The emergence last week of the experiences of more than 50 former pupils who accused Johannesburg Catholic school De La Salle of institutional racism is alarming and infuriating.
Alarming because of the trauma suffered by these boys and girls and nothing being done to stem their pain, and infuriating because it is yet another indicator of our government’s failure — after 30 years of democracy — to address the elephant in the classroom.
The history and legacy of apartheid can never be erased. But dealing with the effects of racial, spatial and economic differences that reflect our country’s chequered past dictating where people lived, worked, went to school and got health care can and should be addressed.
Challenging the systemic effects of racism in our classroom where our future leaders are schooled still eludes us though.
TimesLIVE's sister publication Sowetan reported the pain of former and current pupils documenting current and historical racism at the R78,000-a-year Victory Park school.
In another incident last week the parents of two black pupils from Bryandale Primary school in Bryanston criticised the school after their children were allegedly abused by an Indian child who made derogatory remarks.
The education department revealed in March more than 548 cases of bullying had been reported in schools since the academic year began on January 15.
Limpopo had the highest number of cases at 305, followed by North West with 78, the Eastern Cape 68, KwaZulu-Natal 29, Mpumalanga 26, Gauteng 23, the Western Cape 11, the Northern Cape seven and the Free State one.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) told the Sunday Times it was months away from rolling out a national code to curb behaviour that has increasingly turned playgrounds into battlefields.
The code classifies bullying and racism-related incidents as serious misconduct with disciplinary procedures and sanctions.
Commissioner Tshepo Madlingozi said the SAHRC wanted to address systemic intervention rather than tackle individual cases.
There are numerous laws — the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination, Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, and more specifically Bela (Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill) — but as the racial slurs fly and stories emerge, it is evident these are not enough.
In February basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said the Bela bill — the all-encompassing legislation to deal with racism, scholar transport and the nutrition programme — was delayed.
Politicking — and in this case grievances over admissions regulations and language policies — has brought the rollout to a halt.
Gwarube also said the department had developed an “Addressing Bullying in Schools” manual, set for release in June.
Education experts agree our schools mirror the contexts in which they are located, and our pupils are clueless on how to deal with conflict without resorting to violence.
Basic education departmental spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said racial incidents “germinate” from home and “parents must be held accountable for the behaviour of their children”.
His view is the curriculum teaches responsibility, respect, diversity and positive values.
However, the experiences of our children beg to differ, and it is now overdue for government to exorcise the beast that affects the quality of education.
It is not enough to express outrage, visit schools, suspend principals and pupils in isolation when allegations of racist incidents surface.
The problem is an epidemic and needs to be given the same treatment in which we addressed transformation in the workplace.
We need a comprehensive antiracism policy that unpacks racist conflict on our school grounds and on WhatsApp groups. Teachers need to be schooled with ensuring the content they teach or how they conduct themselves and see their pupils from different cultures, is not hurtful or divisive.
This needs to be in the syllabus at tertiary institutions where students were studying to become teachers and on compulsory courses for incoming school governing body members.
And everybody needs to comply or face the consequences.
We can no longer sit back and expect laws to police the hateful regurgitations of our shameful past. More needs to be done to forge social cohesion, harmony and justice among young people.
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