Edgemead, Cape Town

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Edgemead is one of the northern suburbs of Cape Town. It is the second garden city of South Africa, the first being Pinelands in the southern suburbs. Edgemead is mainly residential, and as the name 'garden city' suggests, is noted for its trees, gardens and generally pleasant environment. Other 'Garden Cities' that have followed are Pinehurst near Durbanville in the northwest extreme of Cape Town, still under construction but already occupied, and Sunningdale near Milnerton.

There are two schools in Edgemead: Edgemead Primary and Edgemead High.

In 2003, there was a racist incident at Edgemead High School, which was much publicized. The true story is not fully known, but the basic version of events is that a white parent, Shannon Ferreira, her daughter Nameer, and her boyfriend Bryon Shaw, assaulted Nosipho Mkize, outside the school grounds on the 6th November, 2003. Mkize claimed that she was assaulted by the three white women, and claims that Shannon used racist remarks during her attack. Mkize and he South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)took Edgemead High School to court, claiming she was unfairly discrimanated against on the grounds of race. The charges against the Ferreiras and Shaw were eventually withdrawn after a convistion and sentence was passed down by the Blue Downs Equality court earlier.

Due to this incident, Edgemead High has a reputation of racism and violence, so the school currently has a very strict policy on the matter.

Earlier in 2006, a student was supposedly also expelled for stabbing a fellow student in the neck in response to racist comments. This incident did not reach any media, and so therefore is not necessarily true.