Come Again? Hermann Giliomee Quotes Julian Barnes, Defends Verwoerd’s Black Education Policy
Hermann Giliomee has written a deeply controversial article for Politicsweb that looks at black education policy of Hendrik Verwoerd and challenges the widely accepted belief that Bantu Education is largely responsible for the current crises facing the South African education system today.
He concludes his lengthy diatribe (tables, statistics and bullet points abound) with a quote from Julian Barnes’ Man Booker Prize winning novel, The Sense of an Ending, which he uses to support his belief that “[b]laming Verwoerd for the current failures of black education” is the easy option rather than the right option.
And that’s not all, folks, Giliomee allegedly furthers this anachronistic hypothesis in his forthcoming book, The Last Afrikaner Leaders. Brace yourselves:
As the crisis of education in black schools has worsened, or rather become more evident, so the tendency to “Blame Verwoerd” has intensified.
Senzo Mchunu, MEC for Education in Kwazulu-Natal, declared in late July: “One of the points we found was a problem in Maths and Science. It was Verwoerd who made the subjects difficult because he thought blacks would be a threat to him’.[1]
Addressing the Limpopo textbook crisis on Talk Radio 702, President Jacob Zuma said: “What is happening today is what Verwoerd did, where the black majority were historically not given education. We are dealing with a system that had put black people back for centuries.” According to Zuma, Verwoerd created the textbook crisis in Limpopo. [2]
Book details
- The Last Afrikaner Leaders: A Supreme Test of Power by Hermann Giliomee
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EAN: 9780624049715
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- Die laaste Afrikanerleiers: ‘n Opperste toets van mag by Hermann Giliomee
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EAN: 9780624052555
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- The Afrikaners: Biography of a People by Herman Giliomee
EAN: 9780624048237
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- New History of South Africa by Hermann Giliomee and Bernard Mbenga
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EAN: 9780624043591
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