Court Dismisses Pretoria Girls High Bid to Access Racism Probe Report
Viable News Team 
Pretoria The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has dismissed an application by the School Governing Body (SGB) of Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) to compel the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to hand over a report from a commissioned investigation into allegations of racism at the school.
The controversy stems from a probe conducted by Mdladlamba Attorneys, appointed by the GDE in 2023 to investigate claims of racial discrimination and a culture of exclusion at the prestigious all-girls school. While the department revealed some details of the investigation’s findings late last year, it has refused to provide the full report to the SGB.
When the SGB requested access, the department directed it to apply through the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) legislation that governs how individuals and organisations can access records held by public bodies. The school’s governing body, however, approached the court to compel the department to release the report, arguing that it was essential for a planned review application.
In a strongly worded judgment, Judge Graham Moshoana dismissed the application, ruling that the SGB must follow the existing legal channels under PAIA to obtain the report.
“The SGB has never set an eye on the report; as such, it cannot vouchsafe its necessity in the review application, let alone its relevance,” Moshoana said. “It is only once the SGB casts its eye over the report that it can vouchsafe its necessity or relevance. For now, it is like wishing to buy a pig in a poke.”
He further held that the SGB is not entitled to use “a dual process” to access the same information outside of what PAIA prescribes.
Judge Moshoana acknowledged the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the dispute, describing it as part of a “blazing furore” over racism allegations that have plagued the school.
“At the centre of the dispute lies a well-meaning and highly regarded institution of learning known as Pretoria High School for Girls,” he wrote. “PHSG is not itself a stranger to controversy coloured with infelicitous allegations of racism, having itself been, in the recent past, embroiled in similar allegations.”
The investigation was prompted by complaints that some learners had created a “whites-only” WhatsApp group, allegedly used to share messages with racial undertones. The matter was reported to the school’s principal and deputy principal in October 2023 by three learners.
Following a formal disciplinary process, the 12 learners implicated were acquitted by the school’s disciplinary panel, which ruled that the WhatsApp group was a private platform. A subsequent review by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) also concluded that the learners had not engaged in racist conduct.
Despite these findings, the GDE commissioned its own independent investigation, which reportedly identified evidence of racial discrimination and institutional failures to address it adequately.
The court’s ruling means the SGB will now have to pursue the PAIA process if it wishes to access the full report before considering further legal action.
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