WHILE politicians and layers continue to wrangle over their future, black and white children at the Potgietersrus primary school have already begun to make friends.
Journalists stationed outside the school, which was forced to admit its first non white pupils on Thursday, saw black and white children playing together on the second day of the new dispensation. Nearly 200 white children were reported to have attended the school yesterday, less than half the total number enrolled at the school but 10 times the number of the day before.
Many right wing parents, some of whom had threatened physical resistance to desegregation, are now keeping their children from school in protest.
Only a handful of police officers were on duty outside the school yesterday. A police spokesman said it was hoped to further reduce the visible police presence in coming days so as to lessen disturbance to the children.
More than 20 black children were reported to have come to school yesterday, compared with 16 on the first day. One white Afrikaner girl, Rusel Wildeboer (8), took it upon herself to show the new pupils to their classrooms. "I want to help them because they're new," she explained.
Rusel also said she was sorry that the newcomers would not be her class. The black children will join 50 white children in the school's three English language classes.
While the children got on with life their parents and elders were still debating the future of the school. In an effort to peacefully resolve the dispute, the Northern Province's African National Congress premier, Mr Ngoako Ramatlhodi, yesterday met representatives of the school board and white political leaders.
The school board, meanwhile, is to appear in South Africa's Constitutional Court on Monday in a final attempt to keep black students out.