South African School Removes ‘Racist’ Hair Policy

“The issue of my hair has been a thing that’s followed me my entire life, even in Primary I was told my hair is not natural, it’s exotic, my Afro was not wanted or anything like that and then the issue followed me to High School” Patel told CNN. Yet the girls told Gauteng Education Minister Panyaza Lesufi that some of the staff “tell them they look like monkeys, or have nests on their heads”.

In the Department of Education’s statement, they noted that, in addition to complaints about hair policy, students indicated “use of African languages on school premises is not tolerated, yet the other learners are allowed to express themselves in Afrikaans”.

At the same time, the Parktown High School for Girls in Gauteng has also amended its code of conduct to accommodate natural hair styles.

The debate on racism underlying in South African schools was livened up here after the incidents of discrimination in a school for girls in this capital city, which today continues to attract the attention from many sectors. Students have also highlighted the school’s attack on the integrity of its Black students.

Pretoria Girls’ High, which was founded in 1902, was all white during apartheid, but since 1990, it has been integrated to all races.

A group of young black students attended a school assembly dressed in all black and hairwraps in protest.

Pretoria Girls High alumnus and former prefect, Lebo Kgothadi, who graduated from the school in 2009 told CNN that she was made to enforce rules as part of her duties as the prefect, that made her feel uncomfortable as a young Black girl herself. It’s the only way she wears her hair.

The Department of Education suspended the school’s hair rules while an independent investigation takes place into the allegations. The students claimed teachers had been allegedly telling them not to speak their African languages inside the school.

The IRR says the consequences of acts of racism, potentially racist behaviour and the consequences of accusations of racism, can be very damaging in the current climate in South Africa. Even the #FeesMustFall movement that came about past year at universities speaks to a growing revolution among the youth who are exhausted of waiting for promises made at the abolition of the apartheid regime to be concretised.