The leadership of Cornwall Hill College has once again been accused of dragging its feet in ensuring transformation at the school despite giving assurances to parents, learners, and the Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi that there was no need to bring in the department's legislative arm into the matter.
Last year in May the school's executive came under fire as parents and learners decried the continuing racism and lack of transformation at the prestigious college in Irene, Centurion.
Following the standoff last year which saw parents and learners handing over a memorandum of demands to the school, and the intervention by MEC Lesufi, the school apologised for the slow pace of progress and assured parents it would endeavour to place transformation and diversity at the top of the agenda.
On behalf of the Cornwall Hill College executive principal Leon Kunneke and preparatory school principal, Maurice Dicks accepted the memorandum and reaffirmed that the school’s leadership would, "renew its commitment to moving with speed, focus, and absolute determination in ensuring diversity and representation throughout all levels of the college.”
However, parents who spoke to the Pretoria News anonymously due to fear of reprisals said the incidents of racism were still taking place at the college unabated.
The parents alleged even though there had already been two racist fuelled incidents this year, the school was continuing to push back the transformation agenda at the school.
In the incidents parents claimed there had been a fight between black and white learners at a school function three weeks ago and another in which a grade 8 learner was recorded calling another learner the k-word a week ago.
"Since May every time we tried to discuss the matter with them at meetings, they ran away from it. Meetings from June, July, August, and November were all cancelled by the school up until they decided unilaterally that the issue would no longer be discussed in parent meetings."
"It seems like white parents feel uncomfortable with these discussions so they decided that the parent meetings would no longer discuss the matter."
In a letter sent to parents this month, which the Pretoria News has seen, the college indicated that the upcoming Parents Association Meeting would not provide for discussion on diversity and transformation as the college already had the Diversity and Transformation Committee, the board, the concerned parents, and executive management attending to that.
"The Connect Sub-Committee will now become a further body to receive and process any type of grievance. The board, committee, and executive will set up a forum where all parents can continue dialogue on diversity and transformation in the same way as happened in the parent meetings over the past two years," read the letter.
Parents said they were upset that the school's executive had decided to go back to a system that had not been working and made the decision unilaterally without even consulting them.
They added they were further dismayed at how the school had chosen to ignore the incidents of racism by labelling them as nothing more than "unfortunate incidents" between boys from the school and other schools.
"Anyone who looks at those videos knows that it was nothing small, in fact, they initially wanted to tell parents that the incident was a success."
Pretoria News