Cape Town – Diversity trainer and political analyst Asanda Ngoasheng says that the latest Fish Hoek High School uproar is the result of not talking openly about the country’s apartheid past.
Parents at Fish Hoek High School have demanded answers from the Western Cape education department after a diversity training workshop facilitated by Ngoasheng reportedly left some pupils traumatised.
The programme has been suspended after complaints that it fuelled racial tensions.
She said the purpose of the workshop was to empower children to understand and embrace each others’ differences after an alleged racism incident occurred at the school.
Speaking to CapeTalk, Ngoasheng said she was approached by the department in June.
“I was approached by the Western Cape department of education who were telling me that they were putting out a call to various people who are doing this work and that they were expecting all of these different services providers to put together their responses to these calls and I was one of the people who put their responses to this call.
“This call itself was separated in two; there was a learner intervention which I focused on and there was another intervention in which another company was involved,” she said.
Ngoasheng said she was the victim of systematic oppression. She said she was being attacked using racial slurs but also on a systematic level in that, she alleged, she was being denied an opportunity on the basis of her work.
She also highlighted the poem that was used in the diversity workshop and which created an uproar: “This poem was used because it deals with racism as a system against black people and the responses of black people themselves to racism.
“The poem also speaks to Christianity and the ways in which Christianity has promoted, in some instances, like homophobia ... and the experiences of some Christians and queer people in churches.
“The reason why these topics were used is precisely because these are issues that the students themselves have raised both during the protest and online past experiences at the Fish Hoek High School Instagram group, where some of the things they have experienced included homophobia,” she said.
She said this was the work she did, which included working with schools who were in crisis or distress as a result of racial slurs.
“When I was finally put on board and signed on, I then started to ask a very important question of when are the sessions going to happen and asked this question every two weeks until I eventually received a message as to when it was supposed to happen,” she said.
She argued that South Africans did not have an agreed definition on racism and did not know how to engage each other and how to engage children on the issue.
“When people start having these conversations with young people it does come as a shock to young people who have never had this conversation before. My content is age appropriate and is created to work for high (schools) and a specific version of it is created to work for primary schools,” Ngoasheng said.
AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs, Alana Bailey, says the incident is worrying for several reasons.
“AfriForum’s premise is that communities should treat each other with recognition and respect, but the transcripts and audio recordings in our possession prove that this had not been the approach during the session.
“It is outrageous that the children were forbidden to make recordings of the session and that teachers were prevented from attending. A bona fide session with the aim of bridging polarization should be allowed to be recorded and shared more widely.
“Teachers have a duty to protect children’s interests and when they are kept away from conversations with learners, that is a clear red flag,” Baily said.
Baily said that AfriForum finds it unacceptable that these events took place so close to exam time and that the questionable content of the session upset the children as the parents confirmed and has been proved by the necessity for the intervention of counsellors.
He said the question must be asked why incidents that incite tension and violence at schools so often occur shortly before exams.
“Currently, versions of the events are widely distributed and fuel such tension, which is not at all in the interest of the learners.
“The WCED has given the assurance that the matter is being investigated and AfriForum will keep a close eye on the outcome of the investigation and what further steps are required.
“We at AfriForum appeal to the stakeholders not to incite further unrest on or in the vicinity of the school grounds. The interests of the learners must now be taken into account,” Baily added.
IOL