Durban - Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu has ordered an urgent investigation to find out who was behind an apparent act of racism at Ladysmith High School, in KwaZulu-Natal.
A video purported to have been filmed at the school on Friday shows the words “F**k Blacks” written in bold black letters in a toilet stall.
A member of the students’ representative council said the principal had warned pupils that once found, the guilty party would be dealt with.
The school governing body (SGB) said it would not comment due to the Education Department’s investigation.
The school, which has predominantly white pupils, was previously accused of racism for publicly naming two pupils who were caught having sex in the toilets.
The black pupils were named in a letter addressed to parents of pupils. The principal at the time was removed.
Mshengu said he viewed the latest incident “in a serious light”.
“Schools are not only factories of knowledge production, but are centres where we produce future leaders and upstanding members of society. Schools are also places where we seek to inculcate values of racial solidarity and social cohesion,” he said.
“Such racial characterisation and derogatory depiction of other races is an antithesis to our agenda to build a united South Africa.”
Mshengu has instructed the department head to work with the SGB and principal to investigate the incident and report back to him within a week.
This incident comes days after a teacher at Westville Girls’ High School told pupils that white people were “genetically smarter” than people of colour. The teacher has since resigned.