DA condemns alleged Wilgehof Primary racism   

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Free State condemns any racist incidents, especially those that have allegedly taken place at Wilgehof Primary School in Bloemfontein. 

In the last two months, one racist incident has occurred and now another incident is alleged to have taken place where black school children were victimised by white school teachers. 

After the first incident, both the principal and the implicated teacher were suspended. But this appears not to have stopped the problem. This week yet another incident is alleged to have occurred where a white teacher physically abused a black pupil. 

This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable. Our teachers must respect our children and be an example to them. This kind of behaviour is destructive to the affected children and the school. 

We are concerned that the Provincial Education Department has not gone far enough to deal with such issues at this school. Attempts by the DA to meet with the Deputy-Principal to obtain facts about the situation have been fruitless.

We therefore call for a full investigation into what is going on at this school. Everyone implicated in racism should be suspended, and if found guilty of such conduct, fired. Those teachers and school employees that are fired for racism must be prohibited from ever teaching again. 

We cannot allow racism to destroy the gains that we have made in many of our schools and society in building a non-racial society in South Africa. Our children must be protected from the type of behaviour that divided our communities and destroyed the social fabric of our society in the past. 

Statement issued by Patricia Kopane, DA Leader in the Free State, August 2 2013

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