Kuils River Primary School

Aka: Kuilsrivier Laer Kleurling Skool, Die Blik Skooltjie, Die Hoogte

Date: 1892 : 1908 : 1944 : 1949

Status: Demolished in 1970

* Not to be confused with Sarepta Primary School

(Unidentified photographer)

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Notes

According to the records in the Deeds office, JJ Hamman transferred two morgen, Erf 247, formerly Lot A as part of Lot G to the Trustee for Cape Colony of the Rhenish Mission Society of Barmen, Germany. His intention was for a school to be established which would be in closer proximity to the areas of Brackenfell and Bottelary from where children had to walk long distances to be educated at the already established schools at the time.

• Jacob Jacobus Hamman (c.1843 Kuils River - 1924 Brackenfell)

The first school was called Die Blik Skooltjie because it was made of tin and wood.

"Na 'n paar onsuksesvolle pogings in die sestigerjare van die negentiende eeu is in Augustus 1874 met 'n skool vir blanke leerlinge begin. Die koms van Charles Mathurin Villet in 1881 het 'n periode van kulturele en godsdienstige oplewing ingelui. Sy opvolger, die sterk Afrikanergesinde Pieter Francois de Wet, wat vanaf 1892 tot 1905 skoolhoof was, se dienstermyn is gekenmerk deur personeeluitbreiding en die aanbou van 'n nuwe skoolgebou... Tydens die inspeksie van April 1893 het mnr. Lee melding gemaak van die nuwe tweevertrekgebou, van die bevredigende beligting en ventilasie en van die netheid van beide klaskamers." (Vermaak)

When Mr Pieter Francois de Wet became principal in 1892, the school consisted of two reasonably large classrooms (located on the premises of the current public library of Kuils River in Carinus Street). It was a thatched-roof building, without a ceiling. (Vermaak)

In 1944 the dilapidated building was replaced with a new building, and on 28 October 1944 Kuilsriver Laer Kleurling Skool opened the doors to a new building with 5 classrooms, an office, and a kitchen. The school building was extended in 1949, and by 1959 the school had 318 learners.

From 1958 onwards the school could not take in any new learners and the school building could not be extended due to the fact that the school was situated in a so-called white area. The government furthermore wished to move the school to Sarepta, an area designated at that time for coloureds, referred to as the sand dunes of Sarepta.

On 5 November 1966 (Guy Fawkes) a bomb was thrown through the window of the school and a large part of the building was destroyed in the fire. After the fire at the school in 1966, only three classrooms remained unharmed. It was generally believed that this was because of growing tension, because a coloured school was situated in a white group area.

The bombing of the school was unnecessary, as the Group Areas Act of 1958 made provision for the eventual relocation of the coloured school out of a proclaimed white area. The bombing in a sense accelerated the moving of Kuilsriver Kleurling Primary School to the coloured area of Sarepta.

Because of legislation the school had to be relocated to a plot in Sarepta Road, merely 400m from another school, Sarepta Primary. After the bombing of the school in the main road took place, the learners had to move to the 70-year-old school building in Sarepta. Some were accommodated in the residence of the reverend of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, as well as the Calvinist church hall. These buildings, accommodating the learners of Kuilsriver Primary, were occupied until the temporary (prefab) building in Sarepta Road was erected.

The coloured citizens who lived in the now declared white areas were forcibly removed from the areas of Bottelary and the broader Kuilsriver area. The area where the school had been situated in the main road was declared a whites only area in terms of the Group Areas Act and the Sarepta area as coloured. the new school “Sarepta Primary School no. 2 would now be called Jan Bosman Primary School”, opening in 1971.

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Sources

• A Forgotten History: A Historical Overview of Kuilsriver Primary School 1908–2023. Hamann, G.