Private school in another race row

Black pupils ‘stuck in chorus’ while white pupils star in play

● An ugly row has rocked a posh Pretoria private school after mainly white pupils were cast in the leading roles of the school play while black African pupils were consigned to the chorus.

Eighteen children at Cornwall Hill College were chosen to take part in Come Fly With Me. The character roles were given to 10 white pupils and “an African pupil of coloured descent”, while seven black African pupils were placed in the chorus, singing at the beginning and end of the production.

The 11 with speaking parts will assume the roles of two ticket clerks, a businessman and businesswoman, a film star, a stewardess, a photographer, a worker, a customs officer and a boy and a girl.

The school, attended by children of several high-ranking government officials, was rocked by antiracism protests in May 2021.

One of the parents, Zibusiso Kganyago, wife of Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, made a submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in October 2021 in which she voiced concerns about an alleged lack of transformation and a racially divided institution. The matter is being investigated.

An angry parent said the omission of the black African children in speaking roles was “glaring”.

“Why wasn’t a white pupil chosen for the chorus? That’s what we want to understand. Are black African pupils only good enough to be cheerleaders?”

The pupils auditioned for the play for acting roles and “not to be just chosen to sing”, he said.

“If the school wanted a choir, they could have just auditioned for a choir.”

The man, who asked not to be named, said: “As parents, we are tired. We support the school. It has produced outstanding results in matric but it’s not just about the academics. It’s also about developing responsible South Africans.”

The 144 pupils who wrote the matric exams last year produced a total of 398 distinctions, with one pupil, Luke Andrews, bagging 15.

Another parent told the Sunday Times via WhatsApp that the black African pupils had auditioned for acting “and not music”.

“It makes me angry. It would seem the struggles of black parents at Cornwall Hill College yielded nothing.”

The parent said one of the pupils who was chosen to be part of the chorus and who complained about black African pupils not getting speaking roles “was pulled out of class and interrogated by a teacher and someone appointed to look after issues of diversity and inclusion at the school”.

The school’s rector, Greg Theron, said this was one of four house plays now being rehearsed and that the selection of actors, which he said was “complex”, began last year when the head of drama asked drama students to submit “proposals of intent” to direct plays.

“Four play directors, who are senior students studying drama, were chosen. This is a part of the matric syllabus that they are studying towards.”

He said that at the auditions for the four plays, “students were chosen on their suitability for parts in the script”.

“No teachers were involved in selecting the cast or actors. Casting was based on role expectations and the ability to perform the role.”

Theron said that in the case of Come Fly With Me, the cast was then presented to the drama teacher a day after it was finalised.

“When the teacher saw the list, she asked whether there would be a way to get more of the applicants involved in the play.”

He said the teacher thought “it would add immeasurably to the quality of the play” to have a chorus acting in a didactic way — “teaching the audience … through choreographed movement, choral verse and starting the moral story to act as a ‘living’ backdrop to actors”.

The director agreed and so a chorus was added to increase “depth and richness”.

“Teachers walked around to all four auditions to see that things were in order and the teacher reports that in the auditions for Come Fly With Me, things went very well.”

Asked whether black African parents and pupils were justified in complaining about the composition of the cast, he said the concerns raised had to be contextualised.

“This is not a standalone play but one of four plays under rehearsal. When numbers are tallied, the percentage of total speaking students of colour is 41%, which exceeds the proportion of total student numbers in the school.”

He said the speaking roles in the other three plays “are racially well represented”.

“The student director had to make the most suitable choices for the role. Given the collective and total representation and the fact that Come Fly With Me has such a strong group of actors, the school is satisfied.”

Theron said there was no reason to believe that the senior student directors “are practising racism”, adding: “There is teacher oversight in their work.”

He denied that the school interrogated a pupil after a message was sent to a WhatsApp group about the absence of students of colour in the speaking roles.

“There was no interrogation but an investigation after the concerns were raised. She [the pupil] told the deputy head responsible for diversity that her mother had written the message. She went on to say that she had not noticed the racial breakdown of the cast until her mom discussed it with her.”

Theron said the girl’s mother turned down an opportunity by the deputy head to meet.

The SAHRC’s Zamantungwa Mbeki said the investigation into racism allegations at Cornwall Hill College was in its final stages.

“The SAHRC is consolidating all the responses and preparing the findings.”