The situation at Pretoria High School for Girls has sparked significant controversy and debate following the suspension of twelve white Matric students over alleged misconduct tied to a WhatsApp group conversation. The suspensions were issued without clear details or adherence to procedural fairness, leading to concerns about the transparency and legality of the disciplinary process. The WhatsApp conversation, which revolved around perceived inconsistencies in the application of school rules and broader issues of racial discrimination in South Africa, has been portrayed as racist by some. However, many argue that the comments made reflect legitimate concerns rather than prejudiced views. The controversy has intensified with allegations of racial bias, and the Gauteng Education Department’s handling of the situation has been criticized as heavy-handed and politically motivated, leading to further division and unrest within the school community.
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By Richard Wiliknson
On Sunday evening I published an essay entitled The Gauteng Education Department mishandles yet another “racism” debacle at Pretoria High School for Girls. I explained that twelve Matric girls had been suspended from school last week on charges of serious misconduct. Addressed to their parents, their suspension letters (which are identical in every material respect) state simply that:
“Your daughter, [name redacted], was part of the WhatsApp group that allegedly expressed inappropriate opinions.”
Which WhatsApp group? What inappropriate opinions? The suspension letters do not say. As for the rules which have allegedly been broken, the letters make reference to section numbers in the school’s Learner Code of Conduct and its Social Media Policy which do not exist.
Over the past few days, parents have tried in vain to obtain basic information from the school about the upcoming disciplinary hearings. In addition to requesting the school to set out exactly what their daughters have allegedly done wrong, they have also asked for the following information:
Full and precise details of each and every allegation / accusation that is being made by each accuser against the twelve suspended girls individually and on a collective basis.
The name of the individual(s) who raised the complaint with the school or who is / are making the accusation.
The name of the person who will be leading the prosecution on behalf of the school.
The name of the chairperson of the inquiry.
The name of each member of the disciplinary committee who will constitute the “panel” that deliberates and delivers a verdict on the matter.
Complete and up-to-date copies of all relevant policies that the school wishes to refer to at the hearing
The parents have not been furnished with any of this information. Consequently, next week twelve girls will be expected to appear at the school to defend themselves against charges which have not been properly disclosed, in front of a disciplinary panel whose members are a mystery, all subject to provisions of school policies which do not exist.
This is completely unlawful. In terms of Regulation 5(3) of the Misconduct of Learners at Public Schools and Disciplinary Proceedings Regulations, a learner who is accused of serious misconduct is entitled by law to be provided with written notice that contains “sufficient particularity of the date, place and nature of the alleged serious misconduct to enable the learner to identify the incident in question and to respond thereto.”
On this basis alone, if the disciplinary hearings proceed next week and are then challenged in court (which, in the event of guilty verdicts, they will be), it is virtually certain that any findings will be set aside on the basis that there were serious procedural irregularities which compromised the fairness of the hearing.
“Inappropriate opinions”
Setting aside matters of procedural fairness, the key question obviously concerns the conversation which occurred in the relevant WhatsApp group. Did the girls say or do anything that deserves disciplinary action?
Over the past week, I have assisted a number of the parents whose girls are implicated in this matter and have reviewed screenshots of the conversation. Today, with their permission and endorsement, I am publishing a summary of what was said in the WhatsApp group in order to demonstrate that the allegations of racism are completely unfounded.
The group text conversation (which occurred nearly a year ago) concerns an in-person altercation between a white girl and a black girl about school clothing rules. The black girl had confronted the white girl and told her that she felt that the school’s hair and uniform rules don’t seem to apply to white girls to the same extent that they apply to black girls. The white girl mentioned to her friends in the WhatsApp group that she had been very upset by this remark which she felt was unjustified. The white girl said that “[she] had never been so uncomfortable in [her] life” and that she had “wanted to cry”. In her opinion, the rules at Pretoria High School for Girls were applied equally to everyone. Furthermore, if anyone should be upset by double standards it was the white girls. After all, racial discrimination is explicitly applied in numerous contexts in South Africa including provincial sports team selection and university admissions – and certainly not to the benefit of white people.
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Many of the girls in the WhatsApp group then expressed frustration at the constant race-baiting that they experience at school. A number of girls expressed their belief that the school would be a far happier place if every issue were not racialised and politicised. The conversation eventually moved on to the usual teenage preoccupations, with the girls discussing what time their next exam would end.
