Race tensions boil over at Durban school over alleged ‘monkey’ slur

Pupils at a Durban school on Thursday blocked the entrances and exits to the grounds amid accusations of systemic racism and that they were called “monkeys” by their teachers.

The drama unfolded at the George Campbell School of Technology at about 1pm. Led by members of the school's Learners Representative Council‚ the pupils used wooden benches and concrete bollards to prevent parents‚ staff and union members‚ who were at the school for a series of unrelated meetings‚ from entering of leaving the grounds.

Metro Police and SAPS officers were present at the school‚ but there was no violence.

The pupils claim that there have been long-standing issues of students being treated poorly by teachers.

One of the protest leaders said that black pupils were called “monkeys” and other racially-charged names.

“We are being called monkeys by teachers and when we question it we are told that that is part of the boer culture and that is how they are made‚” he said.

“One teacher allows Afrikaans to be spoken in his class and engages students in the language‚ but if I try speak Zulu I am reprimanded and told it is a stupid language. Today we decided to close the gates until our concerns are addressed‚” he said.

The pupils have vowed to halt teaching at the Durban central school until they are able to meet with school leadership over their concerns.

Another student leader said that their protest would continue until teachers they accused of racism were removed from the school.

“We want the teachers who call us k*****s and monkeys to be taken out of this school. We can’t have people who promote such behaviour lingering here.”

“The sad part is we are going through the same thing that our parents went through. This year these things will end‚” he added. He said that they had raised the race issue with school management but had been ignored.

“We have been protesting about this and they have been withholding our marks to get to us. We have been waiting and we need to apply to university and they are messing with our lives.

None of the claims could be independently verified at the time of publishing. TimesLIVE approached the school for comment‚ but no response was forthcoming.

Education Department spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa weighed in on the ad hoc protest‚ saying that they distanced themselves from any school that promoted racism.

“In recent times we have noticed that there seem to be individuals within our schooling system who continue to deliberately ignore our fight against this demon of racism. It is for this reason therefore that we are prepared to take action against any person to be found to have racially victimised our learners‚” he said.

Mthethwa called for calm‚ appealing to learners not to resort to violence.

“We also urge our learners at George Campbell to remain calm and not get tempted to take the law into their own hands. We are currently attending to the matter through our district office.”