Hoërskool DF Malan announced that it will soon no longer be named after the former apartheid prime minister Daniël François Malan, an individual credited for implementing the system of apartheid, which imposed racial segregation laws on many people of colour within South Africa.
Debates around the controversial name change have been ongoing throughout the years with multiple bodies working together to rethink the aspects of what the school based in Bellville represents.
But not everyone has been on board, which was seen after leadership of the high school declined a call from parents to hold a referendum over the name, while disgruntled parents formed a Facebook page called ‘Trots [Proudly] DF Malan’, as eNCA reports.
The Hoërskool DF Malan community, along with those who enrolled for 2022, will now vote on a proposed new name for the school, and electronic voting is expected to take place on October 15, IOL explains.
Protea Akademie or DF Akademie are the options being considered. According to SGB chairperson Andre Roux, the motivation for Protea Akademie relates to the king protea already existing on the current school coat of arms while the motivation for DF Akademie was that “Dr DF Malan and DF Malan High School have two different identities.”
The “preferred name will be ratified by the SGB and submitted to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) for final consideration and approval,” Roux explained as per IOL.