Key topics
- SAHRC’s embrace of Critical Race Theory
- Dysfunction and infighting within SAHRC
- Potential ideological influence on Western Cape schools
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By Richard Wilkinson
On 22 October 2024, I published an article entitled How Critical Race Theory Infiltrated and Radicalised the South African Human Rights Commission. In that article, I expressed deep concern about the appointment of Professor Tshepo Madlingozi as a full-time commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission (“SAHRC”). He has been given responsibility for the SAHRC’s newly established division dedicated to “Anti-racism, Justice and Education.”
Professor Madlingozi recently set out his views in some detail during an hour-long interview on SMWX, the YouTube channel run by Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh. As I explained in greater depth in my earlier essay, his perspective is deeply rooted in Critical Race Theory and carries a distinctly Marxist inflection. He dismisses colour-blindness, arguing that radical education reform demands explicitly racialised policies. Rather than championing formal equality, he advocates for the more Socialist concept of “equity”. He also contends that the “Three R’s of Decolonisation” – Restitution, Redress, and Redistribution – are essential to resolving what he ominously terms the “National Question.”
As is typical within the Marxist segment of South African academia, Professor Madlingozi expresses deep disdain for the country’s Constitution. He contends that it embodies a Euro-centric liberal framework that upholds what he terms “Neo-Apartheid Constitutionalism.” In one of his academic papers, he noted the derogatory 1990s reference to the Bill of Rights as being a “Bill of Whites” and argues that the Constitution “does not undo the settler-created house.” In his view, the document functions as “a supreme deity that blocks revolutionary being-becoming.”
Unsurprisingly, Professor Madlingozi supports the highly controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (“BELA Act”), viewing it as a catalyst for decolonisation. He champions a radical vision for South Africa’s schools – one that fully aligns with the prescripts of the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution – and intends to leverage his position at the SAHRC to dismantle any vestiges of the Western – or, in his view, “colonial” – canon in South African education.
A chaotic, toxic and dysfunctional institution
Aside from its embrace of Critical Race Theory, the SAHRC is now widely recognised as a chaotic and deeply dysfunctional institution. As journalist Rebecca Davis has detailed in the Daily Maverick, the SAHRC has devolved into a toxic political battleground – despite its Constitutional status and putative impartiality – and has been torn apart by vicious infighting among the ANC’s warring factions.
According to Davis, senior sources within the SAHRC allege that the commission’s initial report on the July 2021 unrest was altered – at the insistence of ANC-aligned officials – to downplay any connection between Jacob Zuma’s incarceration and the ensuing violence and looting that occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng. Additionally, it is claimed that the SAHRC chairman, Chris Nissen (formerly the Chairperson of the ANC in the Western Cape), has attended meetings whilst intoxicated, with audio recordings capturing his slurred speech. Notably, Nissen has a prior arrest for drunk driving.
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Another Commissioner, Philile Ntuli, is facing a collective grievance from staff at the SAHRC’s KwaZulu-Natal office. According to one complaint, during a visit to a KwaZulu-Natal school, Commissioner Ntuli “deliberately probed whether the African principal was being discriminated against by educators of Indian descent, despite there being no complaints or evidence to support such claims”.
Exacerbating the chaos is the suspension of the SAHRC’s administrative head, CEO Vusumuzi Mkhize, in September 2024. Mkhize is accused of serious misconduct, including wilful damage to company property. As noted by the Daily Maverick, a 2021 Public Protector report revealed that Mkhize – who previously served as deputy director-general at the Department of Home Affairs – supported the fast tracking of the Gupta family’s citizenship applications despite a verification process not having been undertaken.
In summary, if you are involved in South African education and have the best interests of children, teachers and schools at heart, then the SAHRC is not an organisation that you would like to have anything to do with, if you can avoid it.
The SAHRC’s workshop with the Western Cape Education Department
I had hoped that my initial article on the SAHRC would one day serve as a useful reference point, but I did not anticipate that it would become so relevant so quickly. On 21 October 2024 – just a day before my article was published – the SAHRC held a workshop at the Southern Sun Hotel on Strand Street, Cape Town, led by Professor Madlingozi, and which was attended by various role players in education, including officials from the Western Cape Education Department (“WCED”).
