By all accounts, Roodepoort Primary is a good public school. So why are parents of this model school in a disadvantaged area being pelted with rubber bullets and doused with teargas in a feud with the department of education that has lasted for 11 months? What could be so difficult to solve at one school in a province with the most hands-on MEC for education in the country?There are at least two views as to what is happening at the school. One is that the majority of parents are racist and do not want black African leadership in the school. Except that the so-called racist parents are themselves black - "coloured", for those who make these kinds of epidermal distinctions between oppressed people.The department claims there was nothing wrong with the process of appointing the African principal; it's just that these coloureds do not want an African principal.The other view, that of the coloured parents, is that this has nothing to do with race. It is about appointing people who have served in the school for years and who are eligible for promotion - why bring in people from outside who do not know the school and its community, and who do not have a history of involvement in making this a good school?The race card, they argue, is an unfortunate insult against a different group of black parents who simply want leadership that places the interests of the children first.The leadership was also accused by these parents of mismanaging school finances, and the parents claimed standards had dropped since the new appointments.I do not know which of these views is valid or whether there might be some truth to each of them. What I do know is that this unusual case has blown the lid on a topic nobody wants to talk about - is it wise to appoint principals to schools whose language they do not speak (Afrikaans in this case) and whose community they do not come from?The truth is, our government has wisely not interfered with former white schools in principal appointments - which is why most white schools appoint white principals over and over again. Sooner or later, this is going to become a contested issue, but for now there is little political attention to the matter. In fact, often the black parents insist on white teachers and principals. Which raises the question: was Roodepoort Primary a soft target for pushing the necessary agenda of inclusivity and diversity? These are, after all, poor and working-class black people.In a perfect world, the only thing that matters is the competence of the principal. But that world does not exist in our country, not even 21 years after apartheid. We choose rugby players and boardroom executives and school principals because they look like us, pray like us and speak our language. It is the rare leader who doggedly pursues diversity in the workplace or in places of learning or on the sports field; leaders who think out of their skin.Given this context, how can the problem be solved? We must move society and schools forward so that any principal can be appointed at places like Roodepoort Primary; if we do not, South Africa will remain forever trapped inside the stale and explosive racial categories of African, coloured, Indian and white. But the way to do this is to create opportunities for senior teachers at Roodepoort to be promoted in any schools, black or white. Yet none of this is possible without taking along parents in the decisions, patiently explaining the value of diversity, and enabling appointments of the best leaders who are also deeply invested in the surrounding communities.My experience is that when you choose outstanding leaders, black or white, most communities gradually come to terms with the new arrangements even if full acceptance takes much longer.It would be easy for the department of education to throw the rule book at the parents. But that kind of compulsion simply alienates poor coloured people who already feel marginalised in what they perceive as an African-dominated society. A better way forward is to make the process of change itself an educational experience in which ordinary citizens work out how to learn and live and love together in this transition.Rubber bullets and teargas are decidedly not the answer, while simply following the right rules and procedures in appointments is not enough...