Tempers flare at Durban school after 'racially motivated' fight

Tempers matched the soaring heat on Tuesday as irate Centenary Secondary School parents who were locked out of the Durban school called for the principal, the governing body and security to be removed after a violent incident, allegedly linked to racial tensions. 

An altercation broke out at the Asherville school which resulted in three pupils being taken to hospital after they were stabbed and assaulted on Tuesday morning.

A video of the incident which was circulated on social media showed pupils attacking each other — and some parents assaulting pupils — outside the school while neighbours were left questioning the lack of intervention from security personnel.

The KwaZulu-Natal education department conducted a fact-finding mission on Wednesday where officials met parents, teachers and other stakeholders to understand the situation.

In an emotionally charged meeting with chief director for district operations in Umlazi, Thembelihle Gumede, parents expressed their frustration with how the matter was handled.

The parents initially refused to be addressed by Gumede, insisting they wanted to hear from the principal. Gumede wouldn't entertain this, saying the department was handling the matter.

This drew the ire of parents, who had waited for more than two hours while officials were briefed inside.

They were further incensed when Gumede told them, when they were shouting while she was trying to address them, to “stop howling” and “the more you talk, the more you’re going to burn”, as they stood in the sun.

After the situation calmed down, engagements between the parents and the department resumed.

Smangele Madlala, a parent of two learners in the school, said the matter started with an incident on Friday during which a black learner was allegedly force-fed drugs in the school toilet by Indian learners who stole his bus fare.

She said the school did not act against the alleged culprit and she was at a school meeting when the fight started on Monday. This was when black learners realised the alleged culprit was still at the school.

“The matter (the incident on Friday) was swept under the carpet by the teachers, they didn’t inform parents or suspend them. The African kids then wanted to know why the culprits were still in school and the fight started there,” she said. 

“A friend of an Indian learner who was trying to separate the fight was mistakenly hit and that escalated the fight.”

She said the fight continued on Tuesday morning, but things escalated further when the school only suspended the African learner.

“The school was supposed to nip this in the bud when it started on Monday, but they never did. They suspended one child and left another and from there it just went out of proportion (to a point) where they were starting to toyi-toyi in the school,” added Prem  Ganassparsardh, who is a safety and security officer in the area and a community activist.

He said he went to the school immediately after being made aware of the incident on Tuesday where he found security and police personnel standing in the car park.

“I went inside the school and there was fighting going on there. I told the security officer the best thing is to let the children out because they may start burning up the school as well since they had broken the windows and damaged a teacher's car.”

Ganassparsardh claimed the altercation continued outside the school gates where two parents “instigated” the Africans to beat the Indian learners.

Ahmed But, whose brother attends the school and whose cousin is among the three children in hospital, blamed the way the pupils were dismissed without dealing with the source of the problem for the violence.

“They dismissed the kids knowing that they were violent with each other. The principal remained in his office and SAPS and security stood by while kids were out here on the streets getting hurt,” he told TimesLIVE Premium.

“The school didn’t want to handle the matter and sent them out without informing any of the parents. They sent them with circulars which the kids had to take home and give to their parents, that’s not a prior notification.”

He said his cousin has a stab wound to the head, a punctured lung and a broken nose and is fighting for his life in hospital.

Another parent, Oliver Puckree, called on parents to submit a petitionfor the removal of the principal and security and the dissolution of the current school governing body (SGB). That suggestion received loud cheers from other parents.

He said the reasons that parents want to sign the petition included that the principal is unfit to do his job and the SGB, which has been run for the past 10 years by the same people, needs to be dissolved.

“They allowed an incident that was basically internal regarding drugs to turn violent and racial on the outside based on the fact that the principal opened the gate to allow the students out, which escalated the problem.”

“He should’ve kept them in, called the parents to pick them up as soon as possible and resolved the situation while it was safe. By allowing them to come out onto the street it became a street problem.”

Gumede said they would hold a stakeholder meeting to gather all necessary information to come up with a way forward and then have a parents meeting.

She promised they would “leave no stone unturned” in resolving this issue and “if there are learners that needs to be expelled, there is a procedure that we follow”.

Asked if she can guarantee the safety of learners if they were to attend school on Thursday, Gumede reiterated it was the responsibility of the community to ensure the safety of learners and teachers in schools as long as this was done legally.

“For the past 15 years the department has not been appointing security personnel and administration clerks because of financial constraints, but the community has the responsibility to protect the school, including educators and learners.”

She also warned parents against closing the school or keeping children from school.

She said the MEC is the only person who has the right to close the school.

She also assured parents they will deal with those who are “negligent” in their duties in terms of enforcing the code of conduct to learners.

“We will deal with whoever contributed to this situation. We will investigate and there will be consequences. If learners have to be expelled we will outline the correct procedure to the principal on how to do that, if there are people involved in inciting the community or the learners there will be consequences for that as well.”