Rasta boy back at school

Cape Town-20-01-2015 Azania Stofile is happy to be finally admitted at Bulumko High School, after he was rejected because of his Rastafarian religion.Nect to him is his mother Nonkosi Stofile .pic Phando Jikelo

Cape Town-20-01-2015 Azania Stofile is happy to be finally admitted at Bulumko High School, after he was rejected because of his Rastafarian religion.Nect to him is his mother Nonkosi Stofile .pic Phando Jikelo

Published Jan 21, 2016

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Cape Town - After being excluded from school for five days, a 13-year-old Rastafarian teen is happy with finally being in a classroom.

Azania Stofile was barred from attending Bulumko Secondary School, which had accepted him last year, over his dreadlocks.

“I had a very nice first day in high school, I made new friends and everyone was nice to me,” said Azania.

He is the only pupil with dreadlocks at the school, but felt comfortable as no one tried to touch his hair on the first day, or ask him about it.

Even though his mother, Nonkosi Stofile, was worried that teachers might ill-treat him, he said that he was not treated any differently in any of his classes.

“My favourite subjects are English, natural science, and history.

“When I’m done with school I would love to be a chef, because I love cooking,” Azania said.

Stofile is delighted her son came home happy after his first day in high school.

“I was worried the whole time he was at school, because I didn’t know how he will be treated by both pupils and teachers. But I was happy when he came back smiling from ear to ear,” she said.

She added that the Rastafari women who accompanied her on Wednesday waited with her because they were also worried.

Azania was born to Rastafari parents and they raised him in the religion.

It was reported that the school’s reasons for not admitting the boy, is that he would either smoke dagga or sell it at school.

Western Cape Education Department spokesman Paddy Attwell said the school governing body discussed the issue on Tuesday night, and the boy returned to school on Wednesday.

“Our district office is monitoring the situation closely and will provide whatever support is needed to deal with bullying and to ensure that his rights are protected.

“The district director instructed the principal to act against any teacher who showed intolerance towards the pupil,” he said.

Attwell said that it is not the first time they had to deal with this.

“We will continue to intervene in individual cases, and do whatever is necessary to build respect for human rights in our schools, in line with the values of the constitution,” he said.

The school’s governing body chairman Innocent Ntanjana said in spite of their dress policy, they pushed this matter to make a difference.

“We need to revisit our policy to accommodate every member of our community. Because it says boys must have short neat hair which clearly is not reflecting all in our community.

“And we have decided to sit down and talk about new amendments to it.”

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