1949 (Part 1)

Growing racial sentiments increase toward coloured people in the town. Mr Joseph Africa who was the first coloured principal appointed to the Mission church school was in need of accommodation. White residents did not approve when Mr Laubscher, a white resident, decided to rent one of his houses in the white area of the town to Mr Africa.

After being appointed at the school in 1948, Mr Africa had previously struggled to find accommodation in the town and was forced to live in Riebeek West and travel by bicycle to the school everyday. The Mission school management preferred to have white teachers employed at the school because finding accommodation for coloured professionals in the town proved problematic.

All the teachers employed at the mission school were white and the female teachers had to be unmarried. The main Mission school teacher from the 1930s was Miss Elizabeth Catherine Maree.

Reference:
Surplus People’s Project land claim interview with Mr Afrika