News24 | Roedean principal resigns as school apologises to King David

Roedean School has apologised to King David High for cancelling a tennis match, saying its actions were “deeply hurtful to the Jewish community”.

The head of the senior school at top Johannesburg private girls’ school Roedean, Phuti Mogale, has resigned with immediate effect, the school’s board announced on Thursday.

In a statement, the board said it had accepted her resignation.

This follows an apology by Roedean School on Thursday to King David High for the cancellation of a tennis fixture.

Roedean acknowledged that its “actions were deeply hurtful to the Jewish community”.

The apology comes amid Roedean’s failure to honour a scheduled tennis fixture with King David High School on 3 February after participants from Roedean expressed reservations about playing against the school.

Following Roedean’s no-show at the match, which was to have been played at Roedean, the deputy head of King David, Bruce Nozaic, alleged in a voice note: “Our King David first-team tennis girls were scheduled to play Roedean this afternoon (3 February) at Roedean, but Roedean has refused to play us because the kids who will be walking onto the courts are Jewish.”

In a letter addressed to the general director of the South African Board of Jewish Education, Rabbi Ricky Seeff, on Thursday, the chair of Roedean’s board, Dale Quaker, stated that “Roedean recognises that it is our obligation to ensure that religious and any other form of discrimination do not come into school sport”.

“We recognise the impact this situation has had on both our communities and are committed to reflecting on the internal circumstances that led to this outcome.”

This is a developing story