Four schoolchildren in South Africa will face a disciplinary hearing over a viral video in which black students are seen being auctioned off as slaves, Cape Town authorities told the BBC.
The footage, which shows students in a cage while other students bid for them, caused outrage when it was shared on social media last Friday.
It was filmed at Pinelands High School and involved eighth graders, which is the first year of high school, when students are around 14 years old.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said it had opened its own investigation into the incident.
It comes at a time when two other schools in the country – where white minority rule ended three decades ago with the election of anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela as president – are dealing with alleged racist incidents.
“It is disturbing that these incidents continue to occur 30 years after democracy,” the SAHRC saidadding that it was even more distressing that they occurred in schools.
The four Pinelands High School students believed to be behind the mock auction are currently suspended.
“The investigation is ongoing and almost complete, with 24 students interviewed in the first two [school days] since the allegations were made,” Western Cape Department of Education spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said on Wednesday in a statement sent to the BBC.
“Action will also be taken against other students who may have contravened certain provisions of the code of conduct,” she added.
The incident first came to light after one of the students showed the footage to his mother, Merle Potgieter, who then told the school administration and local media.
She says her 14-year-old son fought off boys who were trying to force him into the cage along with other black boys who were already inside.
According to Potgieter, the alleged perpetrators were colored – which is a South African term meaning mixed race.
In footage of the mock auction, children can be heard placing multiple bids of up to 100,000 rand ($5,400; £4,200).
“Going once…going twice…sold!” a boy can be heard screaming.
Counseling support was prioritized for those affected – and all eighth graders had debriefing sessions, Ms. Hammond said.
Slavery in Cape Town dates back to the 1650s, when the Dutch colonized the peninsula and thousands of enslaved people were brought to the region from Southeast Asia, Madagascar and Mozambique.
Today Cape Town is considered one of the most racially segregated and unequal cities in South Africa, despite its multi-ethnic mix.
This is due to the legacy of apartheid, when the white regime in the 1950s pushed black and mixed-race communities into segregated districts outside the city.
The apartheid government also consolidated a racial hierarchy, which placed black people at the bottom.
On Tuesday, MP Makhi Feni, chair of the parliamentary committee on education, urged schools at the center of the latest scandals to “consider meaningful programs that promote social cohesion and South African character”.
“The question we should all genuinely ask is what encourages a person, hardly a teenager, with no knowledge of where we come from as a country, to act in a way that points to racism. Certainly, our children are not and should not be racist,” he said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party demands that students be suspended for at least two years and carry out “community service in black areas”.
He threatened to call for protests and close the school if he considered the authorities’ handling of the incident to be less than satisfactory.
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