The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

English medium An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of the students. Initially this is associated with the expansion of English from its homeland i ...

primary and high education institution situated in

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

- part of the Southern Suburbs region of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Founded in 1829, it is one of the oldest schools in South Africa. SACS is one of four schools expressly endowed by

Cecil John Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Brit ...

to offer an annual

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

to one of their graduating students.

History

The concept of the

South African College The South African College was an educational institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the South African College Schools (SACS). History The process that would lead to the formation of t ...

was formed in 1791 when the Dutch Commissioner-General,

Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist (20 April 1749 – 3 August 1823) was a Dutch statesman. He was Head of State of the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic from 17 April 1797 – 1 May 1797, and Commissioner-General of the Cape Colony durin ...

, asked for funding to be set aside to improve schooling in the Cape. After the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

took control of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

, the second colonial governor -

Lord Charles Henry Somerset Lord Charles Henry Somerset PC (12 December 1767 – 18 February 1831), born in Badminton, England, was a British soldier, politician and colonial administrator.Charles Mosley, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volu ...

- gave permission for the funds reserved by De Mist to be used to establish the South African College in 1814. The founding committee met in the Groote Kerk to discuss funding and accommodation for the school, and - on 1 October 1829 - the inauguration of the South African College was held and classes began. The original location of the school was in the ''Weeshuis'' on Long Street. The school moved to what is now known as the ''

Egyptian Building The Egyptian Building is a historic college building in Richmond, Virginia, completed in 1845. It was the first permanent home of the Medical Department of Hampden-Sydney College (later renamed the Medical College of Virginia, MCV) and now is a pa ...

'' in the Gardens district of Cape Town in 1841. It was decided in 1874 that the younger students should be separated from their older counterparts. The South African College was separated into the ''College'' which became the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

and the ''College School''. In 1896, the College School moved to its own building on Orange Street, separate from the College. For the next few decades, the school grew and the building became too small for the number of students attending. In 1959, the school moved to its current home on the Montebello Estate in Newlands, former home of the mining magnate Sir Max Michaelis, after negotiations spanning a decade with the Cape Administration. In 2012, the school grounds were used to film Spud 2: The Madness Continues.

School buildings

The current school buildings are situated along Dean Street and Newlands Avenue in Cape Town. The Junior School is located along Dean Street and is equipped with numerous fields for sporting activities, of which some are shared with the High School. The Junior School has a full-length swimming pool, with a smaller children's pool for the younger students. A number of

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts are also available to the students. The Junior School has a Media Centre which hosts computer facilities, a library and classrooms. The music department has its own

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

for cultural events and is also used for events with smaller audiences. The Junior School's boarding house is named after J. E. De Villiers. The High School is closest to Newlands Avenue and also hosts a number of sports fields for the various sports which the school offers throughout the year. The swimming pool is mainly used for

Water Polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

, and is also heated to facilitate training and usage in winter. The High School has a Media Centre with air-conditioned computer labs and library. The school hall is named after one of the School's most famous students, Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr. The boarding houses for the High School are Michaelis House (for the junior students) and Rosedale House (for the senior students).

High school sports

SACS offers a wide variety of summer and winter sports for boys to partake in throughout the year. Boys are required to partake in at least one main summer and winter sport, and may also partake in other secondary sports (provided they are involved in a main sport first). *Main summer sports **

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

Mountain biking Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and pe ...

*Secondary summer sports **

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

*Main winter sports **

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

** Cross-country **

Squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

*Secondary winter sports **

Bodyboarding Bodyboarding is a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Bodyboarding is also referred to as ''Boogieboarding'' due to the invention of the "Boogie ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

High school clubs and societies

Clubs, societies and bands are available at the high school. As of 2022, there were the following active clubs, societies and bands operating at SACS: * History Society * Marimba Band * Choir * Piano Legends * Big Band * Junior Jazz Band * Concert and Marching bands * Clarinet Ensemble * Flute Ensemble * Brass Ensemble * Saxophone Ensemble * Tentet * Rock Band * Muslim Students' Association * Christian Union * Science Club * Representative Council of Learners (RCL) * Interact Society * Photography Society * First Aid Society * Multimedia Society * Film Society * Chess Club * Maths Club * Debating Society * Pride Society * African Society *Waterpolo Table Society *Rugby Refereeing Society *Drama Society

Uniform

The traditional school colour of navy blue was determined in the 1880s when SACS pupils purchased the only pattern available of alternating white, light- and dark-blue horizontal stripes from ''Porter Hodgson's Outfitters'' in Cape Town. Prior to this, the pupils wore what they could afford, while still being presentable. Today, the High School uniform consists of a summer and winter uniform. During summer, boys wear khaki shorts with long khaki socks and brown shoes. In winter, the basic uniform consists of long charcoal trousers, black socks and black shoes. Both the summer and winter uniforms are accompanied by the SACS navy-blue blazer, white school shirt and school tie. Both these uniforms can be worn at any time during the school year, except for certain formal school functions, where a specific uniform is required. The Junior School uniform consists of a white shirt, charcoal shorts, a SACS Junior belt, charcoal socks with thin light and dark blue stripes at the top, black shoes and the Junior School tie, which is similar to the High School tie, apart from one minor difference. The Junior School uniform includes the same blazer as the High School, with the difference that the Junior School does not modify blazers for Blues (colours) awards, as at the High School.

