New KZN education MEC heads to Hillcrest High over 'k-word racist slurs'

Newly appointed KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Mbali Frazer visited Hillcrest High School on Thursday after alleged racist slurs involving pupils.

Frazer is expected to fire her first salvo as the department head after parents complained that the department was failing in its duty to promote equity at schools and pupils held protests last week and on Wednesday.

In a statement on the school's Facebook page on Wednesday, school governing body head Byron Creed said it intervened after snippets of a private WhatsApp group chat went public on social media platforms this year.

The group messages, which were leaked on Instagram, were posted between June and October 2021 on an account which has been deactivated.

One message read: “So then u not confident in your understanding as u therefore are a k****,” while another read: “OK well we just do what we did to that n***** to him.” The account has been deactivated.

Creed said the group was not affiliated to the school officially but the participants were pupils.

He denied allegations were “swept under the carpet”, adding the matter was addressed in June with five pupils in the group “together with their respective parents, as the school code of conduct rules were broken”.

The school governing body head said the five expressed their remorse as they did not fully understand the connotations of the words and the history of the words which they had written in their private WhatsApp group chat.

Their parents apologised for their children's actions and pledged to educate the youngsters “further on the issues”.

These allegations came after Grosvenor Girls' High School was embroiled in similar allegations, forcing Frazer's predecessor to suspend the school head.

This is a developing story. 

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