Interview with Braydon Aab – 1985 Braydon joined St David’s in 1981, standard 6 when the family moved from Germiston. Initially he found the transition difficult but through sport he soon became integrated. He really enjoyed his time at the school and felt ... »
Interview with Braydon Aab – 1985 Braydon joined St David’s in 1981, standard 6 when the family moved from Germiston. Initially he found the transition difficult but through sport he soon became integrated. He really enjoyed his time at the school and felt it was the best time of his life. Braydon felt that the education he received was ordinary and influenced greatly by the transition the school was going through with the brothers leaving and the subsequent turnover in headmasters at the time. Br Timothy was his first headmaster followed by Mr Murphy who was a complete disciplinarian and ruled by fear. After his demise, Br Anthony returned for a short period followed by Mr Freilick, then Mr Boswell who was an Afrikaans teacher. Braydon felt that Mr Freilick was the best of the bunch. Of the teachers, Braydon remembered Mrs Elliott, an unbelievable character who taught English, and was passionate about everything that she did. Tom Macfaden, who taught History was a character of note who knew his subject well. St David’s was a much wealthier school than Observatory although the teachers were poorly paid and the general feeling was that St David’s subsidised Obs. Braydon enjoyed the sport and focused on partying and on getting into varsity. Sport was really important to most of the boys and St David’s, although a very small school compared with the likes of St Stithians and didn’t have the numbers, there were only 60 boys in matric, they still managed to beat St John’s and a couple of the boys were selected to play in provincial cricket teams. Braydon played 1st team tennis in standard 6, 1st team cricket in standard 10, was captain of the U14 rugby team and played 1st team rugby in standard 9 and 10 and never missed a game. Braydon recalled the tours which the parents funded; the best was the U14A rugby tour with their last game playing at Hilton. In standard 9 he went to Europe, saw the passion play at Oberammergau and he remembered that the group was welcomed by one of the cardinals at the Vatican. The tour was a tremendous experience and made a big impact on Braydon. An aspect of school discipline at the time was the institution of the prefects tea. If you had done anything wrong you were told to go to the prefect’s tea which was held in the old hall during break. The punishments meted out were nothing too serious or harsh other than perhaps pushing a biscuit along the floor with your nose, however the discipline was effective. He recalled one of his worst moments during his time at St David’s. To get an honours blazer you needed three scrolls and Braydon had a scroll for merit, being a prefect and was waiting for his rugby scroll. A retreat was organised, supervised by two of the teachers. Braydon and some other boys went on to a friend’s yacht and had a couple of beers. The teachers noticed that some of the boys had had alcohol and back at school Mr Boswell asked those boys to come forward and apologise. All of them that were prefects lost their badges and Braydon was among the boys whose honours blazers were withdrawn. Academically Braydon did well enough to get a university pass for matric and went on to study a BSc in Building Science Faculty at Wits University. Whilst at university he started a construction company and has been in the construction and commercial property business ever since. He is currently employed by Broll in the industrial division. Braydon is married with two daughters and a younger son who attend St Stithians. Although he doesn’t have any current connection with St David’s he would be interested in participating in the 2016 celebrations and would purchase a copy of the book when published. Braydon is still in touch with many of his contemporaries such as Jason Goodall who was deputy head boy, Nicholas Pruim, Adrian and Jeremy Franklin, Mark and George Wurr. George lives in Jhb. He remembered the Hartman brothers Roland, Ronald and Reinhart (Hartman & Keppler). JLE July 2012
Interview with Cecil Thokoane – 1985 Cecil came to St David’s in June 1982 at the age of 12 into standard 7 and matriculated in 1985 age 16. Cecil was born in Soweto and went to a government school for his primary schooling. In standard 3 his teacher ... »
