Extra Murals
In South African schools extramural activities are an important part of school life. When I was at school it was compulsory to be actively involved in the school’s extramural program.
Inter-House Drama
Each year the school held an inter-house Play Festival. I was involved as an actor in Stuart House from Standard 6 in 1983 until I left school in 1988. In 1988 I won the award for Best Senior Actor. Being in an all-boys school the junior boys always played female roles if the plays had female characters.
Librarian
From 1985 until 1987 I was a librarian in the school library. We were on a service roster that included duties during breaks and one afternoon a week.
Rugby
During the winter term we had to play either rugby or hockey. In Standard 6 and Standard 7 it was compulsory to play rugby. I was in the under-13 F team and under-14 F team. I played hooker, then wing and finally full back. One of the only times I was administered corporal punishment was when our team lost to Jeppe Boys’ School.
Athletics
The Athletics season always began with an Inter-house Athletics meet on a Saturday morning. This was used to select the school’s athletics team. I participated in the 3000 m and 1500 m long-distance track events and the long jump and triple jump field events. I was a reserve long distance runner for the school team.
Cadets
Cadets was compulsory in all white schools in South Africa and at Athlone Boys’ High every Wednesday an entire hour was of the school day was timetabled to marching around the field. Once a year your platoon was sent to the firing range to learn how shoot .22 rifles. We had to come to school wearing our brown cadet uniforms. The aim was the militarisation of the white South African youth. In 1985 I was assigned to the Quarter Master store and this included spending some afternoons distributing uniforms to the rest of the school.
My Struggle with Conscription
From the age of 16 all white South African males received their first call-up papers for the South African Defense Force to serve for two years. Cadets was specifically aimed to prepare us for conscription. Your call-up could be deferred if you were still in school or were studying.
I did not enjoy having to do cadets. I did not want to serve in the South African army. Since the school had made us vote in 1985 about whether we were okay with the son of the Consulate General of the Transkie (one of the ‘so-called’ independent homelands) attending the school I began realising how evil Apartheid was. I did not want to be part of upholding this system. I began dreading the call-up papers. When I began at Wits University in 1989 for the first time in my education I was in a multi-racial class and I also had my first friend of colour from Church. We went to Soweto and Lenasia often together by mini-bus taxi. I knew that the status quo was not acceptable and Apartheid was evil.
At Wits I also was introduced to the End Conscription Campaign and started becoming politically aware. In 1986, the ECC launched the ‘Working for a Just Peace’ campaign, which called on the government to allow for community service to be extended to all conscientious objectors not just religious pacifists. It also called for meaningful community service rather than objectors working in government departments.While studying at Wits I decided I could not serve the South African government in any capacity. Since the state was the largest employer of teachers I would not be employed as a conscientious objector who refused to serve in the army.
My options were to either leave South Africa or face a prison sentence. If could leave South Africa and work abroad, something I did not have the resources to do and I had a student loan to payback. Or I could go to prison and that would mean I’d never be employed as a teacher. As I was grappling with this issue the South African government ended conscription in 1993 – the year I was doing my Higher Diploma in South Africa.
