Fred Norman Secondary School: Lesufi demonstrates his racial prejudice with silence regarding black on coloured racism

18  August 2022

The Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi's silence on the racist treatment of a coloured parent by a black teacher at the Fred Norman Secondary School clearly demonstrates his prejudice.

If a white, Afrikaans teacher had been the alleged offender, Lesufi would have wasted no time in contacting the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and taking strict steps, like he did with the Hoërskool Jan Viljoen incident.

According to a report in the Sowetan (17 August 2022), a black teacher at the school lashed out at a coloured parent in English saying that she “did not like coloureds”, because they are rude.

The incident was captured on video. There is no doubt that the black teacher's remark to the coloured parent was racist in nature.

And the evidence caught on tape also leaves very little room for doubt.

And yet Lesufi did not once refer to the incident as racist even though the matter is fairly simple and there is ample evidence, which he must have seen. He merely requested a departmental investigation.

At Jan Viljoen, he labelled a white learner and his parents guilty even before the investigation had begun.

He even went so far as to make the white, Afrikaans learner's name public and implicate one of his family members.

He did that without waiting for the investigation and the HRC's findings.

As a result, the family had to take all their children out of the school and move away from Randfontein to escape the victimisation and threats.

The FF Plus submitted a comprehensive report on the true version of events to the HRC on behalf of the family. Based on the evidence, there were no signs of racism, but a failure to enforce school discipline resulted in the incident.

In the most recent case, Lesufi simply responded by saying that the matter will be investigated, but he made no premature statements or accusations.

The FF Plus will report these double standards to the HRC as well.

Lesufi is clearly not fit to act as MEC for Education and even less so as Gauteng premier candidate for the 2024 elections. He will ruin Gauteng.

The FF Plus has launched an official "Stop Lesufi" campaign to prevent the ANC from ever taking control of the Gauteng province again.

The future lies in a coalition of fair opposition parties, of which the FF Plus will be part.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus national chairperson and MPL: Gauteng, 18 August 2022