ANC calls for pupils' artwork to be monitored

Uproar over a Durban high school's matric art exhibition calling ANC leaders "fakers since 1994" had leaders of the ruling party fuming this week.

Just days before the start of yesterday's voter registration drive, ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal were issuing statements saying the Westville Boys' High School's T-shirt art was an "attack on the ANC and on the country".

The T-shirts were displayed at the Westville Village Market Mall in Durban on Tuesday.

The "offensive" artworks, which included depictions on T-shirts of President Jacob Zuma, Nelson Mandela and former national police commissioner Bheki Cele, were produced by Grade 12 pupils at the school for their final practical art exams.

The ANC, which forced the school to remove the T-shirts from public display, said it believed that the "people involved in this despicable deed, which borders on racism, have a personal vendetta against the party and are now using innocent pupils to further their narrow, venomous interests".

ANC spokesman Senzo Mkhize said: "We view this as an attack on the ANC and on the country [because] the South African flag featured in the background."

But the provincial department of education said it was concerned that the school was being used to possibly settle political scores. Fees at the school cost R31000 a year.

Provincial education spokesman Bhekisisa Mncube said the department acknowledged that art, by its very nature, ought to be questioning and provocative.

"We further encourage the development of young artists throughout our education system. However, art for art's sake that is inconsistent with the values and ethos of our constitution deserves no place in our public discourse," he said.

The school's headmaster, Trevor Hall, said the artworks were created by "free-thinking" pupils as part of their art portfolios for the exam.

He said the work was not intended to offend and apologised for any offence caused.

"The visual art syllabus includes a section on social and political commentary. Pupils wishing to explore this section have, for many years, made art expressive of a wide range of opinions. No particular political or social bias is encouraged."

Mkhize said yesterday that the ANC accepted Hall's apology and hoped that artworks by pupils would be monitored so that something like this did not happen again.

However, the Democratic Alliance on Friday said the ANC's response to the T-shirts was "excessive and hysterical".

The DA leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Senzo Mchunu, said the pupils had a right to express themselves "in whatever way they want to".

"The ANC seems to have developed a hypersensitivity about being criticised. Anyone who does so is attacked in the strongest possible terms by ANC leaders. It is frankly laughable that the ANC feels threatened by the handiwork of a few teenagers," he said.