Madonsela on school hair protests: ‘We need to have the conversations sparked by these brave young girls’

Thuli Madonsela on Wednesday weighed in on the school hair policy protests that have had erupted in schools around the country‚ saying there is a need for “circles of healing”.

The popular outgoing public protector told Talk Radio 702  that Chapter 5 of the Equality Act – which concerns the “Promotion of Equality” – needed to be implemented and required a “funded programme” to encourage dialogue about racial and cultural differences.

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi had intervened on Monday at Pretoria High School for Girls following protests over a reported instruction to black pupils to straighten their hair‚ and schooling at Lawson Brown High School in Nelson Mandela Bay was suspended on Tuesday after a pupil was allegedly told she won’t be able to write her exams with an afro.

Something Madonsela said she had found useful were the “diversity awarewness workshops” when attended she had joined the Department of Justice in 1995.

In these‚ she said‚ people would question their assumptions about other races‚ “they would talk about what they have taken as normal about Indian‚ white people‚ black people‚ about each other‚ and then we question those stereotypes‚ we question those assumptions‚ and then we begin to heal”‚ she explained.

“And I think‚ through the Equality Act - Chapter 5‚ we need a funded programme that allows people to questions these things.”

Madonsela said this section of the law‚ which “proactively promoted equality remains unimplemented” since being passed in 2000‚ and “we need to be implement it to allow conversations as the one sparked by these brave young girls”.

She also urged some circumspection before the “race card” is used.

“The race card may actually be played by both white and black people in a situation‚ to say this is happening to me‚” the advocate said.

“But I would just caution people to listen first before you label it‚ pulling the race card‚ pulling the gender card or the women card‚ just listen carefully and try get into the motivations‚ or the shoes‚ of the one that is complaining.”

She said these type of issues would follow her when she left office in October.

“In my new life‚ I will go back to social justice because the issues I am talking about now are issues I have been concerned about since my university days.”