Principal allegedly behind bigoted Facebook posts moves to new Cape Town school

George Gueorguiev, the Kommetjie Primary School principal who was removed from his post following Daily Maverick’s September 2025 reporting on an alleged Facebook account of Gueorguiev’s that posted disturbing content, has been transferred to another Cape Town government school.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) told Daily Maverick this week that its disciplinary process against Gueorguiev had concluded — without providing details of its findings, the omission of which it justified in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

“The sanction resulted in the transfer of the employee to a deputy principal post at Simon’s Town School,” said spokesperson Bronagh Hammond. “A curator principal has been employed at Kommetjie Primary School.”

The outcome has shocked Kommetjie parents who spent years — initially fruitlessly — raising concerns about Gueorguiev’s leadership and his alleged online conduct.

As Daily Maverick has reported, parents discovered a Facebook account in the name of “George Yankov” in March 2025 — linked to Gueorguiev through his profile photograph, a matching banner image, and a private email address Gueorguiev was known to use.

The account contained dozens of posts expressing racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-Muslim sentiment.

The account also featured a photograph of a room stocked with assault rifles and ammunition.

Gueorguiev claimed the account was either fake or had been hacked. The WCED said at the time that a criminal investigation was required before disciplinary proceedings could be finalised.

That process has now seemingly concluded — with Gueorguiev retaining his departmental employment and moving to a different school community.

A historic school, a new problem

Simon’s Town School, where Gueorguiev has now been placed, was founded in 1815 and is the oldest school in the Cape Peninsula. It is a combined school, catering for learners from Grade R through to Grade 12, and houses approximately 1,080 learners.

While catering for many disadvantaged learners drawn from Cape Town’s townships, the school in recent years has produced matric results well above the provincial average, with its 2025 matric pass rate sitting at 96,1%.

It is, in other words, a large, historically significant school with hundreds of young learners across all age groups.

Telephone messages left on Thursday for the school principal, Lucresia Harrison, had not been returned at the time of publication. It is unclear whether Simon’s Town School or its school governing body (SGB) were made aware of Gueorguiev’s recent history before his arrival.

Gueorguiev does not appear on the school’s website, where staff members are listed.

‘The burden has simply been transferred’

Jeremy Bristow-Bovey, a parent and former SGB member at Kommetjie Primary who resigned from the governing body in protest over the department’s inaction, wrote directly to the principal and SGB of Simon’s Town School on Thursday to warn them of what he describes as a 7½-year pattern of concern.

“The WCED was sufficiently concerned to remove Mr Gueorguiev permanently from Kommetjie Primary School,” Bristow-Bovey wrote in the email.

“I find it difficult to understand why, in those circumstances, he would now be placed in another school community. It creates the impression that the burden of managing these risks has simply been transferred from one school to another.”

Bristow-Bovey’s email set out a litany of concerns long preceding the Facebook controversy.

He wrote that during Gueorguiev’s tenure at Kommetjie Primary, the school experienced the resignations of its Admissions Committee, its School Management Team, an SGB chairperson and at least one teacher, which those involved attributed directly to Gueorguiev’s leadership and conduct.

An SGB vote of no confidence in Gueorguiev’s leadership was passed in December 2023, following years of attempts to resolve matters through other channels. The WCED previously told Daily Maverick that only the provincial education department can dismiss educators.

The situation escalated further in August 2024, Bristow-Bovey wrote, when Gueorguiev filed a report of child abuse against a teacher who had called him to a classroom to assist with an unruly learner.

The WCED ultimately determined, more than six months later, that no abuse had occurred. The episode proved a turning point: 12 staff members subsequently submitted a formal letter to the SGB titled “Concerns Regarding the School Principal’s Leadership and Staff Wellness” as an act of collective dissent.

Bristow-Bovey acknowledged in his letter to Simon’s Town School that his account might be unwelcome.

“I recognise that people can change, and do not write this lightly,” he wrote. “However, in the seven and a half years during which I dealt with Mr Gueorguiev in the school context, I did not see the level of contrition, reflection or constructive change that would reassure me. Kommetjie Primary School still pays a considerable price for that.”

Bristow-Bovey concluded: “My concern is for the wellbeing of the learners, staff and wider school community at Simon’s Town School. I urge you, together with the WCED, to consider carefully whether this appointment is in their best interests.”

Unanswered questions

Part of the confusion of Kommetjie parents stems from the lack of transparency with which the WCED has communicated on this matter.

When Gueorguiev was removed from Kommetjie Primary in late September 2025, parents were informed that he was on “sick leave” — though the WCED told Daily Maverick at the time that this had no bearing on the department’s investigation or disciplinary process.

“That matter is near conclusion,” Hammond told Daily Maverick at that point.

Now the department has cited privacy laws to justify not revealing the outcome of the investigation or disciplinary process — but its use of the word “sanction”, in explaining Gueorguiev’s transfer, suggests that some level of wrongdoing was established.

A transfer to another school, however, does not seem to be explicitly cited among the sanctions prescribed by the Employment of Educators Act.

Section 18(3) of the Act sets out the full range of available sanctions in misconduct cases. These are, in ascending order of severity: counselling; a verbal warning; a written warning; a final written warning; a fine not exceeding one month’s salary; suspension without pay for a period not exceeding three months; demotion; a combination of those sanctions; or dismissal, if the nature or extent of the misconduct warrants it.

Transfer does not appear on that list, although the fact that Gueorguiev is now in a deputy principal position at a different school may constitute a “demotion” as envisaged by the Act.

The WCED has not explained on what legal basis the transfer was effected, and a follow-up question from Daily Maverick as to whether transfers in this kind of situation are common practice went unanswered.

The 2016 Department of Education standards for principals stipulate that disciplinary proceedings be concluded in the shortest possible time frame. In this case, the first complaint about Gueorguiev was lodged with the WCED more than five years before the disciplinary process concluded.

Attempts to reach Gueorguiev on Thursday were unsuccessful. In his previous communication with Daily Maverick, Gueorguiev said he was not permitted to speak to the media on matters that might “disrepute the school and/or the department’s name”. DM