DURBAN - Suspended Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke teacher Elana Barkhuizen has said she “detested” racism, especially in any education environment.
“I pride myself on my devotion to teach all learners, regardless of race or gender, with equal passion and energy,” Barkhuizen said in an affidavit filed at the Johannesburg Labour Court last week. Trade union Solidarity will approach the court on an urgent basis to set aside Barkhuizen’s suspension.
She was suspended a day after the first day of the academic year. The move followed a race furore when it was claimed she had seated black Grade R pupils apart from their white counterparts because she was a racist. This was after she posted four pictures on a WhatsApp group to assure worried parents their children were happy and doing well. One of the pictures showed black pupils sitting in a group, apart from the white pupils.
Barkhuizen said the picture did not even depict her class, but that of another teacher who had asked her to also supervise it while she spoke to parents. A day after the picture was posted, Barkhuizen received a telephone call from the school’s headmaster, Alwyn Henning, who informed her she had been suspended. Six minutes later, North West MEC for Education, Sello Lehari, publicly announced on the school hall stage that she had been suspended.
Barkhuizen said he had labelled her a racist - all due to the pictures that were “inaccurately and incorrectly” presented to the public and the media.
Barkhuizen said that before the first school day, parents were informed of the seating arrangements, which were done for practicality. They had no issue with this.
Parents were invited to the school on January 7 and 8 to acquaint themselves with the teachers and the outlay of the classroom. She said she explained her approach to seating arrangements with reference to individual pupil requirements.
Barkhuizen explained that she sometimes separated boys and girls at first for an effective teaching approach. As the school had, in the past, been predominantly Afrikaans, it used interpreters to assist with translation. Seating arrangements were thus often made in relation to communication difficulties arising from language barriers.
These changed from time to time depending on needs. This was explained to parents and they did not voice any complaints, she said.
On the day of the school opening, she took four pictures - two of teacher Elsabe Olivier’s class and two of her own class - and posted them on the WhatsApp group. The offending picture was not from her class.
Barkhuizen said that a few days before the incident, a father phoned her and enquired about the former 10% discount certain parents received in school fees.
She explained this no longer applied, and he was unhappy.
Shortly after the offending picture was posted, the parent again phoned her and he was upset that his child had been separated from the white children.
“I told him no separation is done according to race, but children are often moved around on the first day to accommodate their specific needs and to accommodate different daily activities. The picture he took umbrage at was taken in the other class and I had no hand in allocating seating arrangements in that class”
Barkhuizen said she advised the upset father to take the matter up with the headmaster, who then told her that the father - only identified in court papers as Mr Modise - laid complaints against her for “sending pictures of a segregated classroom”.
The next day, the picture went viral and she was labelled a racist, she said.
Political parties protested in front of the school and the situation became so volatile that the school was evacuated. Apart from denying any wrongdoing, she said the MEC was not entitled to suspend her, as she did not work for the department. She was employed by the school to teach Grade Rs.