New name for Hoërskool HF Verwoerd
‘Move towards a more inclusive SA’
built the original Sling plane series.
Using specially modified, self-made drones, the challenge will be documented on video.
Six teenage pilots will take turns to fly the plane as the challenge moves from country to country. RIETONDALE Secondary School… remember the name. This is the new name of what was until this week known as Hoërskool Hendrik Verwoerd.
The Pretoria school had been named after Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, a politician, sociologist, journalist and leader of the now defunct National Party, who served as the last prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1958 until 1961. He was also prime minister of what had then become the Republic of South Africa when he was stabbed to death in Parliament on September 6, 1966 by Dimitri Tsafendas.
Verwoerd is referred to as the architect of apartheid, and thus the name of the school had for years been deemed oppressive and exclusive to some pupils, past and present.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi announced that the three-year process of the school name change had finally yielded positive results.
“My mission in this world is to reverse everything this man called Verwoerd has done to our education system. Other names like Jan Smuts will also fall,” Lesufi said.
School governing body chairperson Olga Veldsman said management and parents avoided opting for a new name that would driven.
“The name Rietondale Secondary School managed to score many votes as opposed to Deerness High School and Aloe High School, which were among the names proposed in the name-changing process of Hoërskool HF Verwoerd,” she said.
Veldsman added: “It is time for a change; it has been a long time coming, and I think it will be like a breath of fresh air.
“The learners are very excited. We tried to unite and collaborate our decision-making with the Department of Education, the community and learners so that everybody felt included about the outcome of the new name,” Veldsman said.
However, she mentioned that it was imperative for everyone to know that only the name of the school was changing, the emblem would remain the same and nothing else would change.
Lesufi’s spokesperson Steve Mabona emphasised that the department was not targeting Afrikaans schools and would not be dictating what must happen.
“We advocate for social cohesion; we do not want Afrikaans schools to feel victimised. Everyone should perceive this move as a progressive step towards a more inclusive South Africa,” he said.
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