Wednesday, 17 April 1658
Jan van Riebeeck, commander at the Cape, wrote in his diary that a school for slaves has been started.
Sick-comforter Pieter van der Stael was the first teacher. To reward pupils (mainly adults) for their presence, they each daily received a glass of brandy and two inches of tobacco.
The aim of the school was to increase the usefulness of the slaves to their owners.
This school was founded by Commander Jan van Riebeeck for the slave children brought to the Cape in the Dutch ship, the Amersfoort, which had captured them off a Portuguese slaver.
A second school, attended by 12 White children, four slaves and one Khoi-Khoi, was opened in 1661.
Wednesday, 17 April 1935
The ‘Suid-Afrikaanse Noodhulpliga’ (SA first-aid organisation) is founded with the following objectives: to show compassion by serving the needs of one’s fellow-men in all spheres of physical welfare; to encourage a spirit of sacrifice; to promote public health by disseminating knowledge.
SESA gives the date as the 16th, but other sources give it as the 17th.
Saturday, 17 April 1954
In an attempt to organise a broad-based and inter-racial women’s organisation, the Federation of South African Women (FSAW or FEDSAW) was launched on 17 April 1954 in Johannesburg.
Ray Simons, who was the brain behind the formation of a women’s organisation, brought together Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi and Amina Cachalia to form a steering committee. The founding conference of this federation was attended by 164 delegates representing 230,000 women from all parts of South Africa.
The leadership of the federation consisted mainly of trade unionists, teachers and nurses.
Although FEDSAW included some individual members, it was primarily composed of affiliated women’s groups, African, Indian, Coloured and White political organisations and trade unions.
During the founding conference the Women’s Charter was drafted. The Charter called for the enfranchisement of men and women of all races; equality of opportunity in employment; equal pay for equal work; equal rights in relation to property, marriage and children; and the removal of all laws and customs that denied women such equality.
On 9 August 1956, FEDSAW organised a march by 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against pass laws.
This march was one of the organisation’s most important campaigns.
Thursday, 17 April 1969
40 year-old Dorothy Fisher was given a new heart in 1969 and became the longest surviving patient.
She lived for 12 years afterwards.
She was South Africa’s fifth heart transplant recipient and the first woman to undergo such an operation.
When she died twelve and a half years later, Dr Chris Barnard, who with his team operated on her, conceded that she had died of “chronic rejection” of her transplanted heart. Only in the middle 1980s did researchers develop cyclosporin, an anti-rejection drug that is still used.
Barnard was fond of Fisher.
She was living proof that, despite foreign tissue rejection, heart transplants did work. Barnard said: “She lived her larger-than-life existence for more than 12 years, a woman in love with life and unafraid.”
Thursday, 17 April 1980
In a historic move, the Union Jack was lowered for the last time in Africa on this day when the embattled ex-British colony of Rhodesia was declared independent and renamed Zimbabwe.
The lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of the new Zimbabwean flag was a symbolic event for the masses.
Prince Charles, representing the Queen, presented the instruments of sovereignty.
Robert Mugabe, the new Prime Minister, spoke of the need for reconciliation between Blacks and Whites and agreed to be part of the Commonwealth countries in the process.
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