Harold Cressy Secondary is more than just a school
By Deborah Marondo
Harold Cressy High School, Image by schools Digest website.
Harold Cressy high is a secondary school situated in the former District six, Cape Town and the current address today is on 103 Roeland Street, Zonnebloom. The institution was established in January 1951 as the Cape Town Secondary school. Today the school is recognised as a landmark, because of its historical significance during the apartheid era in South Africa. The original building was constructed in 1925 and was first known as the Hewet training college which was the first institution of higher learning for coloured students. In 1953 the institution was named after a coloured head teacher and activist. Harold Cressy was the first person of colour in South Africa to obtain a degree. He worked to better the education of nonwhite South Africans. The school withstood and survived threats of being closed down due to the Apartheid forced removal.
In accordance with the group areas act, District six was designated as a white area in 1966. By 1982 more than 60 000 residents had moved to the Cape Flats. There was intense demand to relocate Harold Cressy secondary during this period. The school staff, parents and learners protested under the leadership of former principal Victor Ritchie.
People backing their belonging in a truck and moving out of District six, Image by AfricaMediaOnline
That day at Harold Cressy High School, when some of the first demolition houses in District Six were carried out, students watched in horror as their families' homes were moved down by bulldozers. People weren't aware that the bulldozers would enter their homes and destroy them. Their teacher tried to console them, but they were inconsolable. The school was located in the center of the district six, which at the time was surrounded by homes. At the back of the school was the Bloemhof flats, but today it’s surrounded by a petrol station and The Cape Peninsula University of Technology Campus. Walking around the grounds now there’s little evidence of its rich history except for a single wooden classroom painted in blue stands as one of the original classrooms when the school once opened in 1951, secondly, the plague in front of the school’s entrance indicates that the school’s acknowledgment of being a provincial heritage site. Mr. Isaac (current principal) said that “There are similarities in the fight face by pupils then, he adds” the political struggle is not what it was, but there’s an economic struggle and an equally huge battle’’
Victor John Ritchie, who was the principal from 1963 - 1990, said in 1985, the school played an active role in the school boycott, and no teaching was done for four months.
Past Harold Cressy principal Victor Ritchie speaks to past pupils Melanie van der Schyff and Ayesha Samaai. Image by Southern Suburbs TatlerI
Ritchie was one of seven senior teachers who were suspended that year, but that did not stop them. Harold Cressy students took part in marches, protests, and any activist groups they could discover. The school shut down and locked its doors one day during the uprising in Cape Town, and a full-scale protest was held in the court yard. Police quickly forced open the gates and began to harass the students. “The staff and I were in full agreement with the students fighting for their rights and in no way, would we stop “-Sedrick Williams. Trafalgar high school former principal Nadeem Hendricks said that most of the political and gatherings took place at their school. Students would march from Bonteheuwel to Athlone and back to Trafalgar to hold a meeting before marching to Town. The police fired rubber bullets and would spray over the crowd.
The Harold Cressy class of 1985 -1986 gathered together at the district six home coming Centre to honor the educators who had inspired their political, cultural and consciousness. This reunion was not for academic or business purposes, but to recount their shared experience and appreciate the class of 1985 for the decision made to take part in the anti-apartheid protest foregoing their education and choosing to redo matric the following year due to the unrest. Ritchie also attended the reunion
Khalied Isaacs a former pupil and the current principal, said: “It is an accolade long overdue for the great teachers who made the success of the children possible in the many decades of the struggle for a democratic and just society.”
Harold Cressy High Alumni Association
Former students and teachers of Harold Cressy High School formed the Harold Cressy Alumni Association, which was legally created in 2006. The aims and objective of the HCAA is to
to maintain Harold Cressy High School's heritage,help Harold Cressy High School with all of its endeavors, improve education and there is a bursary scheme for the less privileged that is sponsored by the Alumni association.
Interview with Shareeqah Collins past pupil of Harold Cressy- 2019
22/10/2022. 13:18
Source: Shareeqah Collins’s Facebook, image by Shareeqah Collins
( Virtual interview with Shareeqah Collins from Woodstock, past pupil of Harold Cressy High )
Interviewer :Hello, Ms Collins, how are you today?
Shareeqah : Hi, I’m great thank you.
Interviewer : Why did you choose the school?
Shareeqah : . I chose the school because my brother attended the school, and it was closer to home.
Interviewer: What values did you learn from the school?
Shareeqah : The values I’ve learnt was not to give up and to definitely make something of life and achieve greater things.
Interviewer: Looking at the school's history, can you rate the construction building (apparently there is no hall) how do you feel about that?
Shareeqah : There is a hall, we wrote our finals in there. It took very long but I saw new pictures and it looks great. Even the school in general like the playground looks pretty cool.
Interviewer: What history do you know about the school
Shareeqah : Well Harold Cressy attended Trafalgar and after studying he opened up a school, died not to long after that from Pneumonia. And at the time because it was in the early 1900s there was no medication. But his legacy lives on.
Interviewer: How was your experience at the school
Shareeqah : I was bullied, from grade 8 until 11. It had its ups and downs, there were no sports to take your mind off things, but it’s a great school, and there are good teachers there.
Interviewer: Do you know of any student/ educator that protested? If yes, please mention.
Shareeqah : No, I don’t know.
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