"Middle School Students Expelled for Auctioning Black Friend as 'Slave'"

South African Human Rights Commission: "30 Years of Democracy, Yet This Happens"

At a school in South Africa, middle school students were expelled after posting a video auctioning off their Black friends as slaves.

According to the British BBC and others on the 31st (local time), a so-called slave auction video featuring students attending Pinelands High School in Cape Town, South Africa, spread on social networking services (SNS) on the 26th of last month.

A simulated slave auction video that spread through social networking services (SNS) on the 26th of last month. [Image source=TikTok capture]

The problematic video showed several students auctioning Black students trapped inside a cage. The students called out bids as high as 100,000 rand (about 8 million won) or loudly shouted "Sold."

The perpetrators are estimated to be 14 years old. The school has students from 8th to 12th grade enrolled.

The incident was first reported by a parent, Mel Potgieter. She delivered the video shown by her 14-year-old son to the school administration and local media. She claimed that the suspected perpetrators were people of color, a term in Afrikaans meaning mixed race.

Brona Hammond, spokesperson for the Western Cape Department of Education, told the BBC, "We conducted investigations, including interviewing 24 students over two days after the controversy arose." Four ringleaders of the incident were expelled from the school, and additional measures will be taken against other students involved.

The incident sparked national outrage, prompting the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to launch its own investigation. The SAHRC stated, "It is concerning that such incidents continue to occur even 30 years after the beginning of democracy," adding, "It is even more regrettable that this happened at a school."

The BBC explained, "Despite Cape Town being home to a diverse mix of ethnic groups, it is one of the most racially segregated and unequal cities in South Africa. The racial hierarchy was entrenched when the white regime in the 1950s pushed Black and mixed-race communities to the outskirts of the city, placing Black people at the lowest level."