Like many other people, I have refrained from commenting on the St John’s College / Michaelhouse debacle until we are provided with full, verified factual information. This statement by Mr Stuart West (continued in next tweet), headmaster of SJC, does not provide those facts.

What we have is an allegation made by an SJC boy against a MH boy. Nothing more. You need evidence to substantiate the allegation. And it should not be hard to find this. There is ample video footage, 21 other players on the field, a ref and hundreds of supporters.

Until such time as SJC (@St John's College) and Michaelhouse (@Michaelhouse) can provide that information, people should refrain from jumping to conclusions. The schools should finalise their investigation by close of business tomorrow.

In the meantime, it is highly inappropriate to treat the allegation as being anything other than an allegation. Mr West makes this mistake in his statement. In this para (and elsewhere) he refers to the alleged incident as if it is settled fact. But at this stage it is not.

Various news articles and comments by “diversity and transformation consultants” and former broadcasters have treated the allegation as being a settled fact. If the allegation turns out to be false and/or malicious, these people could (and frankly should) be sued for defamation.

There is very good reason to be cautious when allegations of racism are made in a school environment. Let’s take a look at how things have panned out at three schools which have been subjected to high profile and sensational allegations:

First up: St Stithians Girls’ College (@St Stithians College). 66 allegations of racism were made against the school coordinated by this Twitter account: @Racism At St Stithians Girls College. The school apologised. Lawyers who then investigated found absolutely no substance to any of the allegations.

Second: St Mary’s DSG in Pretoria. Seven teachers were suspended in 2020. After extensive investigations, every single allegation was found to be false. The school has since entered a steep decline, with staff and children leaving in droves. politicsweb.co.za/opinion/how-to…

Finally, Herschel Girls’ School in Cape Town. Nearly 300 allegations of racism were made against the school via an account called “yousilenceweamplify”. Only two cases resulted in disciplinary action being taken against teachers. Does that mean the others were false?

And what of the two instances which resulted in disciplinary action? Can the members of the Herschel community have any confidence in the veracity of the process if the legal reports are not made available for public scrutiny and interrogation?

Sadly, both St Stithians and Herschel refuse to publish the legal reports - expensive pieces of research that parents have paid for. Herschel claims they are unable to do so because of “legal privilege”. With respect, this is nonsense because the school is the client.

The schools will be publishing all of their legal reports. They will also be issuing public, written apologies on school letterhead to each of the individuals who was wrongfully accused of racism. They might not realise this yet - but mark my words it will happen.

St John’s College would also benefit from some transparency in this area. In 2016, a former student called Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh (@Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh) gave a speech at SJC in which he alleged that the school was a “safe haven for racism, misogyny and homophobia.”

As far as I am aware, Mpofu-Walsh did not provide evidence (or even formulate coherent allegations) to support these broad assertions. Earlier this year, I emailed him on two occasions and asked for that information. He refused to respond.

Mpofu-Walsh has subsequently been appointed to SJC’s governing council. I think many parents and staff would agree that this is disturbing conduct from someone who is charged with governance of the school. Council members should be responsive, open and transparent.

I intend to write to the Chairman of the SJC council and the headmaster of SJC and ask them to provide the information which Mpofu-Walsh refuses to disclose. No doubt, detailed and fully justified allegations will be readily available and will be published forthwith.

Regardless of Mpofu-Walsh’s allegations at SJC, there is ample evidence that false and sometimes even fake allegations of racism are being made against schools across SA in order to advance a radical agenda based on Critical Race Theory. I call this phenomenon #schoolcapture

Which brings us back to the latest debacle involving SJC and MH. The above experiences demonstrate that it is essential that the full facts are determined and publicised before guilt is pronounced or apologies are issued.

With respect, what we need from Mr West and other school leaders is not feel good language and quotes from Desmond Tutu. What we need are facts that are verified by objective evidence. We simply have not received those yet - and therefore we don’t know who to hold accountable.

Regardless of this incident, one thing must be made clear: The era of false allegations being made in bad faith and without consequence for the accuser is now at an end. A broad coalition of teachers, parents and lawyers is now ready to fight back and defeat #schoolcapture