[imagesource: Westerford/Facebook/Esoteric Visuals]

South Africa’s dark and problematic history has a way of creeping back into everyday life when you least expect it.

Recently, questions have been raised regarding the employment of a former apartheid spy as the head of history at Westerford High School in Cape Town.

Gordon Brookbanks has been teaching history at the school for more than a decade, so if your kids were there in the past 10 years, they probably had a class or two with him.

Here’s IOL:

At the time of his appointment, reservations were raised by the SGB [Student Governing Body] and others, but, according to a source, parents were unaware of Brookbanks’ involvement in the Security Branch, recruitment of spies and exiled South Africans.

Brookbanks was a police spy at Rhodes University campus and took over the running of the European spy network for the Security Branch when he was posted to London.

In the book, Unfinished Business: South Africa, Apartheid, and Truth by Terry Bell, Dumisa Ntsebeza mentions that Olivia Forsyth was one of a trio of agents who came from the same university.

Brookbanks was the most successful of the trio. He was also a lieutenant in the mid-1980s when he was posted to London.

“There he took over the running of the European spy network established by Craig Williamson and Johan Coetzee. It was he who ran one of the most important spies of the time, the ANC’s chief representative in London, Solly Smith.

“He is also credited with having recruited as an agent the ANC executive member and historian Francis Meli,” the book reads.

Smith, alias Samuel Khanyile, who had been the ANC’s London representative, succeeded Dulcie September, who was killed in Paris. In 1991 he confessed to being a spy. He died a few years later.

In his book, Inside Apartheid’s Prison, activist Raymond Suttner writes that he believes that Brookbanks was instrumental in ensuring his detainment.

In the amnesty hearings of January 1999, Brookbanks is also cited as the author of a document called Operation Olivetti, a motivation for the initiation of a media operation in which Forsyth was subsequently involved.

When Brookbanks was hired at Westerford, a source claims that his history was not made evident to the SGB or parents.

Only when an SGB member caught wind of it did his past employment come to light.

According to the source, some members of the SGB and parent body felt that because Brookbanks had been an apartheid spy, it didn’t seem appropriate for him to be appointed to teach history, as he may have a particular bias on the subject matter.

“The feeling from those who supported (his employment) was that this was all in the past, and they didn’t feel he had killed anyone,” the source said.

Okay, that escalated quickly…

Brookbanks told the Cape Times that he worked for state intelligence from 1979 through the 1980s and the 1990 to 1994 period, and from 1994 to 2003, when he says he resigned.

“On resigning and not knowing exactly what career I wanted to go into, I worked for a short time at the Cape Town Holocaust Centre, assisting with both their school programme and diversity workshops.

“I then responded to an advert for a teaching post, started to teach high school pupils, and found a vocation where I truly felt I could make a difference and contribute.

Brookbanks claims to be teaching a transformative curriculum at the school.

“In teaching topics such as Holocaust and apartheid history, to name a few, I consciously focus on the lessons for humanity we must learn and, by illustration, the consequences of racism, prejudice and stereotyping.

“I also stress that we, and I include myself, have to look into the ‘mirror’ and acknowledge that we were complicit in the crime against humanity which the UN categorised the policy of apartheid as being.”

Principal Rob le Roux says that he has no problem with the former spy teaching history, and SGB chairperson Luyanda Mpahlwa agrees:

“There has been no issue or complaint raised about Mr Brookbanks at SGB level regarding his role and performance.

“As a former Robben Island prisoner myself I recognise that this is the story of South Africa, where we have to face our past, as bitter as it may be, and look at the challenges we face today, find solutions and move forward.

“These are complex matters and we all know that every aspect of society faces the challenge of transformation, including schools.

“At Westerford, we are doing the best we can, but there is no question that as we look at our past, we need to create a future and the history of apartheid needs to be shared in all its facets,” Mpahlwa said.

True.

Still, I can see why some people may feel a little uneasy.

[source:iol]