Question 1 (10)
With reference to the statement cited from HF Verwoerd, critically discuss the aims of the Bantu Education
Act (1953).
The NP government believed that tribes and nations should bedistinguished and separated from each other,
so that each national unit had its own cultural identity (Seroto, 1999:87). People were classified into different
racial groups according to the notion of ‘culture’ and then further divided into urban and rural communities.
In a nutshell, the aimsof Bantu education were to:
Retain white political and economic domination
Maintain white subordination of black people
Use separate development ideology to sustain separate identities of different racial groups
Direct education towards the needs of the black population as stipulated by differentiated and
discriminatory legislation
Use differentiated education systems to justify unequal treatment of different racial groups.
(Cameron, 1991:35–39; Hyslop, 1990:203; Kutoane & Kruger, 1990:8; Murphy, 1973:136; Shingler
1973:278–290; Wolpe & Unterhalter, 1991:4).
Question 2 (10)
Explain how the National Party government employed ethnicity to foster separate black identities in South
Africa during the implementation of the CNE policy. (Page 100)
The idea of Afrikaners pushing segregation through the CNE strategy is eerily similar to the apartheid
scheme. CNE was employed by Afrikaners to keep the volk (nation) educated along Christian National lines
under the apartheid state, whereas CNE was concerned with defining black people based on white
hegemony. The CNE not only domesticated Africans, but also brainwashed them. 'Veld schools' and youth
programs were established to disguise the motive for utilizing educational programs to indoctrinate white
youngsters. In the Transvaal, veld schools were founded for physical and moral education (Christie,
1991:185). White lads were removed from their typical surroundings and placed in an unfamiliar rural
situation. Learners in Standard 5 (Grade 7) and Standard 6 (Grade 8) attended veld schools. Over Africans,
a racist legacy that plagues South Africa even in the democratic period.
In line with the National Education Policy Act No. 39 of 1967, the NP administration implemented a
program in1972.The Youth Preparedness Programme is a name given to white schools. This initiative was
made possible with the assistance of the South African Defense Force. The government created this
initiative because it considered that high-profile officials in the Transvaal Education Department faced
threats and utter attack. The Youth Preparedness Programme curriculum included emergency preparation,
firefighting, drill and marching, shooting and self-defense, career assistance, and moral preparedness.
The CNE ideology had a bearing on the Bantu Education Act No. 47 of 1953, the National Education Policy
Act No. 39 of 1967, the Colored Persons Education Act No. 47 of 1963 and the Indian Education Act of
1965.
Question 3 (10)
Evaluate and critically discuss the strategy of white supremacy as an integral part of Bantu Education during
the apartheid era.
The race-obsessed white people in South Africa refused to recognize Africans as part of the South African
state because they feared a black majority government until up to 1994. For these reasons, Africans, more
than other black people, had to be subjugated in the harshest terms to be in the service of white people. To
this end, amongst other discriminatory legislation, the Bantu Education Act of 1953 was promulgated.
Within a few years of taking power in 1948, the NP government established the Eiselen Commission, who
e terms of reference were rooted in CNE. It was found that the needs of black education were different from
those of white people (Union of South Africa, 1951:part1). The recommendations of this commission
culminated in the 1953 Bantu Education Act.
The Eiselen Commission, whose report preceded the Bantu Education Act of 1953, became the
cornerstone of the apartheid education legislation. The report under chairpersonship of Dr WWM Eiselen,
, provided a comprehensive picture of Bantu education. Kross (1996:326) mentions that the Eiselen Report
was a crude document that was concerned with hobbling Africans and keeping them in an, inferiors' status
on the margins of white society. The Eiselen Commission essentially laid out the philosophic and
organizational foundations for the much-affronted Bantu Education Act of 1953
(Soudien, 2005:42).
The Eiselen Commission established a philosophic and organizational footing for the introduction of the
Bantu Education Act of 1953, the blueprint for the introduction of apartheid education. The terms of
reference for the Eiselen Commission (Union of South Africa, 1951:181) were:
The formulation of the principles and aims of education for Natives as an independent race, in which their
past and present, their inherent racial qualities, their distinctive characteristics and aptitude, and their
needs under the ever-changing social conditions are taken into consideration;
The extent to which the existing primary, secondary and vocational educational system for Natives, and
the training for Native teachers should be modified in respect of the contents and form of syllabuses, in
order to conform to the proposed principles and aims, and to prepare Natives more effectively for their
future occupations;
The organization and administration of the various branches of Native education;
The basis on which such education should be financed;
The commission said that the state should control and co-ordinate every facet of African education. A
newly constituted branch called the Division of Bantu Affairs was to be established. The commission
recommended that black African people should be involved in the education of their children. To do this,
the commission suggested that Bantu local authorities be created (Union of South Africa, 1951: part 133).
