Manaka Ranaka and Samkelo Ndlovu recount their own hair 'discrimination'
In the midst of the controversy at Pretoria High School for Girls, two of the biggest stars on SA TV screens Manaka Ranaka and Samkelo Ndlovu have spoken out about discrimination they once faced at school.
The school made headlines on Monday, following claims by black students that they were being told that they could not wear their hair naturally and were forced to straighten their hair.
Their battle against the school's code of conduct has been picked up by thousands of South Africans who flooded social media with messages of solidarity for the girls.
And while celebrities from across the country added their voices to the messages of support, TV stars Manaka Ranaka and Samkelo Ndlovu took to social media to share similar experiences they encountered while at school.
"I fought this very same battle in high school when I chopped off my long relaxed hair and afro'd my hair to grow dreadlocks," Samekelo said, next to a post in support of the girls at Pretoria Girls High.
"I am so happy to know that there are girls woke enough to stand up for their true aesthetic. Girls who are saying we are unapologetically black and you WILL be okay with it, because there is nowhere else to be black than right here in Africa! Where we belong!" she added.
Manaka recounted how she was told that she could not braid her hair or grow it naturally in school because it looked "untidy".
"Even after relaxing or scurling they'd still complain about the oil left on the windows because of the starizers/sprays/gels we used to maintain the harsh chemicals we were forced to straighten our hair with.. this is God's truth, I stopped relaxing my hair in the beginning of high school as I got to understand the school rules more," she added.
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Manaka says that she was later voted president of the SRC in order to fight the rules, which seemed to her "very prejudice and racist", and finally succeeded in getting the school to allow braids and dreadlocks.
The fight has also been picked up by popular TV personality Hulisani Ravele, who took to Twitter on Monday to recount an incident where her baby cousin was sent home by his school and told to "level" his hair.
Watching him in the barbers chair with tears in his eyes. He tells me kids of another skin colour have their hair like this at school.
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016
Dear Black Child, you are not yet uhuru. Stru.
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016
Hulisani was so enraged at the incident that she approached the school and took pictures of other kids wearing similar cuts to the one her baby cousin was sent home for, causing a heated confrontation between herself and a teacher at the school.
If this rule of boy's hair must be leveled is a rule, it must apply to EVERY BOY! Regardless of skin colour. That is and was my argument.
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016
If boys are not allowed to have unleveled hair (i.e. Everyone must have a brush cut), it must apply to Thabo, Gareth, Husain, and Kelvin!!
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016
And I'm not angry, I'm not mad. I'm just a young black woman who will not sit back and allow injustice. Die poppe sal nou lekker dans.
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016
Racism is not just in the big incidents of hurling derogatory statements, it's in the little things too like how my hair should be.
— Hulisani Ravele (@HulisaniRavele) August 29, 2016