The ANC are a bunch of fools and blacks would still be living in caves and wearing skins if it was not for the Dutch!
This is what the principal and owner of Cosmo Primary School in Alberton, south of Johannesburg, allegedly told some pupils during lessons this year. These shocking titbits are contained in one of three letters written to the Gauteng Department of Education by some parents of the learners at the school.
Thabo Ramollo, the lawyer representing the school, declined to comment saying the matter was under investigation by the department. He said they would only make a statement once government has made public their findings.
Department spokeswoman, Phumla Sekhonyane confirmed that they were probing the allegations against the school.
"The department is aware of the matter and is extremely concerned about the alleged conduct of the school. The school is registered as a private school, but the district is now handling the matter and has initiated an investigation into the matter," she said.
"The department will await the outcome of the investigation before taking any action. We remain committed to creating school environments that are free from any form of racism and discrimination," she added.
One of the letters written by Nomsa Thela, whose brother is a pupil at the school, complained that principal Belinda Booi made a barrage of racist remarks in class this year.
"She had told the learners that Nelson Mandela was a murderer and a piece of rubbish who lied about ever going to jail. My brother would always come back from school confused and challenge what we had had taught him about the history of black South Africans. She also told them that no black South Africans had ever invented anything, suggesting that white is a superior race," reads the letter.
Thela claimed she confronted Booi about her alleged racist remarks, but said the principal refuted some of them.
"During our confrontation, she admitted to me that she believes Mandela never went to jail and was a murderer. I then challenged her to forward me proof or sources of where she got this information from. I have been waiting ever since. After the national elections, she told Busani (her brother) in front of the whole class that 'your sister obviously voted for the ANC, a bunch of fools'," reads the letter.
Thela said her dispute with the owner of the private school started when she forced Booi to allow her brother to write an exam he had missed due to illness.
"My brother is a Grade 6 pupil at Cosmo Primary School. It is his first year at the school. During the school's first term exams he got sick and couldn't write three exam papers. A doctor's note was submitted to the school, but Ms Booi rejected the note because she thought he was not sick, it was just anxiety because of the transition from a public to a private school.
"I then referred her to her school's code of conduct, which clearly states that upon presentation of a valid doctor's note a learner is eligible to write the missed exams. By this time she had already issued him a report with no marks allocated for the missed exams.
I then rejected that report and she made him write all the missed exams the following day and he subsequently failed," reads the letter.
In an exclusive interview, Thela confirmed that she wrote the letter to the department and said she was still awaiting a formal response.
"I'm removing my brother from that school. He is not comfortable going to that school," she said.
Thela said the last straw was when her brother complained to her recently that one of his schoolmates spat on him, and when he reported the matter to Booi, she told him that she would have done the same too.
"We went to the pupil's home and he and his parents apologised," she said.
Thela also said she is going to report the matter to the Human Rights Commission.
Another parent, Seloane Jantjies, said she was shocked when her child told her that Booi had told them that Mandela was a Satanist!
"Pupils in different Grades attended lessons in one classroom, so when Booi was teaching pupils in another Grade that Mandela was a Satanist, my child was listening," she said.
Another parent, Nkaiseng Makhetha also wrote a letter to the department complaining about racism at the school.
"My daughter, Amu, told us that they were told not to mention Mandela's name because he was a murderer and shall not be celebrated at all," she said.
