19 January 2020
The burning of Kutlo-Tharo Secondary School in the Vaal this week is indicative of a broader societal malaise – black people’s antipathy towards their own education. We are concerned about the burning of the administration block not for its sake, but what it represents.
One of the important arsenals of the apartheid regime against black people was the purposeful denial of academic opportunity because of how this would expedite the mental liberation necessary for the attainment of freedom.
Apartheid architect Hendrick Verwoerd’s infamous words that Africans were meant to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” who must not be allowed to learn mathematics must never be forgotten.
In the milieu, it is heartbreaking to see some African adults setting books meant to mentally stimulate and grow the minds of young African children alight – for whatever reason. This can never be countenanced.
By implication, it means black people no longer need a deranged being like Verwoerd to deny them education because they do this willingly to themselves. And this, regrettably, is not phenomena limited to the Vaal or Gauteng.
In the same week that Kutlo-Tharo was up in smoke, pupils at Zingisa Intermediate School in Kimberley, Northern Cape, arrived to an admin block on fire with textbooks, equipment and furniture reduced to rubble. In Kuruman, in the same province, parents blocked access to 54 schools in 2014 and burnt infrastructure simply because they wanted a tarred road. In Vhembe, Limpopo, parents burnt down schools because they were unhappy with a demarcation decision. In KwaZulu-Natal, pupils burnt down their school after getting low marks at Zwelinjani Secondary in Durban.
To say this aversion to education by some black people is anathema to the development of our country is to state the obvious. We also wish not to create the false impression that this malady afflicts a majority of black people. Far from it. We know many teachers, parents, education officials, volunteers and philanthropists who give of more than could be expected from individuals to ensure the success of black children. Their actions make Verwoerd turn, as he must, in his grave.
At the same time, we will not sheepishly say to perpetrators “stop it” because they ought rightly to know that their actions must stop. But the question is why in so many areas, so many people, especially parents, believe there is wisdom in doing to their children what Verwoerd did to those who came before us?
Whatever grievance there might be against any organ of state or leader, denying children education is treasonous – especially given the innumerable challenges we face in our country. For many of these pupils, education is the only opportunity to escape the ignominy brought about by poverty.
While police must arrest and ensure successful prosecution of the suspects, we have learnt from Steve Biko that undoing the legacy of Verwoerd specifically, and the mental liberation of formerly oppressed people generally, is something that will take time. We are horrified and impatient, though.
The burning of Kutlo-Tharo represents a type of self-hate that we must eliminate expeditiously.
