Pretoria girls' school governing body launches legal battle against education department over racism claims

The school governing body (SGB) of Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) has launched court proceedings against the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) and the MEC for education, Matome Chiloane.

The legal action follows a series of events that began after 12 PHSG learners, including eight prefects, were suspended on 24 July on allegations of racism.

The allegations centred around the learners’ involvement in a WhatsApp group, where messages with alleged racial connotations and “microaggressions” were reportedly shared.

The department alleged that the conversations included commentary that dismissed as insignificant the ongoing dissatisfaction among black learners about the challenges they faced at the school.

Chiloane visited the school on 30 July and on that day the GDE placed the school’s principal, Phillipa Erasmus, on a three-month precautionary suspension. At the time, Chiloane stated that preliminary investigations into the racism claims had revealed Erasmus’ failure to take action after being informed in 2023 about the existence of the alleged “whites-only” WhatsApp group.

Matome Chiloane. (Photo: Deaan Vivier / Gallo Images / Beeld)

Additionally, the department suspended the 12 pupils on several charges — some of them were prefects who lost their privileges — and deputy principal Doret Schoombie was transferred to the GDE’s district office.

However, an internal investigation conducted by the SGB subsequently found that the suspended learners were not guilty of any misconduct.

GDE spokesperson Steve Mabona expressed the department’s “disappointment” with this outcome. Shortly thereafter, Chiloane initiated an independent investigation to determine whether a broader culture of racism existed at the school.

Summary of report 

On 4 November, the GDE released a summary of the investigators’ report. One of the findings was that some white teachers at the school reportedly did not greet their black colleagues, citing uncertainty about whether they were educators or cleaners. The SGB dismissed this as “unproven and unprovable”.

According to the investigators, this allegation was confirmed by the school’s suspended principal Erasmus, who reportedly described the issue as one of her biggest frustrations. Erasmus also spoke of the ongoing ill-treatment of the administration staff by certain educators, claimed the investigators.

The report recommended that Erasmus, along with the deputy principal responsible for discipline, two educators, the estate manager and the HR manager be charged with misconduct.

Charles Mdladlamba, the director of Mdladlamba Attorneys and the lead attorney in the investigation, said the GDE should consider removing the chairperson of the SGB, citing allegations of interference with the MEC’s legislative powers.

Read more: How SA schools are tackling the nuances of racial clashes

SGB fires back 

The SGB’s legal action aims to compel the MEC to release the full report by Madladlamba Attorneys, which was publicised by the MEC on 4 November but was not provided to the school.

The SGB also seeks to interdict the GDE from taking any further action based on the report until it is reviewed and potentially set aside, and to challenge the MEC’s decision to commission the report and the report itself, on the grounds that they are irregular and irrational.

A statement from the SGB describes racism as “abhorrent” and says that “even allegations of racism leave an indelible stain”, which is why it is crucial to exercise extreme caution before accusing anyone of such a serious offence, particularly within the educational environment.

“Yet unsubstantiated and ungrounded allegations of racism are what PHSG, and learners at PHSG, have been subjected to at the instance of the very body from which PHSG and its learners should have been entitled to expect protection and not its opposite — the GDE,” reads the statement.

It states that court papers filed by the SGB will demonstrate that GDE officials pushed to charge the school’s learners with racism just before their matric exams, based on their participation in a private WhatsApp group and the messages shared within it.

However, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, in a letter to the MEC on 10 October, independently reviewed the group’s comments and concluded that there was no evidence of racism or hate speech.

Read more: Pretoria Girls racism row — criticism pushes Lesufi to call urgent meeting

When the learners were acquitted, the GDE claimed it respected the outcome, but its actions suggested otherwise, as it embarked on an “entirely unjustified and groundless witch-hunt for further examples of racism”,  according to the SGB.

The SGB stated that Madladlamba Attorneys failed to find any clear evidence of racism, aside from an unsubstantiated claim that white educators do not greet their black colleagues — referring to this as “a generalisation which is so vague, unproven and unprovable that it doesn’t belong in any self-respecting report” and that Erasmus’ reported confirmation of the claim was taken out of context.

Despite being tasked specifically with investigating racism, the investigators ignored their mandate and sought out additional criticisms not connected to racism, claimed the SGB.

The GDE and Chiloane had not responded to Daily Maverick’s requests for comment at the time of publication.

Racism charges due to GDE pressure, says SGB

According to the SGB, it will show that the investigators had no mandate to go beyond racism, and that once they found no evidence of racism the investigation should, as promised by the head of department on 3 September, have ended.

It said its court papers would also show that other findings against the school by the investigators were without merit.

“The SGB wants to emphasise this. PHSG has been subjected to an MEC whose task should be to uplift, and to assist with education, fanfaring unmandated and unsubstantiated — and plain incorrect — findings of wrongdoing on the part of the school, without the school ever having been given the opportunity to see those findings, and to answer them before the MEC-initiated glare of publicity,” reads the statement.

The SGB insists racism charges were brought against the learners only because of pressure from GDE officials and that they can substantiate this claim.

“The school, and its SGB, shouldn’t be in this adversarial relationship with the Department. The Principal and staff of PHSG are prohibited by the GDE from speaking up. Only the school’s SGB may speak for it. So it has. It is to right these wrongs that PHSG’s SGB has felt compelled to launch the application,” reads the statement. DM