I am writing this story in the hope that it will help prevent the same thing happening again at any farm school.
It happened in June in the early ’90s, soon after the school’s reopened. There were three teachers at our school then, and we were all excited about our newly appointed principal, thinking of all the fresh ideas we could work together on. But we were soon to learn not to judge a book by its cover.
Every Wednesday and Friday at 10am, the pupils would be dismissed by the farm school manager to go and pick mielies in the mielie field. One Friday I decided to accompany them to observe the kind of job they were doing. When the tractor arrived, all of us got on it, including the new principal.
When we arrived, the pupils were given stywepap with karringmelk, and I was surprised to see that they all ate with their hands out of a very big dish. The principal was given brown bread and jam with coffee in a tin. I was given nothing because it was my first time in the mielie field.
Then everyone started picking the mielies. Much to my surprise, even the principal was given an empty sack, and he picked very fast and even better than the pupils because he left no reed unturned. I was shocked, but the obedient chap had no problem with this.
I walked behind them while they picked. Then the manager’s wife looked at me, and began to talk to my principal in Afrikaans:
Woman: Maar hierdie een lyk baie kwaai! Hoekom werk sy nie saam met ons nie? [This one looks very stubborn! Why isn’t she working with us?]
Principal: Ja, sy is te kwaai. Sy sal nooit nie werk met ons nie. [Yes, she is stubborn. She will never work with us.]
Woman: Hoekom? [Why?]
Principal: Sy sê dat sy is gekwalifiseerd om in the klaskamer te werk, nie in ‘n mielieveld nie. [She says she is qualified to work in a classroom, not in a mielie field.]
I didn’t respond at all to their conversation, and went back with them on the tractor at 5pm. They all looked very tired.
What has become a wound in my memory is what happened on the way back to school: the manager drove past the store and sent me to buy a loaf of bread. I was surprised, but silently got off the tractor and walked to the store. While I was still there, he started the tractor and left me behind.
I had to walk 7km from the store to the farm cottages and I arrived at 10pm. That very same night I knocked on the principal’s door and asked him about the incident. He said it was the manager’s decision. He also said that my teacher’s certificate would drive me out because I was stubborn.
At the end of the school quarter I was given a letter with the following sentence: WERK BEëINDIG [job terminated].
It took me two years to find a new job, this time in the North West province. At my new school, my dreams of working hand-in-glove with my colleagues under the leadership of an excellent principal finally came true.
– Martha S Mosima
Hammanskraal