Page 66 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

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The roots of apartheid in education were firmly planted between 1890 and 1905. The earlier

date marked a growing awareness of the existence of ‘poor whites’, marginalised by uneven
capitalist development, who were largely located in small villages, rural areas and on the

fringes of growing towns and cities, and whose language was predominantly emergent

Afrikaans. The latter date witnessed the passage of the School Board Act which, coupled with
Provincial funding of education after 1910, had as its primary objective the provision of

compulsory, free elementary education in ‘Public Schools’ for ‘European‘ children. This

process was clearly facilitated in 1890s by the cosy arrangement between the Cape Premier C.
J. Rhodes and the Afrikaner Bond, whereby Rhodes agreed to boost the ‘European’

educational expenditure significantly as a quid pro quo for support from the Bond for his

imperial schemes.

There were clearly many ‘European’ communities which anticipated these developments and

took the initiative by excluding or removing ‘Coloured’ children from their ‘public Schools’
before the law required them to do this. Kalk Bay Third Class Public School (Kalk Bay

Primary) was amongst these. Once local funding had been secured for new premises for the

school in 1900, one of the first steps taken by the new committee was to rule that the
‘Coloured’ children, despite the fact that they had been in the majority at times, should be

removed from the roll.

It is ironic to note that the only significant resistance to this measure came from the Dutch

Reformed Church, whose representative in the new committee resigned on principle, as the

excluded children were to be denied an education. Dominee van Lingen’s observation in
February 1900 that none of his ‘Coloured’ congregants had appeared at the communion table

in the quarter following the election of the new school committee suggests that elements in

his flock were unhappy with the new arrangement. Attempts by van Lingen to start a school
for the excluded in the former premises came to nothing when no children appeared. Growth

in the rolls of the mission schools in 1901 suggests what became of them.

With the passage of time there was clearly resistance from the mission schools to attempt to

remove their ‘European’ children. Surely this resistance had more to do with the fear that fees
paid by the more affluent would be lost than with higher altruistic motives?