Apology to the Parent Group, Pretoria High School for Girls

On 31 July 2024, Daily Maverick published an article titled “It’s heartbreaking,” says Pretoria Girls High parent as school faces fresh allegations of racism. A group of parents representing a number of white pupils at Pretoria High School for Girls lodged a complaint with the Press Council. As the headline indicates, the article was about allegations of racism at the school and referred to some previous allegations of discrimination. 

The Parent Group objected to a reference in the article to a “racism incident” in 2016. Deputy Press Ombud Tyrone August upheld the complaint, stating that Daily Maverick could not make an unqualified reference to “the racism incident” when an investigation had not found any evidence of racism.

The Parent Group also complained about a statement that the parents “called in” lawyers to represent the pupils. August found that it was a misrepresentation of what had transpired as it had been the lawyers who had, in fact, approached the parents.

Daily Maverick apologises to the Parent Group for the errors.  

The Deputy Press Ombud dismissed other aspects of the complaint.

The original article has also been updated to include this apology.

Visit www.presscouncil.org.za for the full finding. DM