Concerned parents rushed to a Mitchells Plain school on Thursday after a voice note started circulating about pupils collapsing.
Mense queued outside Summerdale High in Lentegeur to fetch their laaities.
When the Daily Voice arrived, it was revealed that a group of learners had a spiritual reaction to an ancestral calling.
Black girls were apparently sprawling on the floor, shouting and screaming that the ancestors were talking to them. Two lit a candle which scared the others.
A worried parent says she heard about the incident in a community chat group and rushed to the school.
“Not to sound racist but we cannot trust it because we do not know where it comes from,” the parent says.
“If we do not understand that part of their culture as parents, how do we expect our kids to understand what is happening?
“There was no educator to help the learners understand.”
A girl says she phoned her dad to fetch her because she was bang.
“One of the girls looked like she fainted and was going on and shouting, it was like she was talking in tongues,” she says.
Millicent Merton, a spokesperson for the Western Cape Education Department, says: “As a result of other similar events occurring in the Western Cape, the WCED has engaged with the department of cultural affairs and sport for a broader discussion on this and the management of it in our schools. The incident was allegedly in reaction to a spiritual/ancestral calling.
“One learner was affected and her classmates were initially confused about what was happening.
“Teachers who dealt with similar events in the past, explained the situation to the learners and managed to restore calm.”
There’s been several reports of pupils getting ancestral callings at schools throughout South Africa this year.
In March, a Wynberg school was evacuated when pupils fell ill after receiving a calling from their ancestors, sparking panic among parents.
Immaculata Girls’ High was the second Kaapse school to report an incident where pupils have fallen violently ill and classes have been disrupted, the WCED confirmed.
The same thing happened at Portlands High a week earlier.
An ancestral calling happens when the ancestors call on an individual to become a sangoma or a diviner.
marsha.dean@inl.co.za