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A Report on South Africa's Black Universities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2017

Lysle E. Meyer
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Extract

In 1959, following the recommendations of the Eiselen Commission, the South African government established separate university colleges for the country's three non-white communities. Heretofore, African, Asian, and Coloured students had attended non-white Fort Hare University or certain white institutions, but the Extension of University Education Act of 1959 specifically prohibited racially integrated education except in extraordinary cases approved by the government. There are now five institutions serving these groups: the University of Durban-Westville for Indians, the University of the Western Cape at Belleville for the Coloured community. Fort Hare University, now exclusively for the Xhosa people, the University of Zululand at Ngoye for Zulus and Swazis, and the University of the North at Turfloop in the Transvaal, serving the Sotho groups as well as the Tswana, Tsonga and Venda peoples.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , Fall 1974 , pp. 12 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974 

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References

1 The Commission reported in 1951 and stressed the need for special educational facilities for Blacks as an integral part of a comprehensive scheme for their separate socio-economic development. Muriel, Horrell, Bantu Education to 1968 (Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1968), p. 5.Google Scholar

2 The Universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand and Natal (Durban campus) admitted non-white students, although in the latter institution they attended separate classes. In addition, non-whites could enroll in degree programs through correspondence at the University of South Africa.

3 Republic of South Africa, Department of Information, Education For Success (Pretoria, n.d.), p. 7.

4 Bantu Education Journal, May 1969, p. 256.

5 Kwazulu Executive Council, “Report on a Visit of the Chief Executive Councillor and the Executive Councillors from Kwazulu to Cape Town at the Invitation of the Honorable the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development from the 25th February, 1973 to the 2nd March, 1973,” mimeographed notes, Nongoma, 1973.

6 According to 1972 statistics. Fort Hare had 17 Blacks in a total staff of 108; at Zululand the ratio was 14/94, and the University of the North showed 35/127. Black Review 1972 (Durban, Black Community Programs), 1973, p. 173 and Calendars of the three African universities.

7 Daily News (Durban), 28 May 1971.

8 Ibid.

9 Gqubule, Rev. T.S.N., “Higher Education for Blacks,” SASO Newsletter II (March-April, 1972), p. 14.Google Scholar This opinion was also expressed by a number of Africans teaching at Ngoye and Turfloop.

10 Kogila, Adam, “Dialectic of Higher Education for the Colonized: The Case of Non-White Universities in South Africa,” in Heribert, Adam, ed., South Africa: Sociological Perspectives (London, Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 209.Google Scholar

11 Muriel, Horrell, Bantu Education to 1968 (Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1968), p. 6 Google Scholar; Education for Success, p. 26.

12 In most respects this regrettable state of affairs mirrors the worst aspects of South Africa's general approach to the writing and teaching of history, which is only now slowly being rectified in certain English-medium universities. See Thompson, Leonard M., “South Africa” in Winks, R.W., ed.. The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1966)Google Scholar; Van Jaarsveld, F.A., The Afrikaner's Interpretation of South African History (Capetown: Simondium Publishers Pty. Ltd., 1964)Google Scholar; Eleanor, Hawarden, Prejudice in the Classroom (Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, n.d.).Google Scholar

13 Africa Today xviii (July, 1971), p. 50.

14 David, Welsh, “The Academic Environment” in Van Der Merwe, Hendrik W. and David, Welsh, eds.. Student Perspectives on South Africa (Cape Town: David Philip, 1972), p. 32.Google Scholar

15 Africa South, May 1969, p. 2.

16 The disciplinary code for teachers embraces a multitude of sins, such as “adverse public comments upon the administration of any department of the Government or of any province or of the territory of South-West Africa,” Behr, A.L. and Macmillan, R.G., Education in South Africa (Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik, Ltd., 1966), p. 214.Google Scholar

17 H.W.E. Ntsanwisi, “The Task of the University of the North” in Bantu Education Journal, April, 1961, p. 132.

18 No white children are burdened with three languages in school except by choice. Horrell, Bantu Education, p. 151.

19 Kgware, W.M., Education for Africans (Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1969), p. 9.Google Scholar

20 Foreign visitors on brief tours of the campuses usually receive a different, more favorable impression. See, for example, Ireland, Ralph R., “Education for What?: A Comparison of the Education of Black South Africans and Black Americans,” Journal of NegroEducation XLI (Summer, 1972), p. 235.Google Scholar

21 Interview with J.L. Boshoff, now Rector of the University of the North, 777e Star (Johannesburg), 22 August 1968, quoted in Horrell, Bantu Education, p. 153.

22 Bantu Education Journal, May 1961, p. 312.

23 Kogila Adam, “Dialectic of Higher Education for the Colonized,” p. 203.

24 The University of Fort Hare was founded by missionaries as a “native college” in 1916 and only later came under government control. Its location in the small town of Alice in the eastern Cape gives it a dubious advantage over the other Black universities.

25 University of the North, Rules for Students (Turfloop, 1973), pp. 2-3. The same rules apply at the other African universities.

26 Daily News (Durban), 28 May 1971.

27 University or the North, Rules for Students, p. 4.

28 Interview with W.A. Maree, former Minister of Bantu Education and Development, Daily News (Durban), 9 January 1963.

29 O.R. Tiro, “Bantu Education,” in South African Outlook, July 1972, p. 99.

30 Survey of Race Relations, 1972 pp. 387-394.

31 Clive Nettleton, “Racial Cleavage on the Student Left” in Van Der Merwe and Welsh, eds.. Student Perspectives on South Africa, p. 127.

32 Ibid.

33 Survey of Race Relations, 1972, pp. 338,391; Daily News (Durban), November 14 and 16, 1972.

34 The Star (Johannesburg), 7 June 1972.

35 Survey of Race Relations. 1972, p. 386; SASO Newsletter, Vol. 2 (May-June, 1972), pp. 8-9.

36 Jerry, Modisane, “Why I Walked Off Fort Hare in Protest” in SASO Newsletter, Vol. 2 (May-June, 1972), p. 17.Google Scholar