"... it is clear something is wrong here!" Inanda Seminary's continued survival during the 1980s

Abstract

During the 1980s, Inanda Seminary arguably struggled more than at any other time. Though the school escaped closure in 1957 and continued to remain a private independent Christian boarding school, Bantu Education gradually sapped the school's strength. By the 1980s, most of the school's incoming staff and students were products of apartheid's inferior education system. Internal dysfunction and external political unrest fostered institutional rot. The Seminary's missiological benefactor and Governing Council seemed overwhelmed by the forces arrayed. Varied income sources, and thus interests, from foreign missions, businesses, the state (KwaZulu homeland) and insufficient income from students weakened the school's integrity. The first black female principal, Constance Koza, abrasively led the school through much of the turbulent times. High staff turnover crippled the school. Crisis after crisis overwhelmed Koza's successor, Allan Campbell, whose tenure concluded before the decade's end. Student discipline became increasingly difficult to instil as political stability deteriorated in the local townships and throughout South Africa. Many strikes and riots at the school punctuated these years due to students and teachers' increased political awareness. Despite the apparent dysfunction inside and outside Inanda Seminary, education continued at a commendable level.

Inanda Seminarie het ongetwyfeld gedurende die tagtigerjare, meer as enige ander tyd in haar geskiedenis, moeilike tye beleef. Die skool het in die vyftigerjare daarin geslaag om sluiting vry te spring. Die seminarie het voortgegaan as 'n onafhanklike private Christen kosskool. Deur dit alles het die departement van Bantoe-Onderwys die energie van die skool getap. Teen 1980 het apartheid se ondergeskikte onderwys-sisteem meeste van die skool se personeel en studente opgelewer. In sekere opsigte het interne disfunksionaliteit en eksterne politieke onluste 'n negatiewe uitwerking op die skool gehad. Beide die breër kerk sowel as die Beheerkomitee, was oorstelp deur alles waardeur die skool moes gaan. Ad hoc befondsing, die belangstelling en invloede van oorsese instansies, besighede, die staat (KwaZulu Tuisland) en onvoldoende inkomste uit studentegelde, het die integriteit van die skool geskaad. Die eerste swart vroue-prinsipaal, Constance Koza, het die skool deur moeilike en stormagtige waters gestuur. Daar was ook herhaaldelike bedankings van personeel met nuwe aanstellings wat dan ontwrigtend was. Herhaaldelike krisisse het die naïewe Allan Campbell, wie tot aan die einde van die dekade daar gedien het, oorweldig. Die dissiplinering van studente was uiters moeilik te midde van die politieke bestel, asook die meegaande geweld in die swart woongebiede en in die breër konteks van Suid-Afrika. Daar was ook baie studente-onluste gedurende hierdie tyd, as gevolg van die studente en onderwysers se toenemende belangstelling in politiek. Ten spyte van dit alles, was 'n hoë vlak van onderrig by dié skool gehandhaaf. Die oorlewing van Inanda Seminarie bewys bo enige twyfel dat lig, hoe dof ook al, duisternis oorwin.