Cape Town – Former Sacs High School pupils say the school has missed a chance to lead the way for top schools to employ leaders of colour, after the institution announced a white male would once again take up the position of headmaster.
Last year heated debate erupted as calls grew for the all-male bastion to employ a person of colour as its principal for the first time.
Former pupils wrote an open letter to the school governing body, saying despite SACS being the first former Model C school to accept pupils of colour, it maintained a position where white pupils were the largest demographic with a mostly white prefect body, an entirely white school governing body, and an entirely white school management structure.
Principal Ken Ball will reach compulsory retirement age in July. Brendan Grant of Queen’s College in the Eastern Cape will replace him.
Former pupil Taariq Amod said the group of old boys in support of a black headmaster were disappointed. “The new headmaster is being heralded as someone who is serious about transformation, despite the lack of evidence to show that at his previous school.”
Amod said a person of colour becoming headmaster would have set a precedent for other elite schools. “It’s important big changes like this happen, because the current illusion is that head positions at elite schools are reserved for whites."
“SACS has a history of defiance and taking big transformation steps... so people were hoping that if it could happen at any elite school, SACS would champion this kind of change.”
In a newsletter, the school said the governing body recognised the importance of ensuring that the best, most suitably qualified candidate be recruited to build on Ball’s legacy.
Education department spokesperson Paddy Attwell said Grant would take up his position from August 1.