By Thaakiera Ackerdien
At the foot of Table Mountain, in the former District Six of Cape Town sits Harold Cressy High School. The site of the school has a long history of education. The original building was built in 1925 and was known as the Hewat Training College, the first tertiary education facility for coloured students. The school was founded in 1951, being just a few fabricated buildings behind the college, and changed its name in 1953. It was named after Harold Cressy, who was the first coloured man to gain a degree in South Africa. He was dedicated to improving the education of non-white South Africans.
Harold Cressy, first coloured man to obtain a Bachelors Degree. Source: Wikipedia
When District Six was declared a “white area” in 1966 under the Group Areas Act, the school was put under immense pressure from the government to relocate, along with the rest of the residents of District Six, to the Cape Flats. However, the school refused to move as moving would have “amounted to a surrender to the state’s ideology of classifying them as less than human beings.” By 1982, more than 60 000 of the districts’ residents were forcibly removed and relocated to the Cape Flats with their old homes being bulldozed. The only buildings left being places of worship, a church and a mosque. Redevelopment of the area was difficult due to international and local pressure. Besides the two buildings of worship, most of the area sits vacant and undeveloped with The Cape Technikon (now Cape Peninsula University of Technology) being built on a portion of the area.
Buildings in the District Six area, being flattened by heavy construction machinery (bulldozer); 1960s. Photo: Gallo, source.
With all of the history surrounding the building and the area around it, it comes as no surprise that the school and its pupils were very involved in various forms of protest against the apartheid government, particularly in 1976, 1980 and at its peak in 1985. Following the 1979 Soweto Uprising, students protested in solidarity with those protesting in Soweto against the Bantu Education Act, which enforced racially segregated educational facilities. In 1985 the school rejected the prescribed curriculum and instead focused on teaching students about the struggles for liberation and took to the streets to protest. They acknowledged that educational reform was insufficient and a larger change was needed to reform South African society.
Left to right: Sedick Williams, Amien Fredericks, Helen Kies, Lionel Adriaan, Peter Meyer and Victor Richie, who were presented with ‘Lifetime Commitment to Education’ awards by the Harold Cressy Alumni Association at the Harold Cressy High School 60th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Source
The school took a radical approach and demanded not only an improved education system but full democracy. Their activism resulted in the imprisonment of two of their teachers, as well as the suspension, without pay, of the Chairperson of their PTSA, the principal and six senior teachers. Helen Kies, a then recently retired teacher was imprisoned for a month on the grounds that she was allegedly involved with organizing the boycotts of that year.
Former principal Victor Richie, 90, as well as former vice-principal Sedick Williams, 84, says that they were very supportive of their students and encouraged them to step outside and protest. They explained that their dissatisfaction with white supremacy had started when houses were wrongfully erected opposite their school following the destruction of District Six.
Principal Victor Richie, pictured with students during his tenure. Source: Victor Richie Collection
“The staff and I were in full agreement with the students fighting for their rights, and in no way, would we stop them,” says Williams.
Students were involved in any form of protest or activism that they could find. “Students and staff were militant and rightfully so,” says Williams.
During the 1985 student uprising in Cape Town, the school locked its gates and conducted a full-on demonstration in the courtyard. The police soon arrived, broke down the gates and proceeded to harass the students, trying to break up the protest.
Students protesting in Cape Town in 1985. Source: 1985 TV Eye's broadcast
“In that time it was forbidden to hold meetings or gatherings,” says Richie.
Today, the school is a provincial heritage site, which it gained on 14 August 2014 by Heritage Western Cape. The school was given this honour because of its heritage significance in regard to its intrinsic historical, social, environmental, cultural and political value. The school represents the resistance to apartheid laws and is very much associated with the publics’ memory of forced removals, segregation and academic excellence. The building is an important local landmark and holds a Grade II heritage significance which provides the site protection under South African heritage law.
Harold Cressy High School in 2021. Photo by Thaakiera Ackerdien
The present building is now a renovated and reconstructed building, which is a great improvement from the crude conditions it had for the first 41 years of its history. Despite the schools rich historical and political value the school has still been frequently under-resourced and has had no school hall for many years. School assemblies are held on concrete floors in open space, only allowing 250 of the 700 students to assemble at a time. Recently the school’s alumni association has organised plans to help a school hall to be constructed.
The school’s motto, Volenti Nihil Difficile, translates from Latin to “To those who are willing, nothing is difficult.” It serves as an endless source of inspiration to its current students and teachers, continuing to drive the activities and lives of its alumni.
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