School 'didn't send pupils to Bokkie Week'
2012-05-09 11:21
Rustenburg - The headmaster of a Brits school denies sending pupils to hockey trials where only Afrikaner children are allowed to take part.
Rego Modise, a Grade 11 pupil at Wagpos Hoërskool said she persuaded her parents to drive her to Hoërskool Grenswag in Rustenburg for Bokkie Week trials, the Times reported on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old Brits schoolgirl claims she was turned away from hockey trials in Rustenburg because she is black.
She registered and paid a R30 fee, but was later told the trials were for white pupils only.
"I told him I was sent by my coach. He then asked me: 'Didn't they tell you anything else?' and I said no. Then he told me that Bokkie Week was for white kids only," she told the Times.
Wagpos principal Daan Neethling denies that his pupils were sent by staff to the trials. “The children heard of the trials [through the grapevine] and went by themselves,” he told News24.
“If children go to these trials, they go on their own, without endorsement from our school,” he said. “We don’t even recognise achievements at Bokkie Week anymore.”
Rev Peter Stans, CEO of Afrikaner Volksie Sport, the organisers of Bokkie Week, said Modise had "definitely" not been invited for the trials, which were by invitation only. He said the week was for "Afrikaner" children only.
No player of a different race had ever attended Bokkie Week, Stans said.
