Book review 6: Brutal School Ties, The Parktown Boys’ Tragedy Sam Cowen

For months, I have struggled to finish reading Sam Cowen’s Brutal School Ties. The book is beautifully written,  yet the information it contains is deeply difficult to process. 

When I was still a High School learner, I used the local Metro Bus as my daily form of transportation. On the bus, learners from various schools would often see the boys from Parktown Boys’ looking “prim and proper”.  Even after school, their shirts remained neatly tucked in and their blazers buttoned. 

Curiosity led us to ask why the boys from Parktown always looked so put together even after school hours. Their answer was simple: it was part of their school culture and their responsibility to uphold the school’s  values even outside the school gates.

Parktown Boy’s High School has long been believed to represent strong traditions and spirited values for  its learners. 

Personally, I  witnessed that sense of spirited tradition. 

As a teenager, I was fascinated by how these boys carried themselves and interacted with others. In some ways, I even envied the sense of identity their school appeared to cultivate. I yearned to be part of a school with such visible spirit and pride.

But looking back now, I realise it may have simply been a phase, an attraction of what we would today call “aesthetics and vibes”. After all, I was also attending a former model C school with a  powerful motto of its own: Carpe viam–seize the road.  I  too, had my own journey to seize. 

Every learner follows a path and unfortunately some parts of that path can be tragic.

In September 2018, Collan Rex a former water polo coach at Parktown High Boys’ was found guilty of 144 charges of sexual assault and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Rex abused his authority, manipulating and silencing boys who trusted him. Many of the victims were left emotionally and psychologically scarred. 

In disturbing ways, aspects of harmful behaviour were normalised under the guise of tradition and culture–perpetuating cycles of silence and abuse.

This book calls on parents, teachers and school leaders to interrogate what we truly mean when we celebrate “spirited school culture”. Because sometimes, what we labelled as tradition may conceal subtle forms of oppression. 

Not every culture deserves preservation. Some practices must be questioned, challenged and ultimately abandoned. Especially when they compromise the safety and dignity of learners.

Brutal School Ties raises urgent questions about culture, safety and justice within South Africa’s school system.

Book 6 of 2026

Tragic and insightful.

Phiwe Mncwabe is a pan-African storyteller, blogger and founder of Botlhale Hub Afrika.

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