SOUTH AFRICA: Conservative Afrikaners reacted with outrage when education minister Kader Asmal announced last week that schools named after apartheid figures are to be renamed. Professor Asmal said that institutions honouring former leaders, such as apartheid architect Hendrick Verwoerd, were offensive to most people. He told a meeting of provincial education ministers that name changes were needed across all government departments, and he would speed up the process of renaming schools. But Pieter Mulder of the right-wing Freedom Front said school names were a “highly emotional issue”, and changing them could cause bitterness among Afrikaners.

Karen MacGregor