Update: The owner of the preschool, Anell Engelbrecht has spoke out.

According to iol:

“People are reading too much into the situation. The picture is one big misunderstanding. We didn’t do anything wrong intentionally,” she said.

She said she has received death threats and hate mail.

The teacher, who took the photo, Ane Muller, who is also the daughter of the owner, further reiterated that the photo was misunderstood.

Muller said her class is normally made up of 10 children. On Wednesday two children were absent, leaving them with eight.

The children were scheduled to have a party so she called all of the children out of the classroom and asked them out to the patio to sit on the table. “A table can only seat six children,” Muller said. While the rest of the children walked straight to the table the black girl and another girl walked to the playground instead.

After Muller placed six of the eight children at the six-seater table, she asked the assistant to bring the two girls from the playground and they were placed at different tables.

As she was about to take the photo, the other little girl started crying and the teacher asked the assistant to pick her up. “The picture was taken at that very moment,” Muller said.

There were also allegations the black girl was not given a cupcake while all her other classmates had cupcakes. To this Muller replied: “If you zoom into the photo you will see she is holding a cupcake in her hand with no icing because I removed it for her. She doesn’t like icing. We know this from previous parties we’ve had at the crèche,” Muller said.

After taking the photo the teacher sent it to the children’s parents on a crèche WhatsApp group.

“I didn’t even look twice to check if the photo had any racial connotation to it,” Muller said.

Here’s the story from earlier today:

Oh my word.

You may have come across a photograph which was shared on social media (surprise) and has made headlines. The subjects were a few pre-schoolers eating their lunch, but while the four sitting at one table were white and each had a cupcake, sitting at the next table, all alone was a black toddler – and she didn’t have a cupcake.

Let the cupcake wars begin!

Here’s the pic:

First off, let’s hear what her cousin (who happened to share the photo) had to say:

”Someone please tell me what is wrong with this picture‚ or maybe my family is over-reacting. That child sitting all alone in the next table with no cupcake is my 19-month-old cousin at her pre-school somewhere in Centurion‚” Makoka said.

According to Mokoka‚ the picture was sent to the mother by Koetjes en Kalfjes Heritage Hill Campus‚ which is the school the child attended when the picture was taken.

“This picture was sent by the school to the mother. Either they really wanted her to take her child out or they are so blind they can’t see what is wrong with this picture‚” Makoka added.

Cool, there’s the back story as to why the photo was shared. Now, let’s hear Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi’s report after his visit to the preschool on Thursday:

“I am here at the school with the principal. All kids are white taught by white teachers. Blacks are just maids here! Disgusting‚” Lesufi said.

“We have to act decisively so I’ve assigned a social worker to immediately do what is right.”

Labelling the pre-school as problematic‚ he said: “It will change! Mark my words!”

I wonder how many schools like these he will have to send social workers to.

Home Affairs spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete also had her say:

“I think cadres must find that creche and we must descend upon them with cupcakes in hand.”

Gosh.

Then there’s this one social media commentator,  who might make the most sense:

“Dear Black SAfricans. Stop sending your kids to these racists white-owned and -run creche. What do I think will happen? Build your own.”

It’s really hard to form an opinion about such a topic when there is one voice missing from the conversation. So I would like to ask the preschool currently under fire a few questions:

1. How many children of colour attend your school?
2. How many people of colour work at your school and what are their roles?
3. Why was the toddler sitting alone?
4. Why did the toddler not have a cupcake?
5. Why was the photo taken and sent to the mother of the toddler? Did every child in the photograph receive a picture?

Once those are answered then maybe we can look at the real issues. In the meantime, let them eat cupcakes!

[If you think I am racist because I’m not straight up backing the little kid, please refer back to my previous articles on topics of race. Thank you.]