That, in essence, is the conversation which has resulted in twelve girls being suspended from school and called to attend disciplinary hearings for serious misconduct just weeks before their Matric prelim exams.
There is a mountain of evidence confirming that what the girls said in the WhatsApp group is factually correct. For example, in 2019, civil rights organisation Afriforum revealed that 56 white schoolgirls had been excluded from Gauteng netball teams specifically and solely due to the fact that they were white.[1] Similarly, researcher James Myburgh documented as far back as 2011 how the University of Cape Town applies differing admissions criteria depending on which of the racial categories the applicant belongs to. According to Myburgh:
“For entry into the MBChB programme a “Black” applicant needs to score 36 points on their matric results and 15 (out of 30) points on the National Benchmarking Test; a “Coloured” applicant 40 and 16 points; an “Indian” or “Chinese” applicant 46 and 24 points; and a “White” applicant 47 and 24 points.”[2]
Furthermore, the University of Cape Town’s 2024 Guidelines for Admission document explicitly acknowledges that the university discriminates between applicants on the basis of their race in order to satisfy race quotas:
“We categorise all South African applicants (not international applicants) according to the categorisation of their parents’ race under apartheid. This allows us to have a proxy for the applicant’s race. We use these categories in making selection decisions to ensure that we meet the diversity targets we set for each class.”[3]
In short, the suspended girls have absolutely nothing to hide or to be ashamed about. The statements which they made in the WhatsApp chat – about white people facing explicit racial discrimination when being selected for provincial sports teams or applying to university – are not racist. These comments simply reflect the factual reality of life in South Africa under ANC rule.
I need to emphasise that at no point was language used in the WhatsApp group which was even remotely racist or offensive. The girls simply expressed their opinion that the school enforced rules fairly and equally, and that they were demoralised by the toxic classroom and societal environment to which they are subjected on a daily basis. Most shockingly of all, many of the girls who are facing disciplinary hearings made absolutely no contribution to the conversation whatsoever. They just happened to be members of the WhatsApp group where this conversation occurred.
How this WhatsApp conversation ended up in the hands of the authorities is not clear. It appears that someone started an anonymous Instagram account last week where it was leaked. Gauteng Education Department officials appeared on the scene very quickly – some might say suspiciously quickly – and insisted on the matter being escalated. Whatever the case, according to the girls’ shoddy letters of suspension, the views expressed in the WhatsApp group are regarded by the school to be “inappropriate opinions” which were likely to “cause the spread of hate.”
Not only has the matter been completely blown out of proportion, but the levels of pettiness and unprofessionalism that have been exhibited by the Gauteng Education Department are extreme. Several of the twelve suspended girls are school prefects. Shortly after they were suspended, their parents were contacted by Mrs de Bruin, one of the school’s Deputy Principals, who asked them to drive to the school and surrender their girls’ prefect badges. Mrs de Bruin was apologetic in making this request, explaining that she was simply implementing an instruction which she had received from the Gauteng Education Department. To the credit of the parents, they all refused to do so.
This petty degradation followed the appalling public humiliation which occurred last Friday morning when an official from the Gauteng Education Department named Mr Kgomo addressed students during the school’s assembly. Mr Kgomo asked the assembled students whether the accused girls should be suspended and expelled from the school. Of course, the students cheered in loud approval.
“Make the white girls bow down to me and feel the wrath”
That this scandal has erupted just a few weeks before critical mid-year Matric exams might shock an outside observer, but it comes as little surprise to those who are more closely acquainted with South African schools in general – and Pretoria High School for Girls in particular. On Monday evening, I posted the following tweet requesting parents and teachers who are aware of bullying and harassment at the school to contact me confidentially and share their story.
I have been inundated with inbound communication. The most shocking input I received was this 37 second video of a Matric student at Pretoria High School for Girls stating quite explicitly that she and her friends intended to target white girls at some point in the year. I have chosen not to name the student and have blurred the student’s face in order to conceal her identity as I believe that this is the decent thing to do when dealing with a young, immature person who has experienced a moment of utter madness.
I have set out below a transcript of the recording:
“Good morning guys this is the 22nd of February… February… is it 20…
Yes guys! Why hasn’t anyone… Guys I have not even asked even a single white person to like bow down!
[Giggling]
I haven’t!
[Another student]: Flip, we have just forgotten…
Guys we just let them off the hook this year. I think this is just because we are in Matric and there is no time. We are feeling sorry for them so… we are going to let it go. But come April, on Freedom Day! On Freedom Day! They will feel the wrath.
