs in the school, where a vast majority of the learners are black.
- Only learners of colour were subjected to a round of “random” drug testing in 2023. This is racial profiling. Parents still await an explanation for this.
- The use of racial slurs by learners is relegated to deputy head or Housemastership level structures. These are top-level disciplinary hearing offences according to the schools code of conduct.
- The use of racial slurs by teachers is addressed behind closed doors where the Human Resources or Labour Relations department are never involved.
- Recruitment and promotion of another staff member with a history of previous racial incidents into sports echelons (The Cricket Coach).
- On equity, out of the 16 available positions at Housemaster and deputy Housemastership levels, there are only two black Housemasters and only two black deputy housemasters.
- Not one black housemaster in boarding has been appointed.
- Not a single black teacher holds the position of Head of Department.
- Not a single black African holds one of three deputy headmastership positions.
Against Section (9) of the Constitution as well as the Employment Equity Act 55, what is the stance of the school, where, once again to reiterate, the majority of students are black?
It is therefore unimaginable to consider the plight of support staff, mainly black and vulnerable, under current supervisors; are they even allowed union representation?
The Headmaster’s public anti-redress manifesto
In 2021, the Headmaster published on his LinkedIn account an article entitled “wokeness and cancel culture have no place in schools”. The screed was anti- transformative and in many ways a manifesto for what the Headmaster would accomplish over his tenure, what he would inflict upon black people, and how he would elevate white supremacy, and its agents.
The Headmaster often retorted that the intention of sharing the piece was merely to spark debate. However, the public reaction to this was racially divisive; most people who agreed with the anti-redress stance were white and conservative, while those who disagreed with it were mainly black and progressive.
This is punctuated by Helen Zille, who endorses the headmaster’s views. Her view on coloniality and the “othering” of black South Africans stirs divisions across the political and social spectrum in South Africa, and anti-transformative conjecture has penetrated into elite schools like St Albans.
Hockey Cadre Deployment
If you want to get ahead in the St Albans community, hang in the hockey circles.
For instance, of all eight Housemasters, six are hockey coaches. The headmaster and deputy are hockey enthusiasts, prompting speculation that barring a few exceptions, hockey coaching is the stepping stone into the “golden circle” of informant staff and informant parents alike. Some parents may very well have been rewarded with leadership positions, or fee remission structures for sons.
In fact, a member of staff who switched from rugby to hockey coaching was endorsed by the headmaster after his appointment as Housemaster with the words, “I have known Mr X for a long time.” Although years apart, both he and the Headmaster are alumni of the same high school.
This is a form of homogenisation whose intention is simply the subversion of accountability as a close group of allies benefit from an insular, closely guarded system.
Custos Veritatis: Guardians of the ‘truth’
The school motto reads, “ Custos Veritatis”, guardians of the truth. The underbelly of engineered social divisions are entrenched not just along racial lines, or sports categories.
The church, predominantly the Anglican denomination, tasked with collaborative responsibilities on areas of transformation, or counselling in instances of misconduct, such as the issue between the junior and senior, is kept at arm’s length.
Guardians of the truth? More like gatekeepers of access and opportunity.
They do in fact guard the real truth with zeal, because the truth is a damning indictment on them. In 2022, the headmaster faced a petition from a school community of all races, requesting his resignation. A recurring theme among all petitioners was the headmaster’s bullying.
True to form, lawyers were enlisted, the petition shut down, and onwards the community limped, divided and defeated. The headmaster was placed on a sabbatical of three months that was rumoured to be a suspension in disguise.
The truth of the school’s academic record exposes an institutional absence of empathy. They weed out learners who may threaten their 100% matric pass rate.
Of all these cases, the worst involves a young learner whose academics floundered, in large part due to the devastation of cancer his mother, a single black parent, was suffering through. While she was undergoing chemotherapy for this life-threatening illness, the school saw fit to inform her of the need to withdraw her son. She received no support, only cruelty.
Absence of accountability and oversight
With such levels of injustice perpetrated against the wonderful St Alban’s community of boys and parents, as well as a committed group of teachers outside the golden circle, where is the MEC of Education, the school board, SACE or ISASA? Are they incompetent, or just simply oblivious? Where is the legal recourse against clear breach of conduct on a consistent basis by the central powers at St Alban’s, especially on breach of POPIA and failure to inform parents and learners? How dare the Bishop of Pretoria be undermined? Where is the Transformation Committee?
Who sits on interview panels? Where is the Employment Equity Committee? Where is Human Resources? Is there a role for alumni to play in fixing this? Where is the Council of Churches? Where are the parents? On racism, what does the Constitution say?
Most importantly, is this the type of grooming that young men should undergo from a school with a vision to prepare them for life?
I’m an analyst by profession. And projection is a key performance area. I believe that while boys aspire to a Brotherhood whose inspirational levels reverberate across the Jukskei, the headmaster and his chosen few are dragging the institution back into the dark ages, a divided, centralised, elite, racist, stagnant pit.
Damage control instead of meaningful change
A statement may be issued (in response to this article), stating that, particularly on transformation, changes will be made.
As a past parent, I say this to the new St Albans community, that in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, promises of inclusivity and transformation were made by the headmaster. Through a carefully articulated “ Statement of Intent”, the opening words of this commitment were, “This is not a PRO statement”.
Four years later, the document which served as the basis of my affiliation to the school, is not worth the paper it’s written on, as transformation and collaboration have been replaced by regression and centralisation.
Counting on “activism fatigue”, the biggest weapon in anti-transformation circles, with great and grave abandon, St Alban’s College swiftly moved on from the promises made in preference for senior management segregation, whether along racial lines, or along the sports front.
When my child matriculated, I was overjoyed at my dissociation forever from that toxic environment. In comparison to his early years at college, the unity that is characteristic of the Brotherhood of the Sword, as they proudly refer to themselves, rapidly evaporated from his personality, especially after one incident.
A fellow matriculant was overheard giving an account of his intervention on behalf of a boy who was self-harming. The boy had displayed no prior inclination to inflict on himself this serious symptom of distress.
When it was brought to the attention of the Housemaster concerned, this marker of distress which requires immediate attention was flat out ignored. The boy is leaving that boarding house.
Since his days as a Grade 11 learner, my son often spoke of his disdain and dislike for senior management whom he deemed responsible for having taken the soul out of a once lively school.
He often argued that the future for which he was being prepared centred around the belief whereby only a certain sector of people are capable of senior leadership roles, and that accountability is dependent on your position in relation to the leader.
But this is not about the headmaster and his internal organogram of the golden circle. He is an employee. This is about the employers of the headmaster.
In other words, is the anti-transformative, divisive and secrecy-ridden style of his leadership the kind of traits that the Council and the Board would want in their appointee? If so, expect no changes.
Instead, just as his chosen acolytes have enjoyed his protection from accountability, expect the same for him from above. After all, embedded in such a system, is a web and a network of endless “cadres” in a boy’s club.
* The author is a former parent of a learner at the school. They write in their personal capacity.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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