Pretoria - More accusations have surfaced in the “racial” incident alleged to have taken place at an Afrikaans-medium school in Bronkhorstspruit after a rugby match that ended in a brawl.
Last week, Hoërskool Erasmus was accused of instigating violence this month during a match against Zayo Academy, a Tshwane school which predominantly has black pupils.
The brawl reportedly ensued during and after the match, which Zayo won, when parents ran on to the field to protest against the referee’s ruling against the Erasmus rugby team.
Testimonies written by the victims of the alleged violence and submitted to Zayo Academy principal Catherine van Tonder, and seen by Pretoria News, state that white parents referred to them using the K-word. This prompted the EFF in the region to confront the school.
Another testimony from a mother of one of the players from Zayo, Vangile Msiza, accused the parents from Erasmus of instigating the violence because the team had lost against a black team.
Speaking to Pretoria News outside the school yesterday, Msiza said she overheard a parent saying: “Ek glo dit nie hierdie swart mense wen.” Loosely translated: “I can’t believe these black people won.”
“I think these parents didn’t think we understand Afrikaans. I could not believe my ears when I heard that. For a person to have so much hatred for a black person to be in denial that they were beaten by a black team?
“We wanted to celebrate for the win of our children, but the next thing, we saw fists flying. A white parent hit a coloured boy on the face, and his mother retaliated by hitting that white parent on the back with her fist.
“That’s when the K-words were thrown around. When we got out to travel back to Pretoria we were told not to celebrate because we were making noise,” she said.
The mother said it was not the first time she had received reports such as this from her son.
“There were two matches. One was the Under-16, and they lost that one. The chaos erupted when the Hoërskool Erasmus first team lost the match. They could not believe they lost against black people,” she said.
The EFF leadership visited the school yesterday to find out what happened. However, they could not enter the premises because the pupils were writing exams and there was a heavy police presence.
SAPS’s Johannes Mokoena said: “We urge people to report cases like this to the police. There was no case that was reported to me. The police don’t have a problem with political parties, NGOs or any other organisations coming to engage the school, but they have to do that through an appointment because it’s a school. For example, now it has exams and they can disrupt the learners during exams.
“We have advised the two parties that they iron out this matter through talk. One thing that worries us as the police is that if there is a victim somewhere, why is that not reported to the police? The police could have done their jobs and arrested the perpetrators. It’s not okay that people take the law into their own hands and come and demand the name of the perpetrators at the school during exams.”
He said all the police knew was that there was an incident in which someone was assaulted during a rugby match and there was a fight between whites and blacks.
The EFF promised to go back to the school next Wednesday after exams.
Regional treasurer Danny Skanka said: “We have been having concerns about this school because last Tuesday I was here. The principal and the security guards were dismissing us as we wanted to engage them so we promised to come today. Next Wednesday, we are coming back here. We are going to finish this thing. We don’t want to disturb the children writing exams. We are going to come here in a peaceful manner and resolve this issue.
Pretoria News