Cape Town - Police have confirmed that the matter relating to racist online social media posts targeting learners and staff at Westerford High School is now the subject of a police investigation.
In a short notice posted to the school’s Facebook page on Thursday, school principal Mark Smith announced that “the matter concerning the racist Instagram posts has been reported to the SAPS and a case docket has been opened”.
The notice also added that the school would provide further updates “as and when available”.
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi confirmed that the circumstances of the incident were under investigation and that a case of crimen injuria was registered for further investigation.
According to the SAPS, “Crimen injuria consists of unlawfully and intentionally impairing the dignity or privacy of another person.”
Several derogatory and racist social media statuses shared earlier this month by Instagram account “Grade8a_2023” were under investigation by the school.
The images shared mocked a teacher of colour, called for white people to “stay together” and apartheid to return. Images of slaves were also shared with suspected students tagged.
In a statement released by the school on June 9, the school recognised that the incident which had targeted learners and staff of colour had caused “immense hurt and trauma” and that uncovering who was responsible was being investigated with the “utmost urgency”.
“We are following our school’s diversity and inclusivity policy which clearly lays out a process for dealing with racist incidents timeously and effectively.
“Additionally, we are being guided by the national laws regarding hate speech. Content regulatory authority IT experts have been consulted and they are assisting in our attempts to identify the perpetrator, whether that person be from within our school or outside of it,” the statement read.
The school programme was suspended from June 8 to 12 to facilitate learner and staff support.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said: “I can confirm that the school has reported the matter to SAPS and a case docket has been opened. The investigation is ongoing.”
Hammond said the school has initiated a number of interventions to support staff and learners and that support would be ongoing as required.
Previously, Hammond said the posts did not come from an official school account and that the school was investigating the source of the post.
Commenting on the incident, Social Justice Agency managing director Edwin Cleophas said: “Every other week we hear of some or other racist incident at one of our elite schools.
“This obviously should be very concerning to the parents at these schools, but it should not come as a surprise because we tend to shy away from dealing with these incidents in a significant way.
“We allow racists to get away with these acts pretty easily because it is so difficult to prosecute these acts because it is difficult to prove at times.
“Often, we manage as parents to get our kids into these elite schools, trying to give them a better opportunity at life. While this is a noble act, we rarely look at the psychological impact of the racial, social and class differences that our kids encounter at these schools.
“These material conditions can put a lot of pressure on our kids to either assimilate or stick out like a sore thumb. Now add racist incidents into the mix and we risk damaging our kids psychologically, something that in the long run will have dire effects on who they become in society.”
Cleophas said pressure must be placed on such schools to commit to transformation and to fostering an inclusive culture.