WALVIS BAY – The Hillside Christian College has suspended a teacher who went on a racist tirade on social media.
The Walvis Bay-based school distanced itself from the conduct of the assistant teacher, Corien Steenkamp, after it was alerted of the teacher’s conduct by a Namibian student in the US. Steenkamp, who has since deleted her Facebook account, made racist comments
following the murder of Zimbabwean woodcarver Hlaisanani Zhou, who died after he was allegedly assaulted by at least five men at Otjiwarongo last Friday.
Steenkamp posted that all the land belonged to South African boers while displaying the old apartheid-era flag. She also questioned whether the media would have reported on the murder if it was the other way around. At one stage, Steenkamp posted that civilisation is not made for blacks and that the Bible was also not written for blacks.
“The world knows that Europe is fed up with uncivilised people. Go back to the bush and eat your rotten food like your forefathers,” she said towards another social user, who tried to reason with her over controversial posts.
Principal Wilma de Sousa yesterday distanced the school from Steenkamp’s remarks, saying that it certainly does not portray the views of the school. She added that Steenkamp was suspended with immediate effect and that the school is currently seeking legal advice for further steps. “We condemn any utterances placing any race, colour or people at a higher or lower level or position and want to distance ourselves from such hate speech. We believe and teach that we are all created equal before God,” she said.
“We, together with our legal advisers, are currently dealing with the situation and the process will be fair, just and professional. We hereby deeply regret the offence caused and wish to apologise for the harm it’s done in our community, nation and the world at large.”
Steenkamp was a grade 4 teaching assistant at the private school. Meanwhile, efforts to get comment from Steenkamp proved futile yesterday.
– edeklerk@nepc.com.na