The oldest high school in South Africa attended by Springbok Percy Montgomery and justice Albie Sachs

The South African College School, otherwise known as SACS, is the oldest continuously operating high school in South Africa, with a history dating back nearly 200 years.

Plans for the South African College date back to 1791, when the Dutch Commissioner-General, Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist, requested funding to be reserved for schooling in the Cape Colony.

After the British took control of the colony in 1806, the colonial governor, Lord Charles Henry Somerset, authorised the use of De Mist’s reserved funds to establish the South African College in 1814.

The boys-only school was officially opened on 1 October 1829, with an inauguration ceremony held at the Groote Kerk in Cape Town. Soon after, classes began in the “Weeshuis” in Long Street.

It operated as a single institution that provided education at the junior and high school levels, as well as for older students pursuing collegiate education.

The school later moved to the Egyptian Building in the city’s Gardens District in 1841. As the institution continued to grow, it was decided that the College should be split into a tertiary education institution and a school.

In 1874, the South African College was split into upper and lower divisions. The lower division became the South African College Schools (SACS), which later moved into a building on Orange Street in 1896.

The upper division continued to operate as a tertiary education institution as demand for higher education grew in the early 20th century, adding new facilities for medical and engineering courses.

It officially became the University of Cape Town (UCT) via an Act of Parliament in 1918. UCT continues to operate today and is internationally recognised as one of the top universities on the continent.

SACS, meanwhile, was split again in 1903 when it was separated into a junior school and a high school. The college continued to operate on Orange Street for decades until the growing number of students became too much for the campus to support.

The school was moved once again in 1959, relocating to the Montebello Estate in Newlands, a leafy suburb of Cape Town on the lower slopes of Table Mountain.

Located on Dean Street and Newlands Avenue, the junior school and high school share a campus, but each has its own academic, cultural, sporting, and boarding facilities.

One of South Africa’s top public schools

Today, SACS operates under the former Model C model, meaning it is a public school that receives government funding but is semi-private, as it receives the vast majority of its funding from school fees.

The high school is based around a large two-storey building with a central courtyard, with classrooms on both floors. Next to this is the Hofmeyr Hall, which is used for assemblies.

The Hall is named after Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, one of the school’s most famous alumni, who matriculated in 1906 and later became South Africa’s Deputy Prime Minister in the 1940s.

SACS is one of only four historic schools in South Africa to offer the Rhodes Scholarship, the others being Bishops, Paul Roos Gymnasium, and St Andrew’s College. Hofmeyr was a recipient of the scholarship.

The South African College High School supports Grades 8 to 12, with matric students taking the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams. It also offers additional AS and A Level Cambridge studies in English, Mathematics, Biology, or Chemistry.

Studies are taught in English, but it also teaches Afrikaans, French, and isiXhosa as secondary languages. Other subjects include Physical Science, Life Science, Music, Geography, History, Visual Arts, Economics, and Accounting.

It also has a computer lab and offers Information Technology (IT) as its own subject. All of the classrooms are equipped with projectors or interactive smartboards.

It routinely achieves a 100% NSC pass rate, with Bachelor pass rates usually falling between 90% and 100%. Students achieve two distinctions on average.

SACS is home to several sporting facilities, including multiple tennis courts, a gym, a heated swimming pool, a basketball court, and a hockey astroturf.

It also features five sports fields with pavilions, which are used for cricket and athletics in the summer, and rugby and hockey in the winter. Other sports supported at SACS include rowing, mountain biking, sailing, cross country, squash, bodyboarding, golf, and surfing.

High school clubs and societies include debating, first aid, photography, drama, science, chess, math, religious associations, and music groups such as the Choir, Jazz, and Big Band.

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South African College High School

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