The KwaZulu-Natal education department has established a commission of inquiry to probe racism allegations at Hillcrest High School in Durban.
The school has been accused of covering up racism by a group of boys, including incidents involving the school’s rugby captain.
Education MEC Mbali Frazer visited the school on Thursday to meet with school management representatives and parents.
She changed her programme after pupils addressed her about their allegedly racist experiences.
News24 was present at the school and heard pupils speak of allegedly high levels of racism and cover-ups stemming from racist incidents at the school.
They claimed the school’s code of conduct was applied stringently to black pupils but said concessions were made for white pupils.
They also spoke of alleged discrimination against female pupils who had afros, sexism, fat shaming and general bullying.
The pupils had to muscle their way into Frazer’s meeting after they were warned against leaving their classrooms while the MEC was at the school. Hillcrest High School
After the meeting, a large group of pupils staged a protest, calling for the expulsion of the pupils who used racist language.
The school came under fire in the last two weeks after News24 reported on allegations that boys used the k-word and n-word in group text messages to each other.
It appeared that the messages, which were leaked on Instagram, were written between June and October 2021.
One message read: “So then u not confident in your understanding as u therefor are a k****.
Another read: “Ok well we just do what we did to that n***** to him.”
The Instagram account that shared screengrabs of the messages has since been deactivated.
Last week, school governing body chairperson Byron Creed said the boys did not understand the meaning of the words.
Parents who were at the school on Thursday disagreed with this, and one told News24 it was a “paltry excuse to defend racism”.