(Photograph: Armand Hough, Independent Newspapers)
The workshop began with three and a half hours of presentations by students, parents and teachers addressing alleged racism in schools. In the afternoon, representatives from the WCED and the National Department of Basic Education, together with Mr Quinton Apollis from the University of Cape Town and Dr Jerome Joost from Stellenbosch University, delivered presentations. The day concluded with a presentation by Felicity Harrison, the Head of Sustained Dialogues at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (“IJR”).
The involvement of the IJR is particularly concerning. In an earlier essay entitled The Long, Sinister Shadow of Robin DiAngelo in South Africa’s Schools, I detailed how the controversial – and now widely discredited – American academic, Robin DiAngelo, visited South Africa in 2019. During her tour, DiAngelo spoke at several universities and also mentored a new cadre of “diversity and transformation” consultants. These consultants later marketed their services to schools, conducting workshops that promoted key tenets of Critical Race Theory. Typically, their interventions have sowed deep division and left a trail of disruption in their wake.
The IJR was instrumental in sponsoring DiAngelo’s trip to South Africa, with its logo prominently featured on promotional posters for her event at the University of the Western Cape.
The IJR’s presentation at the SAHRC workshop on racism in schools mirrors DiAngelo’s approach, reiterating many of the tropes common among Critical Race Theorists. Their slides claim that “racism in schools is ubiquitous”, and argue that “most macro aggressions stem from an institutional culture that allows micro aggressions.” Additionally, the IJR advocates for race-based hiring practices, emphasising that “it is really important that students see themselves reflected in the staff who teach them.”
Most worryingly, the IJR concludes that “we need a systematic approach to institutionalised racism” and that “Diversity training needs to be an ongoing part of teacher education and more systematically included in the school curriculum.”
It is understandable that the WCED wishes to be on the side of supposed virtue, and it is equally understandable that the WCED responded favourably to an invitation from another organ of state, particularly one as constitutionally significant as the SAHRC.
However, the danger is that by organising such a workshop, the SAHRC has sought to secure ideological buy-in from the WCED, thereby laying the groundwork for a future assault on Western Cape schools. Already, we can see that the WCED has been placed on the defensive, with a spokesperson for the department quoted in the press as follows:
“Many of our WCED schools have taken this matter very seriously and have for years addressed inequalities, injustices and prejudices in their schools. While these actions are welcomed, the reality is that our learners remain part of a broader environment and are constantly observing or are witness to certain biases that are expressed, intentionally or not, at home, on social media or while socialising with their friends. It is not just a ‘school’ issue, but a societal issue.”
The concern here is clear: the WCED is being persuaded to echo the SAHRC’s view that pervasive racism exists in Western Cape schools, without facts or evidence which support this sweeping claim, whilst also validating the dubious concept of unintentional or unconscious bias. This, in turn, bolsters the narrative that anti-racism activists are striving to construct.
The coming assault on Western Cape schools
I am confident that, at some point in 2025, a sensational racism scandal will erupt at one or at several schools in the Western Cape. It is likely that the veracity of the allegations will not be tested before headlines are made. Although I cannot predict exactly when this will occur (it typically happens just before exams) or which schools will be implicated (it is usually those in relatively prosperous suburbs where, ironically, genuine diversity actually exists), I am certain that the SAHRC will swiftly intervene. They will likely either attempt to seize control of the situation or, at a minimum, will demand immediate and decisive action from the WCED against the alleged perpetrators of racism.
One likely tactic is for the SAHRC to claim that the WCED is conflicted whilst portraying itself as a neutral, independent arbiter that is best placed to investigate a school racism scandal. Should the racism charge be sustained, the SAHRC is likely to depict the issue not as an isolated incident but as being symptomatic of a deep-seated, pervasive culture of racism that requires comprehensive and systemic reform. This would inevitably lead to calls for remedial workshops delivered by Woke consultants, followed by demands for the “decolonisation” of the curriculum and even the removal of white teachers. All of this should be vigorously resisted.
