South Africa Schools

Magiliweni Alson Matukane suddenly twisted around in the passenger seat and pointed out the car's rear window. "Did you see the car following us?" the 43-year-old black engineer asked nervously. The vehicle, if it really was chasing him, turned at the corner and Matukane added softly: "It's always scary. You never know. We still have the old South Africa here." His fear is real.

Not so long ago, Keneilwe Mampe would walk the seven miles to and from school because her single mother couldn't afford the bus fare: less than 5 cents a day. With little money for lunch, the teen frequently studied on an empty stomach. Her tuition often was paid late--or not at all. There were doubts that Keneilwe, 15, an academic award winner at Dr. Beyers Naude Secondary School in this sprawling black township outside Johannesburg, would be able to enroll this year.

On those rare days this year when Soweto's teachers haven't been on strike or the pupils boycotting school, Fundi Vabaza has tried to teach business economics to 80 black youngsters squeezed into 30 desks in a classroom without an overhead projector or even a textbook. Here at Lamula High School, Vabaza says, "You have to bank on their imagination."

When Betsy Stelck visited South Africa with her husband in 1965, it was a country of contrasts, a racially divided nation where black children were routinely denied the educational opportunities provided to whites. Thirty-one years later, the veteran educator returned to the post-apartheid nation not as a tourist but a participant in a summit designed to improve the state of South African education.

Sixteen black children, freshly scrubbed and in prim new uniforms, marched nervously past riot police and a fence topped with razor wire here Thursday to desegregate a public primary school, smashing a racial barrier that has stood for more than a century. The Potgietersrus Primary School was nearly empty, however, because most of its approximately 700 white students stayed home.

When Betsy Stelck visited South Africa with her husband in 1965, it was a country of contrasts, a racially divided nation where black children were routinely denied the educational opportunities provided to whites. Thirty-one years later, the veteran educator returned to the post-apartheid nation not as a tourist but a participant in a summit designed to improve the state of South African education.

In its biggest effort yet to improve black living standards, the South African government announced plans Monday for more than $550 million in new housing, schools and other community facilities in strife-torn Natal province.

African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and South African President Frederik W. de Klerk agreed in Cape Town that the country's segregated school system needs a radical overhaul. They also agreed to form a joint committee to work toward equal education. The committee is expected to make recommendations within six weeks.

Police fired birdshot and tear gas and used whips Monday in running battles with hundreds of student protesters, both blacks and whites, at the University of Cape Town. It was believed to be the first clash in which police fired guns to control rioting at a predominantly white school, and it was one of the most violent campus disturbances since a national state of emergency was declared in June, 1986.

A former whites-only school that was forced to admit blacks has suspended plans to fight the decision in South Africa's highest court. "There's a formal withdrawal before the judges. The case will not proceed," Constitutional Court Registrar Martie Nienhaber said Monday.

A South African school fighting to keep apartheid education alive has been granted a temporary court order to continue separate teaching of white pupils, the school's governing body said. A magistrate in Potgietersrus, 155 miles north of Johannesburg, has ruled that white pupils may temporarily be taught in a hostel of the former whites-only primary school.

A former whites-only school that was forced to admit blacks has suspended plans to fight the decision in South Africa's highest court. "There's a formal withdrawal before the judges. The case will not proceed," Constitutional Court Registrar Martie Nienhaber said Monday.

Sixteen black children, freshly scrubbed and in prim new uniforms, marched nervously past riot police and a fence topped with razor wire here Thursday to desegregate a public primary school, smashing a racial barrier that has stood for more than a century. The Potgietersrus Primary School was nearly empty, however, because most of its approximately 700 white students stayed home.

Magiliweni Alson Matukane suddenly twisted around in the passenger seat and pointed out the car's rear window. "Did you see the car following us?" the 43-year-old black engineer asked nervously. The vehicle, if it really was chasing him, turned at the corner and Matukane added softly: "It's always scary. You never know. We still have the old South Africa here." His fear is real.

In an echo of the United States' civil rights struggle, a South African Supreme Court judge Friday ordered an all-white public school in a conservative rural community to admit black children whom the school had tried to prevent from enrolling.

Armed with clubs and leashed dogs, white protesters tried to stop black students from attending a high school in their neighborhood Wednesday but were pushed back by riot police. It was the first major confrontation over South Africa's new education policy, which allows black students to attend school with white students as well as use any underutilized schools in white areas.

A South African school fighting to keep apartheid education alive has been granted a temporary court order to continue separate teaching of white pupils, the school's governing body said. A magistrate in Potgietersrus, 155 miles north of Johannesburg, has ruled that white pupils may temporarily be taught in a hostel of the former whites-only primary school.

Every weekday morning, thousands of Johannesburg's black children climb into buses and taxis to go to segregated schools in black townships up to 40 miles away. Under South Africa's apartheid race policies, the children are not allowed to attend the "whites-only" schools of Johannesburg, which, like other South African cities, has no state-run schools for the country's black majority. Strictly speaking, the pupils are not even supposed to live in Johannesburg.

School spirit may be the only thing intact at Morris Isaacson High School, a cradle of South Africa's long freedom struggle. The dusty cluster of brick barracks, where black students led the famed 1976 Soweto uprising that launched the battle against apartheid, has few books or chalkboards. Vandals have broken most of the windows, ripped out the light fixtures and punched gaping holes in the walls and ceilings. "Even if we don't have windows and doors, we try," says teacher Thabo Mohlabai.

African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and South African President Frederik W. de Klerk agreed in Cape Town that the country's segregated school system needs a radical overhaul. They also agreed to form a joint committee to work toward equal education. The committee is expected to make recommendations within six weeks.