WESBANK SEKONDERE SKOOL

School Profile

Wesbank Sekondêre Skool is a big school in Malmesbury, a keen rugby school.

The pleasant Boland town of Malmesbury up the West Coast from Cape Town takes its name from the oldest borough in England, Malmesbury in Wiltshire. That came about because Sir Lowry Cole, governor of the Cape, named the town after his father-in-law, Sir James Harris, the 1st Earl of Malmesbury. The present earl, also a James Harris, acceded to the title in 2000 as the 7th Earl of Malmesbury.

Malmesbury in England is an ancient town, dating back to a 7th century monastery around which a town grew. In the 9th century Alfred the Great granted it the status of a borough, the oldest in England.

Farmers in the Swartland, needed a church and started one near springs of fresh water and a warm sulphur, the fifth Dutch Reformed Church in the Cape, back in 1744. The town/village was then known as Zwartlands-kerk.

Zwartlands? It was taken from the renosterbos (rhinoceros bush) with its black appearance. The town, some 65 km north of Cape Town up the West Coast, is an agricultural centre with wheat, wine and poultry farming in the area.

Wesbank? It is the name opf the suburb on the side west of Malmesbury on a rise up from a river.

Schools information

Name: Wesbank Sekondêre Skool
Founding date: Motto: The future is ours.
Pupils: 900

Rugby at Wesbank

The schools runs 10 rugby teams and has an enthusiastic approach to the game.

The highest achiever amongst its Old Boys is the Springbok wing McNeil Hendricks. Loose forward David Hendricks has played for the Stormers as well as Boland and Western Province.

The school's great rivals are Schoonspruit, also of Malmesbury.