So ja…”
Multiple sources have confirmed to me that the girl who posted this video is in fact the very same black girl who triggered the initial altercation in October last year which had upset the white girl who had then discussed the matter with her friends in their WhatsApp group. Earlier this week, I emailed Mrs Erasmus, the principal of Pretoria High School for Girls, and asked her whether the girl in the video clip was in any way related to the current controversy. (I sent Mrs Erasmus the version of the video clip which is not blurred). I also asked whether the school intended taking any disciplinary action against the child. I received no response to my email. Whatever the case, the video is clear, incontrovertible evidence that some Matric students have been actively looking for an opportunity to launch an attack on white girls since as far back as February this year.
Equally disturbing has been the behaviour of students since this scandal broke in the middle of last week. According to an article which appeared in News24, a number of black students spent Mandela Day (Thursday 18 July) marching around the school with raised fists in protest against “racism” at the school. The article claims that they chanted “We want change!”
This is a rather charitable and diplomatic way of describing what really happened. I have been provided with the following 30-second video clip which shows a group of about 40 girls screaming abuse at the school’s principal, Mrs Erasmus. According to one eye witness, a male official from the Gauteng Education Department had to physically intervene to protect Mrs Erasmus from the students whilst she walked across the school grounds.
It is abundantly clear that order, teacher authority and student discipline have effectively collapsed at Pretoria High School for Girls in the aftermath of the twelve white girls being suspended on charges of alleged racism. If this is how the principal is being treated, can you imagine what it must be like to be a regular white teacher trying to manage a class at the school? Even worse, can you imagine what it must be like being a white girl at the school? One source told me that any white student is effectively now a target for “anti-racism” activism – not just those who are implicated in the current controversy. White girls are regularly shunned in class or subjected to provocations and bullying.
Importantly, the abuse of Mrs Erasmus came a day before Gauteng Education Department officials frog-marched her into making a groveling apology at a school assembly. This school assembly was delayed by a full 15 minutes, with the entire student body being made to stand in silence in the school hall. According to one source, the reason for the delay was that Gauteng Education Department officials were re-writing Mrs Erasmus’ speech in her office. She was then led out to the hall and made to read the script to the school.
Whilst Gauteng Education Department officials looked on, and with tears running down her face, Mrs Erasmus apologised to the school for failing to deal effectively with the alleged “racism” incident. According to audio recordings of this event, she stated that:
“Firstly, I would like to apologise to everyone who has been affected by the recent events and how things have unfolded… This matter has affected us all and each of us in our own way. I would like to apologise if I have not dealt with things in the manner in which they should have been dealt… I sincerely apologise to each and every one of you for how you are feeling right now.”
Mrs Erasmus’ voice broke as she read out the following line:
“In this month of July, with our focus being on ‘branches of love’, I would like us to find a way to strengthen those branches and to ensure that they find a way to grow.”
Forcing someone who is in a position of authority to capitulate and self-flagellate themselves in front of a howling mob is a standard tactic of Woke activism. Indeed, in many ways it is deeply reminiscent of what Mao Zedong’s Red Guards did during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. The Red Guards were a mass, student-led paramilitary social movement, mobilised by Mao, who forced teachers and other prominent figures to stand in public squares and be denounced by people who, until that point, had happily been their colleagues, their neighbours, their students and their friends.
“Our school has been hijacked by the Department, they are fully in control.”
It is critically important that people understand that Mrs Erasmus is no longer in effective control of her school.
As soon as the scandal surfaced on Wednesday last week, a large delegation of officials from the Gauteng Education Department descended on Pretoria High School for Girls and have been present there ever since. These officials have set up their headquarters in the principal’s office and are directing every aspect of the school’s response to the alleged “racism” incident.
Staff have been given strict instructions to not talk to the media under any circumstances. All communication from the school is drafted and approved by Gauteng Education Department officials, including the statements which are ostensibly issued in Mrs Erasmus’ name. Parents of the accused girls have sent several rounds of letters to the school. Most of this correspondence has been ignored.
Senior staff have been warned that failure to implement instructions of departmental officials will be viewed as insubordination and that they will be subjected to disciplinary action with a view to being dismissed from their jobs. Sources from within the school have heard departmental officials yelling at Mrs Erasmus from behind the closed door of the principal’s office. Others have told me that they have seen Mrs Erasmus weeping in the corridors.
