The school governing body (SGB) of Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) on Monday launched legal proceedings against the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) and MEC for Education Matome Chiloane, arguing that investigators exceeded their mandate by reporting issues beyond of racism. accusations.

The SGB is demanding that the results of the Madladlamba lawyers’ investigation be made public. She claims that the findings were only announced by Chiloane on November 4, but were not communicated to the school.

Pretoria Girls Accusations of racism raised

The legal battle stems from allegations of racism at the school which the SGB claims are unfounded. The allegations began when 12 white pupils – eight of whom were prefects – were suspended in July for alleged racist messages on a WhatsApp group.

Students allegedly had group conversations about black students’ dissatisfaction with the problems they faced at school, claiming their complaints were insignificant.

However, the students were found not guilty and reinstated after an independent disciplinary hearing.

GDE officials insisted on accusing matric students of racism. The school’s principal Phillipa Erasmus and deputy principal Doret Schoombie were also suspended.

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation then wrote a letter to the MEC criticizing the Gauteng education department’s handling of the controversy.

“We ourselves also closely studied the comments made by the chat group, independently, to determine whether they constituted racism and hate speech. Our firm conclusion is that there is no such manifestation (of racism) in the said comments,” it said.

According to the school, the students were also reprimanded by an internal disciplinary tribunal.

In a statement, the SGB said the GDE, despite saying it respected the result, continued to engage in a “completely unjustified and baseless witch-hunt for further examples of racism”.

READ ALSO: Pretoria Girls’ High School: White teachers don’t greet black colleagues ‘because they didn’t know if they were cleaners’

The conclusions of the investigation “do not belong to any report that respects”

According to the SGB, the head of his department said on September 3 that “the intent of the investigation was to determine whether there was cause for concern at the school.” He added that if no racism was found at the school, the investigation should be closed.

The body said despite this limited scope, lawyers continued to investigate and report on other matters after finding minimal evidence of racism, citing only that “white educators do not greet their black colleagues.”

These findings were described by the SGB as “so vague, unproven and unprovable that they do not belong in any respectable report”.

The SGB also criticized Chiloane for denying the school the opportunity to review or respond to the above allegations announcing the findings.

READ ALSO: Gauteng Department of Education criticized for handling ‘racism’ at Pretoria Girls High

Defense of PHSG

The SGB stressed that racism does not take place in the school and the allegations about it leave an “indelible stain”. “It is abhorrent to all right-thinking South Africans and it is disgusting to the school.”

The statement also defended the school’s decision to appoint an independent lawyer to preside over the disciplinary tribunal, which was later criticized in the department’s report.

The SGB argued that this decision was taken to ensure fairness, given the controversial nature of the proceedings.

READ ALSO: Suspended Pretoria Girls director not allowed to return to work despite time served