Interview with Cecil Thokoane – 1985 Cecil came to St David’s in June 1982 at the age of 12 into standard 7 and matriculated in 1985 age 16. Cecil was born in Soweto and went to a government school for his primary schooling. In standard 3 his teacher thought he was too smart and he was promoted to standard 4. Cecil’s mother wanted him to go to a Catholic school either Holy Cross or St Matthews, run by the nuns. In May 1982 Sister Michael gave him a letter in which he was awarded a scholarship by British Petroleum for tuition at St David’s. Fortunately his school colours were the same and he got the rest of his school uniform from the swop shop. It was quite an experience, not knowing who, where or what but he was made to feel welcome and at home. Even so it was quite a transition and, since his mother had taken him to school by tram which stopped at Dunkeld he had to find his own way home and got lost walking back. Eventually he used to ride in a Combi with much younger boys to school but as he had to stay later for sport he had to use public transport to get home. He used to have to get up at 5.00am and spend an hour travelling to school and when he had sport it would take him even longer to get home. He remembers meeting Mr Murphy and being mobbed the first lunch hour and given a crash course in rugby. He went into Osmond house and when he finally settled in was able to excel academically. He learnt to play rugby, becoming quite a good player making the A team. He also performed well at athletics and collected a number of accolades including being awarded the Sandton Mayorial Trophy two years in a row and breaking the record for the 800m. Cecil was not a member of the swimming team and tells the story of how he nearly drowned earning the wrath of Willy Castle. He had been at the school a couple of months, it was the beginning of the summer/spring season and PT shifted to the swimming pool where the boys were going to play water-polo. Being just 12 he thought he could just swim and got into the pool at the deep end and promptly proceeded to sink. Fortunately one of his class mates, Steve the American, spotted him and rescued him. By lunch time the whole school knew that he had nearly drowned and he only started taking lessons two years ago in 2009 overcoming his fear. Cecil enjoyed playing rugby and gradually improved becoming quite a good kicker. His first rugby game was quite funny as he had literally been given a week’s classroom tutorial about the game. He went in as a sub and when he first saw this mean faced, spitting, fuming guy from Parktown Boys barrelling down on him and, even though it was his first game ever, he sensed that if he were to let him go past he would score and right royally embarrass him. He caught him with a high tackle, he didn’t score, they were penalised but didn’t lose any points. This was his debut into 4 years of sweat, pain and fun as well. He remembered a particular rugby game. It was during an U14 game and St David’s was trailing 9-11. He thought they had lost the game, in front of a full crowd waiting to watch the 1st team match against Marist Observatory, the match of the season and compulsory. There were literally a few minutes left to the last whistle and as fullback he was lounging under the poles and then they were awarded a penalty 10 or so metres into their half. He thought that the front would run the ball and attempt a try. Next thing he heard his name being called, the team wanted him to kick for goal and earn 3 points. He told them it was too far and they shouted that he had made those kind of kicks during practise. So all of a sudden everyone was looking at him, the whole place was quiet. He went up, made a nice sand mound and started taking his back-step, only this time he went back at least 20 metres; all the while saying his Hail Marys. He took what felt like a long slow motion run and kicked that ball with all his might. His kick was dead straight and, from his vantage point it looked as if the ball had fallen short. Next thing the whole stadium erupted with jubilation. It took seconds for him to realise that he had scored the penalty from that distance and had also won the school the game. His moment of glory! The first team went on to win their match and on monday he had the pleasure of the whole episode being recounted to the school at assembly. Another game he remembered was an U14 away game at Parktown Boys, the ref was a 1st year student from Wits and half the guys were bigger than Cecil. They had been having a bad season so the game deteriorated pretty quickly and the ref completely lost control with full on brawls on the field. The game was abandoned and Cecil was in a bit of a fix because he planned to walk from Parktown Boys into town to catch his bus home. After the fight he was the only blue and yellow rugby shirt in a sea of black and red. In the spirit of sportsmanship they chuckled about the fights during the game as he made his way to the gate – the year of living dangerously. Most rugby games were a mixture of excitement and fear. There simply weren’t many black children playing rugby and a lot of times Cecil could see the