Aside from Mr Kgomo, another key Gauteng Education Department official is a man called Mr Andries Nkadimeng who is the District Director for Tshwane South. There is not much information that is publicly available about Mr Nkadimeng, but one very interesting anecdote is contained in a news article from January 2024 which reported that Mr. Nkadimeng had been awarded a performance bonus by Premier Panyaza Lesufi.[4]
A newsletter which was sent to parents on Tuesday 23 July contains the following remarkable paragraph quoting the speech which Mr Nkadimeng’s delivered to students at the school earlier that day:
“Mr Nkadimeng addressed learners, staff, and parents (in absentia)… He said the government and the Department of Education, have a zero-tolerance approach to any forms of discrimination. Issues of discrimination and issues of racism will not be tolerated by the GDE, whether there is tangible evidence or not.”
(My emphasis)
What an extraordinary statement! Mr Nkadimeng stated publicly – with his words being reiterated in writing to parents – that the Gauteng Education Department would act against issues of “racism” regardless of whether or not there was any tangible evidence supporting the allegation. If ever you needed proof that what is happening at Pretoria High School for Girls is a witch-hunt with a pre-determined conclusion and not a credible and fair investigation, this is it.
The same newsletter informs parents that the department had made its “Psychosocial Support Services team” available at the school on 24 July 2024 in case any student wished to receive counselling. There is a grim irony here, for if anyone needs counselling it is not the students who are at school but rather the twelve white girls who have been suspended and have been left at home to study for Matric prelim exams without receiving any support from their teachers, all whilst watching their reputations be destroyed by the Gauteng Education Department on national television. These girls don’t need the support of the Gauteng Education Department – they need protection from it.
Many black staff at Pretoria High School for Girls are bemused and frustrated by what is going on. Considering that this is an alleged “racism” scandal, they expected to at least have been consulted and interviewed by officials from the Gauteng Education Department, yet they have been largely ignored. Many of them feel that the racism narrative is completely misplaced and predetermined.
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The Gauteng Education Department has already started lining up Mrs Erasmus as a scapegoat. She has been accused of not responding to the racism scandal appropriately, considering that she was first notified about the WhatsApp chat in October 2023. I have no doubt that, once she has served her purpose in providing a veneer of credibility to the utter sham that is this disciplinary process, she will be dispensed with as the principal of Pretoria High School for Girls.
The irregularities and abuse which have transpired during this matter are so serious and so egregious that the officials who are responsible must face severe disciplinary action. But that cannot be the end of the matter. They must face the full force of civil and criminal action. They need to be sued for millions of Rands and they need to be prosecuted for crimen injuria – the common law crime of unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of a person.
Bell Pottinger on steroids
Mr Kgomo’s public humiliation of the twelve accused girls at Friday’s school assembly was nothing compared to what the Gauteng Education Department did this week.
On Wednesday morning, the Gauteng Education Department launched a full-scale media campaign against the twelve suspended white girls. The department released a statement which was pushed to every media house in the country. In the space of less than two hours, eight virtually identical articles appeared on eNCA, EWN, IOL, News24, SowetanLIVE, The Citizen, SABC News, Johannesburg Sunday World and Jacaranda FM. 702 Radio picked up the story on its “Midday Report”. In short, every one of these news platforms fell for the Gauteng Education Department’s spin – hook, line and sinker – and simply parroted the department’s press statement.
At 10:46am, eNCA ran a story entitled “SA’s racial tensions” and announced that twelve students at Pretoria High School for Girls had been suspended. A few hours later, the Gauteng Education Department’s spokesman, Steve Mabona, appeared in the eNCA studio for an interview. What transpired was one of the most disgraceful segments of television journalism that I have ever witnessed.
The eNCA News Anchor, whose name was not displayed on the screen, took the Gauteng Education Department’s assertions purely at face value, asking leading questions which completely ignored the fact that the disciplinary hearings had not even happened yet.
eNCA: “Just for clarity again, how many aggrieved pupils did you say there are?”
Mabona: “I don’t have the number now but there are quite a few….”
eNCA: “So that proves the point that this is obviously not an isolated incident; there is quite a few aggrieved students. One has to ask the question: why in 2024 do we still have an environment in our schools – in Gauteng that you are speaking to specifically – where there is an environment that is conducive for such incidents, such racist incidents, allegedly to occur?”
