This follows after many parents expressed concern over the safety of their children following the wide publication of the school after it was rocked with allegations of racism following a picture showing about four black pupils seated at a desk, separately from a larger group of white pupils at another desk which went viral on social media. The picture was initially sent to a WhatsApp group for parents and had some parents and social media users fuming over the incident.

OFM News’ Pulane Choane reported that Lehari urged parents of learners who have not been going to school following the incident to let them go back as they were missing out on a lot of work and were falling behind.

Lehari appealed to parents who were in a meeting with him and members of the media earlier on this morning, to let them go back to school as they are losing a lot of work. The Department further promised to organise counselling for the learners at the school who were affected by the incident at school. Lehari said while he understood the safety concerns of parents, he pleaded with parents not to bring dangerous weapons to school.

He was joined by several other stakeholders, including police services and departmental officials.

Meanwhile, the fate of the suspended teacher who was at the centre of racist allegations at the school, Elana Barkhuizen, hangs in the balance as it remains unknown at this stage whether or not she will remain under suspension. This comes after she and trade union, Solidarity, spoke out on the incident, with the union calling it unfair and illegal.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Barkhuizen claimed that she was neither the teacher for the class in question nor was she in charge of the children in question’s alleged racist seating arrangements. She said that she was simply taking a picture to show parents how their children were progressing in class last week on the first day of school.

She tearfully vowed to fight back and clear her name, while the union revealed that it would be serving the Department with court papers before the end of the week. OFM News could not contact the provincial departmental spokesperson, Freddy Sepeng, for clarity on allegations made by Barkhuizen as well as whether or not she would be reinstated following these claims.

OFM News