other team marking him up as he got off the bus in all cases to try and make his game a misery. However he was lightning fast and they couldn’t catch him most of the time and his Marist brothers and team mates were always close by to bring woe unto whoever felt the urge to harm him outside the normal rules of the game. Unfortunately because the riots were so bad, he stopped playing rugby in Matric and he didn’t make the 1st team. The teachers he remembered were Mrs Evans for making him feel welcome when he first arrived at St David’s. Mrs Evans caused an explosion during a Chemistry class. She was showing how sodium, he thought, reacted with water. The boys started to urge her to throw in larger chunks and a large explosion followed which the boys thought was awesome but left Mrs Evans very red-faced. Mr Boswell understood where he came from and found a family, the Hoffmeyers for him to stay with during the Matric exams literally saving his life as the Combi he normally travelled in was attacked and he would have been targeted. Mr Colia was always cold and hard but made him want to really prove himself at Maths. Mr Farrel,for enabling him to enjoy History, his only distinction in Matric and Mrs Elliot for teaching him to love Shakespeare. He shocked her by getting a first class English pass for Matric, so much so that she wrote him a card expressing her joy. Cecil was awarded scrolls for History and Biology. He couldn’t participate in school plays etc because the travelling was so difficult. He used to get nervous doing orals in front of the class and remembers talking about his then hobby ballroom dancing which caused some hilarity. On his last day he wrote Afrikaans and stayed with the Hoffmeyers going home the following weekend. He was sad to leave St David’s where he had grown up intellectually and as a person. He had an awesome time and came into an environment where he became good at sport and was given the opportunity to reach new heights. After school Cecil went to Wits to study mining engineering which was a disaster as he realised he was not mechanically inclined. He then went to the University of the Western Cape where he studied for a BSc majoring in Maths and Physics and his minors were in Computer Science and Applied Maths with dreams of working as a nuclear physicist. Later he also completed an MBL through Unisa. Although he was sponsored by BP he was recruited by Engen when his career in IT began. He also worked for the stock exchange, IBM and a start up company for 3 years which failed. He then went on to Dimension Data and worked with Jason Goodall, an Old Boy of the same year, as chief technical officer for Middle and East Africa. Jason is currently the MD of Dimension Data. Cecil is now running his own company; Galeboe Professional Services which has grown 300 – 400%.He is a finalist in the Finance Week competition for entrepreneurs. Cecil is also vice-chairperson of the Unisa Alumni Committee and a non-executive director of the Unisa School of Business Leadership. He has three daughters Jade 13, Tyler 11 and Eisha 6 all pupils at St Teresa’s where his wife went to school. He is a member of MOBS and is in touch with a number of old boys such as Jason Goodall, Branden Aab, Solly Maponya, Walter Cronje, Jeremy Franklin, Eugene Taylor, Paul Johnston and Rees Carr. JLE June 2012
Jason began his career at St David’s in grade 1, 1974; he had spent grade 0 at St Teresa’s as there was then no grade 0 at St David’s. There was a break when in standard 6 his family went to the UK for 9 months but he returned to St David’s until he ... »
Jason began his career at St David’s in grade 1, 1974; he had spent grade 0 at St Teresa’s as there was then no grade 0 at St David’s. There was a break when in standard 6 his family went to the UK for 9 months but he returned to St David’s until he matriculated in 1985. Jason remembered his grade 1 teacher Mrs Busschau, being very proud of his uniform and standing in front of the fountain where his parents took photos. The first boy he met was Gary De Necker who followed him in. He recalls Mr Castle who was a hard task master and ensured the boys got very involved in sport. Jason wasn’t very competitive but was in the U11 cricket team which got to the final of some tournament playing against schools such as Pridwin and KES. In standard 5 he was in the Commonwealth team which beat St Stithians where Jason took a memorable 8 wickets. Some boys were also selected for the area cricket team. Jason was also involved in swimming, tennis, athletics and soccer. His tennis doubles partner was a boy named Lipschitz who ranked in the top 4 in the country, needless to say they did well together. The school was small and the boys were encouraged to take part in all sports. Jason recalled going on a number of tours and one