A fresh racism storm has rocked Collegiate Girls’ High School after a video emerged which appears to depict a baboon as the unsuspecting model for a black pupil’s hairstyle.
The video, which was filmed on Sunday night and posted on several social media platforms in the early hours of Monday morning, went viral – prompting the Eastern Cape Department of Education to investigate.
The 14-second clip begins by showing a black pupil blow-drying her hair in a room at the affluent school’s hostel.
The video – which is boldly captioned “hairstyle inspiration” – then pans away from the pupil who is busy with her hair and moves to the hand of someone holding a cellphone.
The phone’s lens then zooms in on a picture of a baboon – with the “hair inspiration” caption still emblazoned on the screen.
The perpetrator, a white Grade 12 pupil whose name is known to the Weekend Post , has since gone to ground after the clip amassed dozens of online views and scathing remarks.
It had initially been posted on Instagram and then shared on Twitter and WhatsApp.
Oratile Mashigo, 18, the grade 12 pupil who had been blow-drying her hair, said she was shocked and saddened by the clip, which she had immediately brought to the school’s attention.
Her friends and a group called “Collegiate Black Parents” are outraged.
It is not the first race-related controversy the school has had to deal with following simmering tensions in 2016 over how black pupils were supposed to style their hair. 
"The racism subject at the school is still a big problem for us all [because] the latest incident is indicative that the issue has still not been addressed by the school's management or the department [of education]," said a member of the Collegiate Black Parents Group, who wished to remain anonymous to protect the identity of her child at the school. 
"I don't want my child or any other black child at the school for that matter, to be victimised, so that's why I don't want my name published, for now. 
"We will, as a group, have a meeting to discuss the latest issue. We were informed of it via email," the parent said. 
In the letter sent to parents, dated May 29, the school said: "It is with great regret that we need to inform you of an Instagram post of one of our learners that has caused much hurt and anger to others.
"We as a school condemn any form of racism and unreservedly apologise for the offence and disharmony that has been caused."
The school said the incident has been reported to the provincial education department.
"We are in the process of embarking on proper procedures to deal with this matter," the institution said. 
Mashigo said she had reported the incident to deputy principal Derryk Jordan.
Jordan would not comment yesterday and, via the school's secretary, said they had been instructed to direct all media queries to the department. 
Education Department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the incident would be dealt with through an internal hearing. 
"There is no way we can ever tolerate allegations of racism and as such we condemn all incidents of racism," Pulumani said.
"We've noticed a flare-up of racism-related incidents at schools across the province and we're not sure if the popularity of social media has anything to do with it, but these issues need to be dealt with.
"Schools like Collegiate need to confront racism allegations and make sure they are dealt with decisively," he said. 
The perpetrator had been inactive on social media since the incident and has blocked numbers requesting her side of the story."Her mother came to fetch her and she left the school with a big bag," a pupil who asked not to be identified said.
In a letter to the school, Mashigo's friend said: "The video's racist. We are offended.
"The issue is not only the disturbing video, it is the normalcy in degrading a fellow black girl with the comparison to an animal, particularly the baboon.
"[The perpetrator] was being intentionally racist [because] she chose the baboon [and] everyone knows the historical implications of that.
"It is an animal used to deliberately offend black people."
Mashigo said she doubted anything was going to happen to the pupil who made the video.
"Here's the issue, white girls are allowed to have any hairstyle, they are allowed to dye their hair an colour they like...
"My hair is my hair. I'm not going to apologise for it now growing long and silky. There's nothing I can do about that."