South African school in ‘satanic artwork’ row

A South African Christian school has come under fire for exhibiting artwork at the institution that is considered “satanic” and blasphemous to the Christian faith.

The display which is reportedly the work of a student at Grantleigh High School in Richard Bays town, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, featured sacrilegious drawings of Jesus and other Biblical references.

It also had a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper with dollar signs on the lintel behind Jesus and torn pages from the Bible placed on the torso of a horned sculpture.

Local Pastor Andrew Anderson, a parent at the school, filmed the artwork and shared it with news site News24.

The video has also been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.

In the video Pastor Anderson, who is visibly angry, says that pages of Bible had been torn up as part of the art work.

“My God is no clown, my God is almighty and I love him, we need to stand up strong against these things. I want you to share this video to many people and show them what our schools are standing for”, he said it was “a disgrace” for the school to allow the exhibition.

Grantleigh High School, which identifies as a Christian school, is part of a South African company called Curro that operates 59 private secondary schools and 158 primary schools in South Africa and Namibia.

A representative of the school told news site Parent24 that the art work created by “a learner” had been uploaded without the school’s consent but it had to be understood within the context of the assigned theme.

A statement from the representative said:

Quote Message: Curro are cognisant of the allegations made on social media and the matter is currently subject to an internal investigation.
Curro are cognisant of the allegations made on social media and the matter is currently subject to an internal investigation.

Quote Message: Curro reiterates that comments made about the school, the artwork and the learner are not an accurate reflection of our school and the situation referred to.”

Curro reiterates that comments made about the school, the artwork and the learner are not an accurate reflection of our school and the situation referred to.”