A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

- Susan Puren

HEROLD, A RURAL HAMLET NESTLING in a valley at the top of the historical Montagu pass in the mountains above George is a picture of peace and tranquility.

But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the detail.

A simple brick gate pillar at the entrance of the Franken Primary School has become the focus of a bitter contest between parents, teachers and the Herold community on the one side, and the local church minister and a property developer on the other.

The offending pillar stands half a brick over the boundary of servitude, a non-descript 5-metre wide gravel path that runs uphill from the main road, ironically allowing access to both the school and the hall of the United Reformed Church (URC).

Herold has fewer than twenty inhabited cottages, but 330 learners – most bussed in from nearby farms – attend the Franken school that teaches up to Grade 9. Thereafter the children go to boarding school in George.

The school was established in 1933 on a portion of farmland donated to the church by a local farmer. The original title deed for the 1670-hectare property specified that the land may only be used for school, church and residential purposes. Endorsements were added in 1936 and 1937, each granting certain water rights to the owner.

According to members of the community, the school has given them a sense of dignity and pride because they literally built it themselves, brick by brick over time. Three years ago they added yet another feature, an imposing entrance gate, which they proudly funded themselves. But to their surprise their church pastor, Reverend David Elias, suddenly became obsessed with rulers and yardstick, finding fault with whatever the school was doing to improve its facilities and surroundings.