Managing these scandals will be extremely challenging. They tend to unfold rapidly, with a pre-determined narrative promoted by a far-from-neutral media in a manner that is both emotionally manipulative and financially extortionate. The WCED will find itself in the spotlight – and on the defensive. One concession quickly leads to another, creating a slippery slope that becomes nearly impossible to resist. For example, an apology for racism (given under duress and before the facts of the matter are established) implies guilt, which is then weaponised and used to justify the need for anti-racism training and decolonisation. By the time the facts are ever established, the damage is done.
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How to prepare for and respond to this challenge
There are several steps that the WCED can – and should – take now to position itself more favourably in the future.
Firstly, the WCED should clearly affirm its zero-tolerance stance towards racism. In so doing, it should publicly define racism as being bullying or discrimination on the basis of race, while expressly rejecting definitions rooted in Critical Race Theory. In practical terms, the WCED should explicitly dismiss concepts such as microaggressions, cultural appropriation, implicit bias, unconscious bias, systemic racism, structural oppression, environmental racism, intersectionality, white privilege, whiteness and any other tactics employed by anti-racism activists to unfairly label targeted organisations as racist.
Secondly, the WCED should unequivocally reject any notion of decolonisation.
Thirdly, the WCED must state clearly that it will not engage self-styled “diversity and transformation consultants” who promote the principles of Critical Race Theory. These consultants have previously appeared at Fish Hoek High School and Rustenburg Girls High School, as well as at several independent schools in the province.
Similarly, when legal representation is required, the WCED should ensure that the lawyers it appoints do not adhere to the principles of Critical Race Theory. The WCED should adopt a meticulous approach, verifying facts and evidence while scrutinising every assertion. Where compelling evidence of racism (properly defined) exists, then the WCED should take decisive action against perpetrators. However, narratives should not simply be accepted at face value. For further clarification on this point, I recommend reading the following three articles I have published on the subject:
- The Trouble with Roedean’s Woke Anti-Discrimination Policy
- The Woke Witch-Hunt at St Mary’s Waverley
- The Missing Investigative Report at Pretoria Girls
Finally, the WCED should adopt a rigorous, business-like approach in its dealings with the SAHRC. The WCED is under no obligation to adopt the SAHRC’s deeply perverse ideological framework. Where it encounters Critical Race Theory, the WCED should push back firmly. This response should be documented in writing through letters from the Provincial Minister of Education to the SAHRC, with all correspondence made publicly available.
Where WCED officials attend workshops and meetings organised by the SAHRC, they should use these opportunities to record the department’s firm opposition to the principles of Critical Race Theory. The challenge, however, is that this is a complex task requiring individuals who have a detailed understanding of the ideology as well as the political acumen needed to combat Woke tactics. In all likelihood, this responsibility cannot be delegated solely to officials and will necessitate input at a ministerial level.
From being reactive to being proactive
Over the past few years, I have endeavoured to understand what transpired in South Africa’s schools from May 2020 onwards. This has been a process that has often felt like sifting through the wreckage of an airplane crash. Last year, at Pretoria Girls, I was part of a group of parents, teachers, school governing body members, lawyers, politicians and other activists who tackled a present-day crisis by confronting and ultimately thwarting a politically motivated attack on 12 innocent white girls who had been wrongfully accused of posting racist messages in a WhatsApp group. In doing so, we derailed an attempt by Panyaza Lesufi’s Gauteng government to effectively seize control of the school – although the battle in this regard remains ongoing.
In the Western Cape during 2025, I hope that we can finally take a proactive role in shaping the future. It would be good if, for once, South Africa’s anti-Woke classical liberals were ahead of their identity-obsessed Marxist opponents. And so the purpose of this essay is to serve as a second bright-red warning light for what lies ahead in the Western Cape, with the hope that we can avoid yet another disaster such as what occurred at Fish Hoek High School in 2022 and Pretoria High School for Girls in 2024.
The key point to understand is this: if you engage in a battle on your opponent’s preferred terrain, the fight is lost before it even begins. Marxist activists understand this all too well and excel at rigging the contest from the outset. The WCED must ensure that the arena is one of Classical Liberalism, not Race Marxism, and that the debate is based on facts and evidence rather than on sloganeering and intimidation.
There is no doubt that the SAHRC is mobilising, and the WCED must be prepared for what lies ahead.
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