Where It All Began

South African schools – a very different national monument to visit

One of the most inspiring things about South Africa is how the oppression of apartheid was overthrown to make way for democracy: but this was not just the ANC’s or Mandela’s achievement.

Across South Africa, the struggle was real and daily, not least in the school classrooms of Cape Town. Students and teaches organised boycotts of the curriculum and mass protests as forced evictions. Some of these schools were so pivotal in the resistance to apartheid that they have now been declared National Heritage sites.

One of them which can you visit (using your excellent connections with Where It All Began, of course!) is the Harold Cressy High School in District Six.

Still a very active school today, and pulling no punches in its politics, it was in the period of forced removals (between 1967 and 1985) that the head teacher, Helen Kies, was arrested and tortured apparently for organising a student protest.

The school gets excellent results and has a very broad demographic in its intake. Long-term Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is an alumnis.

We’re very proud at Where It All Began to offer a full scholarship to a black female student at this school – it costs R5 900 a year ($393.33 – £310.53 – €421.43).