VEREENIGING. – All schools with inappropriate names that tend to glorify apartheid have until September this year to change their names.This was recently revealed by Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.
Some learners and parents wait with bated breath to learn which schools are to be affected by the name changes.
Lesufi indicated that in the new dispensation, names that glorify apartheid must go.
The department says the schools should not close shop, but should come up with better names. “Their emblems portray racial emblems and domination is not allowed.” He said, adding that certain schools with offensive names had to voluntarily change.
“Schools with names that are insulting have to toe the line.”
Schools that might be affected in Sedibeng include General Smuts High School and Vryheidmonument Primary (Vereeniging), Totius Primary, Carel de Wet High, DF Malherbe, Frikkie Meyer, Hendrik van der Bijl (Vanderbijlpark), Dr Malan (Meyerton).
Most of these schools were established during the 1950s and 60s.
The demand for name changes did nog go down well – especially with former learners. They retorted that the government would soon insist that people change their Afrikaans surnames.
“There are many things the government could focus on.
It started with the changing of street names, followed by removal of statues. Now it’s the schools,” said Daniel Dick Botha, a former learner at Hendrik vanderBijl.
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