Official Closes School to S. African Blacks
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A South African regional education chief Thursday ordered that black pupils be barred from a school in a conservative white area, saying they had vandalized the building.
“We have decided . . . the school is no longer available, because it is a health risk,” Western Cape Education Minister Martha Olckers told a news conference.
About 3,000 black pupils were first bused under police guard to the empty school in Cape Town’s Ruyterwacht suburb on Tuesday because schools in their township were full. They were met with threats and racial insults from white residents armed with batons and accompanied by dogs. A white man was arrested Wednesday for whipping one of the youths.
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