These local authorities would eventually assume local control of schools.
When the NP ascended to power in 1948, its leader, Dr Malan, articulated that it was not advisable for
Europeans to follow a course of equality, which would eventually mean national suicide for the white race:
The party advocated the view that the country must take the course of separation (apartheid) through which
the character and the future of every race will be protected and safeguarded (United Nations, 1952:139-
140). Fleisch (2002) posits the presence of unmistakable traces of Christian nationalism thought throughout
the submission and writing of the report.
African schools for black people were state-aided mission schools. The Bantu Education Act, as
recommended in the Eiselen Commission, demanded that mission schools register with the state. Control
of black education was removed from the mission institutions and provincial authorities and transferred to
Department of Native Affairs (DNA), under the leadership of Hendrik Verwoerd, who was now in control.
In 1958, black schooling was removed from the DNA and transferred to the Department of Bantu
Education. Almost all the mission schools closed down except the schools of the Roman Catholic Church
and the 5 Seventh Day Adventists, which insisted on providing education to black learners without state
aid. Dubow (2014:55) argues that the 'clearest signal of the government's intention to subordinate Africans
was the
Bantu Education Act of 1953' and the intention of the Act was to 'suffocate independent thought and crush
the aspirations' of Africans.
Question 4 (10)
Critically discuss the role of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) and the Black People’s
Convention (BPC) prior to the 1976 National Student uprising that precipitated the fall of apartheid in 1994.
The major cause for the uprising on 16 June 1976 (June 16, as it became known) was opposition to a
decree issued by the Bantu Education Department, which imposed Afrikaans as the medium of instruction
in half the subjects in higher primary and secondary schools. Learners viewed Afrikaans as the language
of the oppressor. Numerous other factors contributed to the Soweto uprising. Workers began striking in large
numbers in 1973 and 1974, demanding recognition of their worker organizations. Economic recession and
the shrinking of opportunities for educated black people contributed to this uprising. The role of the Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM) cannot be ignored (Bloch, 2009:48). The BCM under the leadership of
the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) and the Black People’s Convention (BPC) led a new
militancy at universities and resisted education for graduates in the homelands. In 1973, university students
at numerous apartheid universities rejected apartheid education by staging a walk-off from campuses. The
With reference to the statement cited from HF Verwoerd, critically discuss the aims of the Bantu Education
Act (1953).
The NP government believed that tribes and nations should bedistinguished and separated from each other,
so that each national unit had its own cultural identity (Seroto, 1999:87). People were classified into different
racial groups according to the notion of ‘culture’ and then further divided into urban and rural communities.
In a nutshell, the aimsof Bantu education were to:
Retain white political and economic domination
Maintain white subordination of black people
Use separate development ideology to sustain separate identities of different racial groups
Direct education towards the needs of the black population as stipulated by differentiated and
discriminatory legislation
Use differentiated education systems to justify unequal treatment of different racial groups.
(Cameron, 1991:35–39; Hyslop, 1990:203; Kutoane & Kruger, 1990:8; Murphy, 1973:136; Shingler
1973:278–290; Wolpe & Unterhalter, 1991:4).
Question 2 (10)
Explain how the National Party government employed ethnicity to foster separate black identities in South
Africa during the implementation of the CNE policy. (Page 100)
The idea of Afrikaners pushing segregation through the CNE strategy is eerily similar to the apartheid
scheme. CNE was employed by Afrikaners to keep the volk (nation) educated along Christian National lines
under the apartheid state, whereas CNE was concerned with defining black people based on white
hegemony. The CNE not only domesticated Africans, but also brainwashed them. 'Veld schools' and youth
programs were established to disguise the motive for utilizing educational programs to indoctrinate white
youngsters. In the Transvaal, veld schools were founded for physical and moral education (Christie,
1991:185). White lads were removed from their typical surroundings and placed in an unfamiliar rural
situation. Learners in Standard 5 (Grade 7) and Standard 6 (Grade 8) attended veld schools. Over Africans,
a racist legacy that plagues South Africa even in the democratic period.
In line with the National Education Policy Act No. 39 of 1967, the NP administration implemented a
program in1972.The Youth Preparedness Programme is a name given to white schools. This initiative was
made possible with the assistance of the South African Defense Force. The government created this
initiative because it considered that high-profile officials in the Transvaal Education Department faced
threats and utter attack. The Youth Preparedness Programme curriculum included emergency preparation,
firefighting, drill and marching, shooting and self-defense, career assistance, and moral preparedness.