Later in the interview, the news anchor again asked questions which presupposed that the accused girls were guilty of the allegations.
eNCA: “It is absolutely baffling… it baffles me that we are still talking about it… now you say that you have spoken to SGBs as the department, you have spoken to schools. Clearly, just talking to them is not working at this stage… Beyond speaking to the schools, beyond, you know, using the measures that you have in place when you are employing some of the staff at these schools who are perpetuating these racial incidents, what is it then that the department can do to create an environment where we don’t see these incidents?”
There are serious questions which need to be asked about the basic competence of many journalists who have reported on this story. I am keeping a record of every news report, and I sincerely hope that, in due course, each journalist who has defamed the twelve suspended girls will be sued for millions of Rands and will have their careers ended.
The most telling part of the Gauteng Education Department’s press release is the repeated emphasis which it places on the idea that the suspended girls have committed “microaggressions”. At this point, I recommend that you read my essay entitled “The Trouble with Roedean’s Woke Anti-Discrimination Policy.” In this essay, I explain why that school’s recognition of “microaggressions” as a form of racism is completely unacceptable. The term “microaggressions” – which is based upon the principles of Critical Race Theory – regards a long list of completely harmless interpersonal interactions as being racist. These include asking where someone is from or complimenting black children on performing well in class or promoting the ideas of colour-blindness, hard work and academic excellence.
The strategic purpose of this term is to expand the definition of racism to include virtually any conduct or speech imaginable: if you can prove that someone has committed a microaggresion, then you can claim that they are racist. Unbelievably, there are a number of teachers in South Africa who have been fired from their jobs after having been found guilty of committing a microaggression. For a real-life example of this, I suggest that you read my essay entitled “The Woke Witch-Hunt at St Mary’s Waverley” in which I dissect the legal report produced by Thandi Orleyn and Zanele Masoek which was constructed entirely upon the seriously flawed premise that microaggressions should be regarded as a form of racism.
It is abundantly clear that the Gauteng Education Department’s strategy at the forthcoming disciplinary hearings will be to allege that the suspended girls’ statements in the WhatsApp group constitute “microaggresions”. The use of this tactic by the department is a clear admission that their case against the girls is, in fact, extremely weak. They don’t have any real racism to go after – and so they are going to have to manufacture some synthetic racism using bogus and widely discredited concepts imported from the United States.
A call for rationality and fairness
In this essay I have presented damning video evidence indicating that since at least February of this year students at Pretoria High School for Girls have sought to entrap white girls with the objective of bullying and humiliating them. I have highlighted multiple instances of egregious power abuse by the Gauteng Education Department. And I have shown how order and teacher authority has completely collapsed at the school, with self-described “anti-racism” activists effectively running the institution. It is important that the full extent of what has happened be exposed so that the wicked people who orchestrated this mess can be held accountable.
However, much of that can wait for a later date. The most important fact in all of this is that the suspended girls have been deprived of a week of class during the most critical phase of their Matric year. All the girls want to do is go back to school and prepare for their prelim exams. Yet next week they will have to attend disciplinary hearings on charges of serious misconduct. If the girls are found guilty of racism they will almost certainly be expelled, leaving their parents trying to find an alternative school for them half-way through their Matric year.
Consider simply that there are twelve girls in Pretoria who have done nothing wrong other than to hold a perfectly acceptable conversation in a WhatsApp group and who are currently sitting at home. Picture the position that their parents are in: consoling their daughters and helping them prepare for exams whilst frantically trying to find legal representation to assist them in the upcoming disciplinary hearings. Try to imagine the stress, the fear and the anxiety that they are all experiencing.
Of course, the best way forward would be for the school to reconsider its approach entirely: to withdraw the letters of suspension and to cancel the disciplinary hearings. Sadly, there is no indication that this will happen. And, judging by how the Gauteng Education Department has hijacked and degraded every process that has been undertaken so far, I have no confidence that next week’s disciplinary hearings will be even remotely fair.
In the meantime, I will continue to write and speak: to present the truth and to expose the lies until a broad mass of people come to appreciate this episode for what it is: a textbook example of School Capture.
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References
[1] https://afriforum.co.za/en/afriforum-reveals-56-white-schoolgirls-excluded-gauteng-netball-teams-based-race/
[2] https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/racial-quotas-at-uct
[3] https://www.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/media/documents/2023_National-Senior-Certificate_Guidelines-for-Admissions.pdf
[4] https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/gauteng-education-mec-rated-310-for-85-pass-rate-but-bonuses-dished-out-for-two-officials-with-stellar-matric-results-d91bd843-f8c0-4282-b203-1955bce1fb40
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