By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Cornwall Hill College (CHC) in Irene, Pretoria – which is at the centre of allegations of racism – has publicly apologised to pupils and parents for the delay in transforming the private school.
On Monday morning, CHC’s executive principal Leon Kunneke apologised on behalf of the school’s executive management for the slow pace of transformation.
He said transformation was one of the country’s pressing and most critical issues.
“We’ve taken heed of the complaints raised, received the memorandum, and stand before you today as the college’s leadership to renew our commitment in moving forward with speed, focus and determination in order to ensure diversity and representation throughout all levels of the college,” he said.
Earlier, parents and pupils held a peaceful protest outside the prestigious school calling for an end to racism and unfair treatment of black pupils.
Some held placards that read: “More teachers that look like me”, “protect our kids, stop interpersonal and systemic racism at CHC” and “my hair is none of your business”.
This follows a stand-off last week between parents and school officials over racism allegations. Parents called for the resignation of the headmaster, saying he failed to ensure the school promoted diversity and dealt with incidents of racism.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi earlier met with the school’s management.
Lesufi said racism would not be tolerated at the school and its policies would be reviewed.
“We want to enter this school and build a South Africa that all of us can be proud of. To the leadership of the school, to the parents and to all of us my children, I can tell you now – and I’m declaring this – racism ends here and no further.
“I can commit on behalf of this school that no one will be mistreated from now on. I can commit on behalf of this school, that we will have teachers that will represent all of us in this school,” he said.
SA Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganayo joined a group of parents in an anti-racism protest at Cornwall Hill College, a private school attended by his daughter near Pretoria, the capital.
“The school has got to consciously go out and look for black teachers to give our children pride to actually look and know that there are black people who are excelling in the education sphere,” Kganyago told broadcaster eNCA on Monday while at the protest.
Reports of a lack of transformation at the school have spurred protests, as have allegations by black students that they experienced discrimination. In a May 26 statement, the school said it was revisiting its hair policy, diversity training and the structure of its board.
While schools and cities haven’t officially been divided by race since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, disparities in wealth and an apartheid strategy of placing so-called townships, where many blacks were compelled to live, on the periphery of cities, has meant that inequities persist.
That has resulted in student bodies that don’t reflect the country’s demographics. Apartheid laws meant that blacks and other racial groups that were discriminated against were given an inferior education and barred from certain professions. That has resulted in unequal access to post-school training and contributed to the slow pace of transformation in workplaces ranging from schools to banks.
In recent years, anti-racism protests at schools have been driven by non-inclusive dress-code rules about natural hair, the wearing of religious symbols. Last year reports emerged that invitations to a private gathering for a Cape-Town school’s final-year students had mainly been extended to white pupils.
Cornwall Hill College charges annual fees of as much as R93,550 ($6,793), putting it out of the reach of most South Africans. In 2015 employed White South Africans on average earned three times more than blacks with jobs.
South Africa spends about 14% of its budget on primary and secondary education at government schools, more than on any other expenditure item. However, the persistent poor-quality of education in historically disadvantaged communities that serve the majority of its children continues to weigh on outcomes in a country where almost a third of the workforce is unemployed.
Its quality of schooling was ranked 114th out of 137 countries by the World Economic Forum in 2017, the last time the organization published the measure in its Global Competitiveness Index.
The school system is held back by a lack of knowledge among educators, an uneven availability of textbooks and labor unions that “fervently resist any policy to monitor teachers by blocking accountability reforms,” the International Monetary Fund said in a 2019 report.
Black staff at the historically-white South African Reserve Bank made up 76% of its total workforce in 2020, compared with about 65% six years earlier, according to central bank data, when Kganyago was appointed governor.