Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi was quoted saying after renaming Hoërskool HF Verwoerd that “names like Jan Smuts will also fall”. He displays an abysmal ignorance of history. Field marshal Jan Smuts is the most accomplished South African of all time. As a Boer general, he was a former enemy of England, yet the English later asked him to serve on the British imperial war cabinet and erected a statue of him in London’s Parliament Square. Smuts was instrumental in founding what became the Royal Air Force. While dubious politicians airbrush SA’s political heritage, our children’s educational aspirations drown in long-drop pit latrines. Alec WainwrightSaxonwold
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