Rhodes Scholarship

When

died in 1902, he specifically endowed the South African College in his will as one of four schools in the

where the

would be awarded on an annual basis to a former student to study at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Notable Old Boys of SACS

The leader and his deputy, jan smuts on the right and jan hofmeyr on the left

*Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman – Medical Doctor, Cape Muslim leader & founder of the anti-apartheid movement, African People's Organisation and human rights campaigner. *Captain

Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor Andrew Frederick Weatherby (Anthony) Beauchamp-Proctor, (4 September 1894 – 21 June 1921) was a South African airman and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Britis ...

VC, DSO, MC and Bar, DFC * Kyle Brown – Former

South Africa Sevens The South Africa Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament that is held in South Africa. It is currently hosted in Cape Town and is part of the Sevens World Series run by World Rugby. A South African leg of the World series has been include ...

captain and 2016 Summer Olympic Games medallist. *

John Morkel John Clother Morkel (22 August 1928 – 4 July 2010) was a South African-born Rhodesian international rugby union player. He was born in Cape Town, Union of South Africa and was the captain of the Rhodesia national rugby union team and played as ...

Rhodesian Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

Rugby Captain *

Abraham Fischer Abraham Fischer (9 April 1850 – 16 November 1913) was a South African statesman. He was the sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa, and when that ceased to exist joined the cabinet of the newly formed Union of South Afri ...

– Sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa * Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr — former Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa, Minister of Finance and Education, Administrator of the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

and

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

Leonard Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (born 8 May 1934) is a retired senior South African–British judge. He served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his lively decisions and willingness to break w ...

— former senior British judge *

Peter Kirsten Peter Noel Kirsten (born 14 May 1955) is a former cricketer who represented South Africa in 12 Test matches and 40 One Day Internationals from 1991 to 1994. He is the current coach of the Ugandan national side, having been appointed in August ...

— former South African cricketer * Gino Lupini – Italy Sevens player (2016–present). *

Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw (11 June 1906 in Sutherland, Cape Colony – 18 June 1970 in Johannesburg), almost universally known as N.P. van Wyk Louw, was an Afrikaans-language poet, playwright and scholar. He was the older brother of Afrikaan ...

—

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-language poet, playwright and scholar * William Ewart Gladstone van Wyk Louw — Afrikaans-language poet * Percival Colin "Percy" Montgomery — former South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer,

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

winner and the first

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

to earn 100 caps. *Dr.

Cecil Moss Cecil Moss (12 February 1925 – 27 October 2017) was a South African rugby union player, coach and a professional physician. He was also a qualified medical doctor (anaesthetist) and was part of the medical team who removed the heart from the f ...

— former South African rugby union player and South African Rugby Union coach *Sir

Allan Mossop Sir Allan George Mossop (30 July 1887 – 14 June 1965) was a British judge of South African origin who served in China. He was the Chief Judge of the British Supreme Court for China from 1933 to 1943. Early life Mossop was born in Fis ...

- Chief Judge of the

British Supreme Court for China The British Supreme Court for China (originally the British Supreme Court for China and Japan) was a court established in the Shanghai International Settlement to try cases against British subjects in China, Japan and Korea under the principles o ...

Sebastien Rousseau Sebastien Daniel Rousseau (born 10 September 1990) is a competition swimmer who has represented South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is boun ...

– Three time Olympian Swimmer for South Africa, Commonwealth Games Medalist, South African Record Holder. *

Albie Sachs Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs (born 30 January 1935) is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela. Early life and education Albie Sachs was born on ...

— former justice of the

Constitutional Court of South Africa The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was fi ...

Ryan Sandes Ryan Nicholas Sandes "Hedgie" (born 10 March 1982 in Cape Town) is a South African trail runner. In 2010 he became the first competitor to have won all four of the 4 Deserts races, each a 6/7-day, self-supported footrace through the Atacama D ...

– ultramarathon trail runner, who has won all four of the 4 Deserts races, amongst other achievements. *

Stephen Simpson Stephen Simpson (born 8 January 1984) is a South African-American professional racing driver currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and previously in the A1 Grand Prix, Champ Car Atlantic Championship and the Indy Pr ...

— race car driver and former A1 Grand Prix Team South Africa driver *

Ross Skeate Ross Carson Skeate (born 2 August 1982 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a rugby union player. He plays for the Sharks and in the Super Rugby and Currie Cup competitions respectively. He returned to South Africa on a two-year deal from 1 July ...

— rugby union footballer for

RC Toulon R&C, RC, R/C, Rc, or rc may refer to: Science and technology Computing * rc, the default Command line interface in Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs * .rc (for "run commands"), a filename extension for configuration files in UNIX-like ...

and formerly for

Stormers The Stormers (known for sponsorship reasons as the DHL Stormers) is a South African professional rugby union team based in Cape Town in the Western Cape that competes in the United Rugby Championship, a trans-hemispheric competition that also ...

and

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

rugby union teams Percy Montgomery

* Simon Walker — British business executive, government adviser and Director General of the UK's

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

Eric Lloyd Williams Eric Lloyd Williams (1915–1988) was a South African-born journalist and war correspondent who covered World War II for the South African Press Association and Reuters. Lloyd Williams reported on the North African campaign of the British Eighth ...

— journalist and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

correspondent *

Solly Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman Solomon "Solly" Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman (30 May 1904 – 1 April 1993) was a British public servant, zoologist and operational research pioneer. He is best remembered as a scientific advisor to the Allies on bombing strategy in the Second Wo ...

— British zoologist, public servant and key World War II

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

strategic adviser * Benjamin Duff - Springbok rugby player

References

External links

South African College Schools WebsiteSACS Junior SchoolSACS Rugby Site
{{Authority control Boarding schools in South Africa Schools in Cape Town Educational institutions established in 1829 Boys' schools in South Africa 1829 establishments in the Cape Colony Newlands, Cape Town