POLITICS

Apartheid and the universities

Was it really, as the Guardian claims, the ANC who opened the gates of higher education to all?

In a recent article on the tragic death of Gloria Sekwena in a stampede at the University of Johannesburg The Guardian of London claimed that "Under apartheid, all but a trickle of the country's black majority was shut out of higher education. When white minority rule ended, in 1994, the gates to universities were opened to all."

The British readers of that publication would no doubt have accepted this claim as fact. It would have confirmed established views on the horrors of Afrikaner rule in South Africa, and of the boundless virtues of the ANC.

The question is: how true is this claim?

Up until 1959 the Afrikaans-medium universities had traditionally limited admittance to whites. The University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town had however remained open to all races. The University of Natal admitted students of all races but segregated classes. Fort Hare meanwhile was a predominantly black institution.

As can be seen from Table 1 there was indeed only a trickle of black South Africans into higher education in the 1950s. The racial breakdown of the universities in 1958 was as follows:

Table 1: Enrolment in South African Universities 1958

 

White

Coloured

Indian

Black

Total

Orange Free State

1,709

 

 

 

1,709

Potchefstroom

1,474

 

 

 

1,474

Pretoria

6,324

 

 

 

6,324

Stellenbosch

3,694

 

 

 

3,694

Cape Town

4,408

388

127

37

4,960

Natal

2,530

31

373

188

3,122

Witwatersrand

4,756

22

158

73

5,009

Rhodes

1,098

 

 

 

1,098

South Africa

6,144

204

601

1,179

8,128

Fort Hare

59

59

320

438

Total

32,137

704

1,318

1,797

35,956

Percentage of total

89.4%

2.0%

3.7%

5.0%

100.0%

In 1959 the National Party passed the Extension of University Education Act No. 45 which extended the apartheid principles being applied to the rest of society to higher education as well. This Act decreed that black, Coloured and Indian students would only be allowed to study at the formerly open universities with a permit from the relevant minister. Separate universities would be established for Coloureds and Indians and the different black ethnic groups.

By 1970 two new universities had been established for black South Africans (Zululand and the North), one for Coloureds (Western Cape) and one for Indians (Durban-Westville.) Another two universities had been established for whites: Port Elizabeth and Rand Afrikaans Universiteit. In Modernising Racial Domination (1971), Heribert Adam commented: "With regard to educational opportunities, the five non-white universities have on the whole been successful in terms of the Apartheid programs, despite the limitations placed on them as separate institutions under paternalistic Afrikaner guidance. Their facilities are frequently better and the student teacher ratios much lower than in the white universities, now as well as previously when they were ‘open'."

As can be seen from Table 2 between 1958 and 1970 the number of black students in the universities had more than doubled (from a very low base) but their proportion of the total had remained more-or-less the same due to the massive expansion of white entry into higher education. All but a handful of black students had been excluded from UCT and Wits by this point.

Table 2: Enrolment in South African Universities 1970

 

White

Coloured

Indian

Black

Total

Orange Free State

4,222

 

 

 

4,222

Potchefstroom

4,212

 

 

 

4,212

Pretoria

12,500

 

 

 

12,500

Stellenbosch

7,827

 

 

 

7,827

Port Elizabeth

1,144

 

 

 

1,144

Cape Town

7,528

291

148

2

7,969

Natal

5,706

43

331

163

6,243

Witwatersrand

9,041

29

293

5

9,368

Rhodes

1,803

 

40

 

1,843

South Africa

17,899

584

1,006

2,397

21,886

Rand Afrikaans

1,322

 

 

 

1,322

Fort Hare

 

 

 

610

610

The North

 

 

 

810

810

Zululand

 

 

 

591

591

Durban-Westville

 

 

1,654

 

 

Western Cape

 

936

 

 

 

Total

73,204

947

1,818

4,578

80,547

Percentage of total

90.9%

1.2%

2.3%

5.7%

100.0%

By the late 1970s the National Party had begun to lose faith in apartheid as a solution to South Africa's racial ills. The 1959 Act did not place a complete bar on black attendance at the designated "white universities" and in 1983 954 black, 1,255 Coloured and 1,323 Indian applicants were granted permission by the minister to study at these institutions (see Table 3).

Table 3: Number of black, Coloured and Indian students granted permission to study at white universities 1980-1983:

 

 

Applicants

Granted

%

Refused

%

Black

1980

1046

410

39.2%

636

60.8%

 

1981

1391

667

48.0%

724

52.0%

 

1982

1545

723

46.8%

822

53.2%

 

1983

2605

954

36.6%

1651

63.4%

Coloured

1980

1175

989

84.2%

186

15.8%

 

1981

1221

1126

92.2%

95

7.8%

 

1982

1314

1172

89.2%

142

10.8%

 

1983

1371

1255

91.5%

116

8.5%

Indian

1980

1013

919

90.7%

94

9.3%

 

1981

1049

924

88.1%

125

11.9%

 

1982

1724

1374

79.7%

350

20.3%

 

1983

1679

1323

78.8%

356

21.2%

In that year the National Party introduced the Universities Amendment Bill which scrapped the permit system. Clause 9 of the Act allowed for the appropriate minister of state to impose a quota limiting the number of black students admitted to a white university. This clause was met with huge opposition from the English-language universities (see here) and though it made its way into law it was never implemented. The effect of the 1983 Bill then was that the English language universities were able, once again, to directly admit students of all races.