in standard 5 was very exciting in that that they flew to Durban when they played against St Henry’s. In high school in standard 8 he was selected to play for Transvaal and has a photo in the school yearbook. Sport was a big thing and the camaraderie that was born of it. In standard 9 he was selected to play for the 1st team rugby but sadly only played 2 – 3 games as he was concussed and out of the game for the next 4 – 5 weeks. The teachers that stand out in the prep school were Mrs Kempster, Schaafsma, Anderson, Kenesovitch and Mrs Napier who had a heart attack at the school. In the high school there was Trudy Elliott, the English teacher who produced the school play – “Julius Caesar”; Tom Macfaden who taught History, was a fantastic man and typical school master. Jason was involved with the school plays and the Marist co-workers and was instrumental in its early formation being the first chairman. The boys went out to poorer schools and communities and took blankets, clothing and food that they had collected. Jason was also on the junior city council in 1984. Boy’s schools were mainly judged by their performance on the rugby field but St David’s had a good balance between rugby and cultural activities, everyone did everything because it was such a small school. He recalled some usual boys’ nonsense when someone climbed into the roof above the ceiling of the biology laboratory during a lesson and played God, Brother Plesters was teaching at the time. Academically Jason did well and was always in the top 3 throughout prep and high school and was awarded academic colours with an 80% average. He received a tie and scroll, was awarded full colours for cricket, rugby and merit and elected vice head boy. On his last day, he remembers everyone signing each other’s shirts, water and a pool being involved and an end of school party. He wasn’t sad because he knew he would see his school mates again. After matriculating, Jason was fortunate enough to get a bursary from Barlow Rand and went to Wits University where he studied for a BCom and BCom Accounting, eventually becoming a CA doing his articles with Deloitte and Touche. On qualifying he was then employed by the Barlow Rand Group at IBM, becoming the youngest manager and then moved on to Dimension Data in
He is currently COO of Dimension Data Global. Jason feels that one becomes more appreciative of your school, its history and traditions as you get older. He has fond memories of the school being small but still managing to upset some of the bigger schools in competitive sport. The school has become bigger but has improved and is more competitive both sporting and academically. The friendships he made are still important to him today; friendships made then were made for life. He recently summited Kilimanjaro with Rob Scott who was in prep school with him .He is still in touch with Sasha Martinegro; Brett Dykes; Kevin Moran (US); Kevin Schaafsma even though they didn’t go to the same university. Jason is the father of two daughters but, if he had a son he most certainly would have been a pupil at St David’s. Jason is a member of MOBS and has been to some anniversaries celebrating 10 and 20 years and would be interested in participating in a reunion in 2015. He would be happy to be involved more and with such events as the matric rite of passage and would be willing to lend Dimension Data’s name to school fund raising activities. He commented that a number of old boys are putting up their school photos on Facebook. He would like to have access to the yearbooks for his time at St David’s and offered a number of suggestions as to how we could facilitate this. JE August 2012
Interview with Kevin Moran – 1985 Kevin came to St David’s in 1974, grade 1 and remembers being quite nervous and not wanting to go to school. He had his lunch box stolen by Warwick Dredge and he didn’t want to go back to school. However he and Warwick ... »
Interview with Kevin Moran – 1985 Kevin came to St David’s in 1974, grade 1 and remembers being quite nervous and not wanting to go to school. He had his lunch box stolen by Warwick Dredge and he didn’t want to go back to school. However he and Warwick became great friends and still keep in touch. The teachers he remembers are Mrs Eliot, the best one, she was a long time English teacher and instilled in Kevin a love of Shakespeare and he thought she was an excellent teacher. He learnt so much in his last two years with her. Mr Collia was a good Maths teacher despite Kevin’s personal dislike of him. Willy Castle, because he pushed him even though he hated it at the time, however even though he was tough, he was always there to show support in his later years playing rugby in the high school. Kevin thought Mr Boswell was an excellent teacher and fair. He loved Mr McFadden as a funny unique