Black pupils were allegedly held in a cage and auctioned off. Picture: Video screengrab (via The Witness)
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has added their voice to calls for students accused of racism at a Western Cape school to be suspended.
Grade eight students at Pinelands High School allegedly locked up fellow black pupils in a cage and pretended to auction them to the highest bidder.
They were priced from R100 000 and became the “property” of other learners who had “bought” them. A video of the “slave auction” has been shared widely online but contains images of minors so has not been added to this article.
The Western Cape Education Department said it was disturbed by the incident and had conducted interviews with the students involved.
Spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said counselling was being offered to learners at the school.
However, Sadtu secretary-general Mugwena Maluleke said more needs to be done.
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“It is something that needs to be condemned. As a community, we need to stand together and build a united nation so we can prosper.
“I fully agree with parents in the community that the students be suspended. This is necessary to allow investigations to proceed,” he told broadcaster eNCA.
Maluleke said the suspension would send a “strong message to parents and the students themselves that racism cannot be tolerated or accepted in our society”.
An unidentified parent told News24 her son fought back when other students tried to allegedly “auction” him off.
“They were picking up black boys and putting them in the cage. It’s not like they went willingly,” she said.
The incident came just days after 12 Pretoria High School for Girls students were suspended over alleged racist text messages.
The white pupils allegedly created an ethnically exclusive WhatsApp group where they allegedly shared “racial micro-aggressions” about other pupils.
“The conversations allegedly included racial commentary about the ongoing dissatisfaction among black learners regarding issues they faced at the school, alluding to these issues being insignificant,” Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said.
Additional reporting by Jarryd Westerdale
