Pretoria Girls High principal suspended after recent racism incident

The Gauteng department of education has suspended Pretoria High School for Girls principal Phillipa Erasmus pending investigations of alleged racism at the school.

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said this was a precautionary suspension that would take effect immediately.

She has been barred from communicating with pupils, teachers and parents.

One of the deputy principals will stand as acting principal.

“While we are still busy with the disciplinary process, we have taken the decision to suspend the principal of the school until we have concluded this matter. We have appointed the deputy principal in the interim,” Chiloane said.

Chiloane said they anticipate the case will be concluded in three months.

He said preliminary findings are that the matter was reported as early as 2023, but no action was taken by the school.

“The principal knew about this matter from last year. There was a report and there was no action taken then. That's where we are with the principal — that you knew and you knew the gravity of the situation and you left it,” he said. 

About 12 pupils were suspended “for racism” at the school.

According to the Gauteng department of education, this was triggered by alleged racial connotations, micro-aggressions and complaints about black pupils which were ventilated through a WhatsApp group consisting of white pupils.

The conversations allegedly included racial commentary about the ongoing dissatisfaction among black pupils regarding issues they faced at the school, alluding to these issues as being insignificant.

Similar commentary about a black hair protest by pupils that reportedly took place at the school in 2016 was also made in the group chat.