ABSTRACT
Mamelodi, a Bantu residential area (or location), at one time known as Vlakfontein, is a township under the administrative control of the Pretoria City Council which has a municipal department of Bantu affairs with a director at its head. This control is exercised under the directives of the central government Department of Bantu Administration and Development which also subsidizes any approved projects, such as housing, schools and other civic facilities. The township is situated in the Pretoria magisterial district which has its own senior Bantu Affairs Commissioner and co-ordinated services. This district forms part of the province of Transvaal. The erstwhile provincial control of the education of Africans was terminated by the Bantu Education Act of 1953, when all powers vested in provincial councils concerning the fmancing and inspection of African education and most of the intetests in African schools possessed by voluntary agencies, such as mission societies, were transferred (with compensation for land and buildings) to the Department of Bantu Education.
