Residents from Hockenheim Road in Silversands were shocked when they heard learners screaming at Fairdale High School last week.
Fairdale High was established a couple of years ago as a temporary school for learners from Mfuleni who did not have schools.
A woman who lives close to the school says she was spooked when she started hearing the noises.
“I was really scared when I started hearing the screams. I was even too scared to go outside,” the woman who chooses to remain anonymous said.
In a local community WhatsApp group people were asking spiritual leaders to rush to the school to pray for the children, as they thought the children were possessed by demons.
It got so bad that the school was closed.
Bronagh Hammond from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) confirmed the incidents.
“The incidents are allegedly in reaction to a spiritual/ancestral calling. Learners report to feel ill or faint. In all cases the WCED has provided counselling support to the schools,” says Hammond.
Hammond says this is not the only time this has happened in the province.
“As a result of these and other similar events occurring in the Western Cape, we engaged with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport and the Traditional Healers Organisation of the Western Cape this week to discuss these events and the management of them in our schools. Further discussions are to take place bringing in other religious organisations as well,” she says.
Other incidents of the so-called “ancestral callings” were also reported earlier this year at Immaculata Girls High School in Wynberg and Portland Secondary School in Mitchells Plain.