By this point a further five universities had been established for black South Africans: Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Medunsa, Venda and Vista. The number of black South Africans attending university had increased to 33,345. The racial composition of universities in 1983 - the last year in which the 1959 Act still applied - is contained in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Enrolment in South African Universities 1983

 

White

Coloured

Indian (&Chinese)

Black

Total

Bophuthatswana

9

9

9

909

936

Orange Free State

8,105

9

0

21

8,135

Potchefstroom

7,437

1

3

20

7,461

Pretoria

16,849

2

2

1

16,854

Stellenbosch

12,059

152

6

3

12,220

Port Elizabeth

2,912

164

49

67

3,192

Cape Town

10,440

1,121

331

257

12,149

Natal

7,929

228

1,103

531

9,791

Witwatersrand

13,877

213

1,117

583

15,790

Rhodes

2,913

80

124

176

3,293

UNISA

37,902

3,150

5,892

12,680

59,624

Rand Afrikaans

5,818

14

1

12

5,845

Fort Hare*

44

24

3

3,113

3,184

Transkei

0

0

0

2,138

2,138

Medunsa

101

0

6

820

927

The North

25

2

3

3,924

3,954

Venda

2

0

0

781

783

Durban-Westville

118

44

5,388

26

5,576

Western Cape

58

4,487

176

31

4,752

QwaQwa

9

0

0

384

393

Vista

0

0

0

3,010

3,010

Zululand

3

1

3

3,858

3,865

Total

126,610

9,701

14,216

33,345

183,872

Percentage of total

68.9%

5.3%

7.7%

18.1%

100.0%

* 1982 figures

Through the 1980s there was a rapid increase in the number of black students attending both black universities as well as the formerly white English-language ones and by 1990 there were over a 100,000 black students enrolled in South African universities. The Afrikaans universities though still seem to have operated more exclusionary policies.

In 1991 the National Party government of FW de Klerk scrapped the last remaining provisions in the law allowing government to restrict university admission on racial grounds. By 1994 there were more than 160,000 black students (or 46,7% of the total) enrolled in South Africa's universities. The remainder was made up of Whites 41,4%, Coloureds 5,1% and Indians 6,9%. A further 65,150 black students were enrolled at technikons.

Table 5: Enrolment in South African Universities 1994

 

White

Coloured

Indian (&Asian)

Black

Total

North West (Bophuthatswana)*

0

0

0

3914

3,914

Orange Free State

7,831

444

13

969

9,257

Potchefstroom

8,301

204

30

1,448

9,983

Pretoria

21,500

218

160

2,261

24,139

Stellenbosch

13,016

1,128

64

254

14,462

Port Elizabeth

3,886

702

146

883

5,617

Cape Town

8,857

1,930

725

2,997

14,509

Natal

6,926

385

3,832

3,979

15,122

Witwatersrand

11,662

339

2,133

4,025

18,159

Rhodes

2,730

131

323

857

4,041

UNISA

53,088

4,732

10,735

57,603

126,158

Rand Afrikaans

10,364

481

347

4,301

15,493

Fort Hare*

5,175

5,175

Transkei*

6,628

6,628

Medunsa

114

29

479

2,777

3,399

The North*

13,500

13,500

Venda*

6,400

6,400

Durban-Westville

337

156

4,941

5,071

10,505

Western Cape

184

6,715

689

6,662

14,250

Vista

174

631

66

33,008

33,879

Zululand*

0

0

0

5,660

5,660

Total

148,970

18,225

24,683

168,372

360,250

Percentage of total

41.4%

5.1%

6.9%

46.7%

100.0%

*No racial statistics available, the working assumption being that all enrolled students were black

The main obstacle facing black advancement into higher education in the early 1990s was - as it is now - the poor quality of much secondary school education, particularly in maths and science. Successive National Party governments obviously bore much of the blame for this. But the ANC and its allies, both in opposition and then in government, have also pursued hugely destructive policies in this regard (see here).

Moreover, far from "throwing open" the universities to all the ANC has pushed for the imposition of racial quotas limiting the admittance of racial minorities to their proportion of the total population. It also closed the nursing and teaching colleges on which many poor black South Africans depended for entry into those professions.

It is interesting to compare though the record of the Afrikaner nationalists - utterly ghastly as it was - with that of the British colonial rulers in the rest of Africa.

Tanganyika apparently had 120 black African graduates and no university at independence. Nyasaland (Malawi) had some 35 black graduates. In 1961 Nigeria had one university with 1,000 students.

When the British exited Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) in 1964 only 1,200 black Zambians had completed secondary schooling, and 109 had graduated from University.

And who was the Director of Education in Northern Rhodesia responsible for this sorry state of affairs?

If Wikipedia is to be believed it was one George H. Rusbridger, more famous for being the father of Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian.

Bibliography: Heribert Adam, Modernizing Racial Domination: The Dynamics of South African Politics, (University of California Press: London, 1971) and various Race Relations Surveys from the South African Institute of Race Relations.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter