Open letter from nursery school principal
Anéll Engelbrecht, principal of the “Koeitjies en Kalfies” Nursery School in Centurion, has written an open letter in the wake of last week’s events:
Within 48 hours my protected, privileged white South African life has changed radically, and it will never be the same again…
Racism … We hear about it on a daily basis, read about it everywhere, but during the last two days it has dominated my thoughts and affected me personally. Every day of my life I share my life with so many black people whom I care for financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I eat with them, cry with them, laugh with them, work and pray with them, and they phone me at any time of the day or night when they are experiencing a crisis. “You are our mother”. They are like all my white friends; my loved ones…
I have known Thobo and Nishani for almost a year. She enrolled Nishani at my school in Irene but we only became friends when, three months ago, she moved her to my nursery school in Heritage Hill. She is a single mother and as I used to be one for a long time my heart immediately went out to her. Her family is in Botswana and her assistants let her down time and again. Transport proved to be her major crisis as she is working long hours. I offered to pick her child up at the front door every day, take her to school and take her home in the afternoon.
This I do not do for any other child in the school. Later on, my husband had to start helping out with the transport because I have a nursery school to run. My daughter pleaded with me to put Nishani in her class because she is such a cute little girl.