The Western Cape Education Department said that it will be seeking legal action against the consultant firm that conducted a diversity intervention at Fish Hoek High School, which seemingly traumatised the students.
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The diversity intervention, which took place at the school on Monday, 31 October 2022, was cancelled the following day, on Tuesday, 1 November 2022, as a result of complaints that the course caused hurt and division.
Western Cape Minister of Education, David Maynier, said, “An investigation was launched immediately to ensure accountability for the events that took place and to ensure that it never happens again.”
“I have instructed the Western Cape Education Department to undertake an urgent review of any policies, guidelines, and/or regulations that govern the Department’s procurement of services by external diversity consultants; and I have requested that Western Cape Government Legal Services provides advice regarding legal options relating to the service provider’s conduct during the intervention itself, including whether there is scope for a civil claim for damages in this regard.”
“We must now focus on the learners writing exams, especially the matrics, and ensure that exams can proceed smoothly. Our priority is, and remains, the well-being of the learners of our province,” he added in conclusion.
A diversity programme taking place at Fish Hoek High School was suspended after parents complained that the content seemed to traumatise their children.
The matter has attracted much attention, with political parties such as the FF Plus and DA weighing in.
Why was it taking place?
The diversity programme was implemented following an incident in May of this year in which a teacher at the school used racial slurs during an Afrikaans lesson.
This incident propelled students to hold anti-racism protests and share their personal experiences and stories of racism in schools. The students brought to attention that the issue of racism is systemic and bigger than just one interaction.
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The diversity programme was driven by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), which brought in diversity expert and social justice educator Asanda Ngoasheng.
What happened in the programme?
Staff were asked not to be present for the session in order to create a safe, open and neutral environment for the students. A team of psychologists was, however, present.
On Monday, 31 October, the first assembly was held with learners from grades 8 to 11, facilitators, and a psycho-social team from the WCED.
The assembly was to be followed with four-hour sessions with the students to unpack the content introduced in the assembly. But the programme was put on hold after the assembly when students shared recordings of the talk with their parents, who then complained.
On the topic of reverse racism, Ngoasheng told the students that it doesn’t exist and that black people cannot be racist.
“In a country like South Africa, if we were truly to live in a space where there was reverse racism… that would be that there would be no white people in this room here. Every single one of the white people in this room would be in a completely different school, in a township school somewhere,” Ngoasheng explained.
She continued to say that “if we truly had reverse racism, white people in this country would not be allowed to open a bank account. If we really had reverse racism, everyone in this school would be speaking an African language and not be allowed to speak their own language.”
“If we had reverse racism, everyone who lives in a suburb would be black, or a person of colour. Where are those people that were sitting here?”
Ngoasheng also read a poem by Koleka Putuma, titled Water, written around the time of #RhodesMustFall. The poem explores what it means to be black in South Africa, patriarchy in Christianity, and general racism. The poem was meant to help students engage with points they had raised in their earlier protests.
Parents’ response
The white parents at the school started a WhatsApp group with more than 150 participants to discuss their concerns surrounding the programme.
Felicity Purchase, who is the Speaker of the City of Cape Town Council, is a member of the group. She says, “I went to the school when I was young, and now I’m on the Bursary Trust, so I try to help the school as much as I can.”
She also commented that the diversity training should have been abandoned “since the teacher was found innocent.”
One of the administrators of the WhatsApp group, Liezl Pye, posted on Facebook in response to the incident. She claimed that Ngoasheng is an EFF activist who used the programme to spread racism and anti-Christian slogans.
“All the children have been traumatised by this and sadly the effect could be seen today when kids that have been friends with multi-races were involved in fights and arguments,” read the post.
The parents said that they were not asked to consent to the training, with some calling for calm and others believing pressure should be put on the principal to take action.
School’s response
In a statement issued by the school on Tuesday, principal Steve Joubert said that the diversity session had evoked a strong reaction. He explained that the programme would be suspended while what was shared was more deeply reviewed.
Education MEC David Maynier said that the intervention was placed on hold because of concerns from parents. The parents complained about the content of the programme and the manner in which it was communicated.
“I understand parents’ concerns and frustrations, and we are taking this matter very seriously. A review of the training content, and the manner in which it was managed and communicated, is under way. Once the process has been finalised, an outcome and way forward will be determined,” Maynier explained.
The Fish Hoek High School governing body has referred queries to the WCED for a response.
Ngoasheng’s response
Ngoasheng said she and the team were saddened but not surprised at how parents responded to the programme. She explained that discussions of race and racism in South Africa illicit very emotional responses because they tend to bring back painful memories.
“We do this work precisely because we want to develop a culture of dialogue and debate on these issues without sowing further division and discord,” she explained.
“The racial, gender, class and diversity issues within the Fish Hoek High School educational community have been in full protest and riot long before our intervention. This can be witnessed in the historic protests, and online messages of violence, racism and sexual harassment of minors.”
Ngoasheng also referenced the fact that the same programme has been successful in other schools and has helped other communities have better communication and relations.
“Being made aware of past and present injustices is often painful and can feel like trauma, but always needs to be seen in the context of the pain and hurt inflicted daily that is so normalised and invisibilised. The work aims at building resilience in all, to be able to have more equitable conversations,” she added.
Police and political response
FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson on basic education, Dr Wynand Boshoff, said that the FF Plus will lodge a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against the Western Cape Department of Education, feeling that Christianity was fiercely attacked.
DA national spokesperson and MP Cilliers Brink said what they believed happened was racialised bullying directed at the learners.
“The demonising of people, particularly of children, on the basis of race has absolutely no place in our constitutional democracy. It is also completely unacceptable that teachers were barred from the compulsory ‘diversity course’ where learners were allegedly abused, and that learners were prohibited from leaving the room or raising objections.”
He added that they will urgently engage political leaders to hold individuals accountable for bullying and that they will abolish courses used to “racially indoctrinate learners.”
In a different vein, ANC Western Cape provincial parliament member Muhammad Khalid Sayed stated that racism is rampant at many former Model C schools and that the programme was necessary.
“In fact, we called for it in the legislature, following the Fish Hoek issue. The ANC wants such sessions to be taken to all white-dominated and whites-only schools, to assist the learners to unlearn racism,” he explained.
“The reaction from some parents, teachers and the FF Plus only confirms that racism is a learned culture and that many parents in such communities are still nurturing their kids to be racists.”
What happens now?
The diversity programme at Fish Hoek High School has been suspended, based on the concerns raised by parents of the learners.
The school has been instructed that the WCED will deal with media, and is yet to make any further statements.
Ngoasheng posted an article reporting the incident on her Facebook page yesterday, saying that “it is only when we have more dialogue about race, more regularly that we can begin to solve the issue of racism in South Africa.”
She explained that “these conversations are difficult and fraught with emotions because racism is trauma and has long term intergenerational effects. As parents across all races, we need to have these difficult conversations with our kids about how the past affects the present. This is the only way we will heal, by talking about how we got here.”
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Picture: Instagram