Hard-liner sparks row

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 5

Hard-liner sparks row

NZPA Johannesburg South Africa’s largest and most conservative province has approved only three of 219 applications from black pupils for admission to private white schools, a senior official has said. The announcement was made by Sybrand van Niekerk, the administrator — or governor — of Transvaal province, who has angered even the ruling National Party by his total opposition to integration of schools, sports, or theatres. Transvaal province includes the big industrial area around Johannesburg and Pretoria and large areas of the agricultural heartland.

It has been traditionally the most conservative of South Africa’s four provinces. “We in the Transvaal have decided to support the Cabinet decision to allow only exceptional cases to attend private schools,” Mr van Niekerk said.

South Africa’s apartheid laws ban any racial mixing in schools. But in recent years some private schools — mainly those run by the Roman Catholic Church — have been surreptitiously accepting black students. The practice led to a heated clash with the ruling national party, but a head-on confrontation was avoided about two years ago when

the then Minister of Education (Mr Piet Koornhof) agreed to turn a blind eye on the admissions if the Catholics wouldn’t make a public issue of integration and kept black numbers steady. As well as flouting this policy, Mr van Niekerk has also defied his party’s efforts t» lift at least some aspects of segregation in sports and theatres. Pretoria, Mr van Niekerk’s stronghold, is the only big city that has refused to open its drama theatres to blacks.

And the Transvaal Provincial Council has vowed to prevent any integration in sports.