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Interview with Frank Cattich – 1969
Frank came as a boarder to St David’s in standard 8, 1966. He had previously been a pupil at St
Aidan’s in Grahamstown and had a bond with Br Aidan having been a pupil of his. St Aidan’s
was Jesuit and extremely strict so it was a relief to appreciate that St David’s was not quite so
rigid and more relaxed. It was also great to be closer to home as his parents lived in
Bedfordview.
Frank’s mother was an orphan who grew up with nuns in Rome and Frank remembers staying
in the grounds of the Vatican as a child. His mother sought out her mother in South Africa as
she wanted to know why she had abandoned her. Unfortunately this didn’t have a happy ending
as her mother a widow, her husband having been the owner of Valenti Construction, didn’t want
to know her daughter. She established that her father was an Italian prisoner of war and
eventually got to know Margo Moni and others with whom she lived together in the youth hostel.
He recalls his first encounter with Anthony Stanley was with a punch up on the rugby field and
they have been firm friends ever since. Mike Denopolius built the castle at Kyalami, now lives in
Marbella and his daughter recently married Chemaly’s son
Trevor Corie was a boarder who slept near Frank and about twice a month they would stuff their
beds with cushions, climb out the window onto the roof and through a chapel window en route to
the kitchen. They would raid the kitchen and, after midnight bring back the loot, cases of cool
drink, biscuits and sweets. There were a couple of dobermans that roamed around the school
but they never barked at them and Br Bosco used to patrol the dorms with his torch but never
caught them out. On one occasion they were in the kitchen, heard footsteps, one of the Brothers
had come down to make a cup of tea, all the lights went on and the boys hid behind the stove.
Trevor started to giggle and Frank’s heart stopped, thinking they were going to be caught, it
seemed like an eternity but they got away with it. Later the brothers put a padlock on the fridge
but undeterred the boys removed the pins from the hinges and still got in. During these raids the
boys accumulated hundreds of empty bottles which they stacked on the roof and only years
later were they found.
The boarders were used to plant the fields on the McGill- Love farm at the weekends.
Br Mario was unique and always seemed to be in conflict with the boys behaving rather like a
prison warden. He wasn’t unfair but the boys just didn’t like him. He once ordered Frank and
Trevor to bend over and Trevor refused, they weren’t guilty on this occasion. Br Mario just didn’t
know how to deal with them. Br Andrew “Drac”was very hard and Frank recalls being lashed on
his first day at lunchtime following a fist fight. One of the boys, Simon had been tormenting the
new boy Frank, shooting at him with a peashooter, Frank identified the culprit and let him have it
on the landing, unfortunately witnessed by Br Andrew. Br Michael was the rugby coach. Br
Anthony had a short memory and awarded Frank his honours blazer, which he never received
as his father refused to pay for it. He was awarded scrolls for athletics, rugby and merit; three
scrolls were required for honours, three months later Br Anthony, obviously wondering why
Frank wasn’t wearing an honours blazer re-awarded him his scrolls.
Frank played rugby and was 1st team captain in 1969 and recalls there was a blood feud
between Observatory and St David’s and there were some tough games. On one occasion he
remembers a painful experience playing against Jeppe when he was about to score, was ankle
tackled and fell a metre short of the line. Frank didn’t board for his last year but rode to and from
school on his motorcycle. He remembered that his brother had an operation to reconstruct his
nose which cost R10 000. Being fair his father offered him the same option but Frank decided to
keep his nose and save the money.
Frank was a November child and he believes that this contributed to him repeating his matric
year in 1969, together with Willy Castle. However, Frank was not good academically, was
motivated by material things and didn’t achieve a university pass. On leaving school Frank went
into the army and afterwards went to Europe where he met a German girl, a dental assistant. He
stayed with the family for four years before returning to South Africa and joined his father’s
company dealing in civil construction, earthworks and pipelines. He was an apprentice for 6 -7
years. His father didn’t believe in spoiling his children and Frank was the black sheep of the
family, with his brother and sister going on to university .Frank speaks fluent German and Italian
and has always been in business for himself spending 7 years in Switzerland and then he got
involved with a contract in Iraq which was a huge and exciting challenge. He was established in
Cyprus and all was going well until 9/11 when, due to sanctions nothing was allowed in or out of
Iraq. Following this disaster, Frank came back to South Africa and together with Investec Bank
launched Velocity, a company with technology imported from the UK to upgrade and maintain
the deteriorating roads in South Africa.
He is married to Sheena and is the father of three children, a son Maximillian, a pupil at St
David’s in grade 0 and twins a boy and girl.
Frank is an active member of MOBS.
JLE October 2012