The CNE ideology had a bearing on the Bantu Education Act No. 47 of 1953, the National Education Policy
Act No. 39 of 1967, the Colored Persons Education Act No. 47 of 1963 and the Indian Education Act of
1965.
Question 3 (10)
Evaluate and critically discuss the strategy of white supremacy as an integral part of Bantu Education during
the apartheid era.
The race-obsessed white people in South Africa refused to recognize Africans as part of the South African
state because they feared a black majority government until up to 1994. For these reasons, Africans, more
than other black people, had to be subjugated in the harshest terms to be in the service of white people. To
this end, amongst other discriminatory legislation, the Bantu Education Act of 1953 was promulgated.
Within a few years of taking power in 1948, the NP government established the Eiselen Commission, who
e terms of reference were rooted in CNE. It was found that the needs of black education were different from
those of white people (Union of South Africa, 1951:part1). The recommendations of this commission
culminated in the 1953 Bantu Education Act.
The Eiselen Commission, whose report preceded the Bantu Education Act of 1953, became the
cornerstone of the apartheid education legislation. The report under chairpersonship of Dr WWM Eiselen,
, provided a comprehensive picture of Bantu education. Kross (1996:326) mentions that the Eiselen Report
was a crude document that was concerned with hobbling Africans and keeping them in an, inferiors' status
on the margins of white society. The Eiselen Commission essentially laid out the philosophic and
organizational foundations for the much-affronted Bantu Education Act of 1953
(Soudien, 2005:42).
The Eiselen Commission established a philosophic and organizational footing for the introduction of the
Bantu Education Act of 1953, the blueprint for the introduction of apartheid education. The terms of
reference for the Eiselen Commission (Union of South Africa, 1951:181) were:
The formulation of the principles and aims of education for Natives as an independent race, in which their
past and present, their inherent racial qualities, their distinctive characteristics and aptitude, and their
needs under the ever-changing social conditions are taken into consideration;
The extent to which the existing primary, secondary and vocational educational system for Natives, and
the training for Native teachers should be modified in respect of the contents and form of syllabuses, in
order to conform to the proposed principles and aims, and to prepare Natives more effectively for their
future occupations;
The organization and administration of the various branches of Native education;
The basis on which such education should be financed;
The commission said that the state should control and co-ordinate every facet of African education. A
newly constituted branch called the Division of Bantu Affairs was to be established. The commission
recommended that black African people should be involved in the education of their children. To do this,
the commission suggested that Bantu local authorities be created (Union of South Africa, 1951: part 133).
These local authorities would eventually assume local control of schools.
When the NP ascended to power in 1948, its leader, Dr Malan, articulated that it was not advisable for
Europeans to follow a course of equality, which would eventually mean national suicide for the white race:
The party advocated the view that the country must take the course of separation (apartheid) through which
the character and the future of every race will be protected and safeguarded (United Nations, 1952:139-
140). Fleisch (2002) posits the presence of unmistakable traces of Christian nationalism thought throughout
the submission and writing of the report.
African schools for black people were state-aided mission schools. The Bantu Education Act, as
recommended in the Eiselen Commission, demanded that mission schools register with the state. Control
of black education was removed from the mission institutions and provincial authorities and transferred to
Department of Native Affairs (DNA), under the leadership of Hendrik Verwoerd, who was now in control.
In 1958, black schooling was removed from the DNA and transferred to the Department of Bantu
Education. Almost all the mission schools closed down except the schools of the Roman Catholic Church
and the 5 Seventh Day Adventists, which insisted on providing education to black learners without state
aid. Dubow (2014:55) argues that the 'clearest signal of the government's intention to subordinate Africans
was the
Bantu Education Act of 1953' and the intention of the Act was to 'suffocate independent thought and crush
the aspirations' of Africans.
Question 4 (10)
Critically discuss the role of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) and the Black People’s
Convention (BPC) prior to the 1976 National Student uprising that precipitated the fall of apartheid in 1994.
The major cause for the uprising on 16 June 1976 (June 16, as it became known) was opposition to a
decree issued by the Bantu Education Department, which imposed Afrikaans as the medium of instruction
in half the subjects in higher primary and secondary schools. Learners viewed Afrikaans as the language
of the oppressor. Numerous other factors contributed to the Soweto uprising. Workers began striking in large
numbers in 1973 and 1974, demanding recognition of their worker organizations. Economic recession and
the shrinking of opportunities for educated black people contributed to this uprising. The role of the Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM) cannot be ignored (Bloch, 2009:48). The BCM under the leadership of
the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) and the Black People’s Convention (BPC) led a new
militancy at universities and resisted education for graduates in the homelands. In 1973, university students
at numerous apartheid universities rejected apartheid education by staging a walk-off from campuses. The