character who knew how to teach for the final exam, but Kevin wouldn’t have recommended his rote style of teaching. There was also a Br Gerard was an amazing man who played in Craven week or its equivalent when he was in high school. He was also spiritual and Kevin found him to be inspirational in his kindness. Many of the teachers really inspired Kevin. He remembers taking an Ad Maths course which was basically the same as the course (1st semester) he took at university which certainly helped him. Kevin remembered Mr Murphy the school’s first lay headmaster who turned out to be a fraud and a professional wrestler and there being a lot of embarrassment when he was found out. Kevin recalled that In grade1 and 2, he loved playing marbles. The headmistress of the grades was an elderly, very kind woman who would point her finger which was bent at the knuckle, probably from arthritis. In the primary school, Willy Castle was his soccer coach and, as Kevin didn’t like soccer, Willy went to fetch him a few times from the bus stop before he could get on the bus. Kevin remembered kind Br Anthony leaving and the more intimidating Br Timothy taking over. Kevin really enjoyed the History tour to Natal. In high school sports became more important and rivalries with other schools became more intense. He loved the swimming and rugby tours. Kevin played in the 1stXV rugby, A and B team swimming, A team water polo and was on and off the athletics team. He was also a member of the All Marist XV team in 1985. However some his worst moments were all sports moments that had nothing to do with the school. Things like playing for the first time in the U12A rugby team in a Currie Cup curtain raiser and being the reason why St David’s lost the game because he could not hook or throw a straight line out. The team never had possession because of him and lost by 24 points. He felt that the team was great and should have won by 20 plus. Another occasion that stands out was when he was playing 1stXV against Marist Observatory when he tried to tackle their best player. He not only stiff armed him but grabbed the back of his collar and dragged him probably 15 metres on his face, much to the delight of Observatory’s entire school. Kevin enjoyed the camaraderie with all his close friends with whom he is still close to this day even though he moved to the USA to go to college and he sees them in South Africa or in the US on a regular basis. Friends,such as Jason Goodall, Mathew Smith, Eugene Taylor and Paul Johnston. He loved playing sports, particularly rugby and despite paying lip service to disliking school, he enjoyed all of it, including the classroom for the most part. What he didn’t enjoy was particularly in the junior school, he didn’t like some of the teachers and how they treated the pupils. He was fine with caning and the like, but some of the more sensitive children were not ok with it and some of the teachers were quite cruel. He now realises that it was a different world back then. In high school Kevin had a personal run in with a Maths teacher, they really disliked each other. The teacher later became the 1st team rugby coach much to Kevin’s dismay. They continued to clash and Kevin didn’t get his rugby scroll.. All he remembers of his last day was that it was spent writing the last final and then all of the matrics running out of school screaming and shouting. Later a group of them stood outside planning their trip to Plett. After matriculating Kevin studied for a Bachelors degree at University of California, Irvine and Juris Doctor (law degree) from the University of the Pacific, McGregor School of law and is now a practising attorney. Nobody in his family went to university, there was no expectation to do so but he had some incredible teachers at St David’s who made it clear that they expected everyone in his class to go to university. Kevin is married living in California with his wife and two daughters aged 6 and 8. JLE June 2013
Interview with Walter Cronje - 1985 Walter started at St David’s in 1977 in standard 2 when his family returned to South Africa from the UK. Walter’s father worked for BP which involved a lot of travelling which made him more forward thinking and open to ... »
Interview with Walter Cronje - 1985 Walter started at St David’s in 1977 in standard 2 when his family returned to South Africa from the UK. Walter’s father worked for BP which involved a lot of travelling which made him more forward thinking and open to new ideas. Mr Manolios was then head of the primary school and Br Timothy head of the high school until Mr Murphy followed by Mr Frielick. He recalls his first day in standard 2 N with Mrs Napier. He wasn’t used to wearing a cap as he hadn’t worn one in the UK and was curtly told to take off his cap when a teacher greeted him. Mrs Napier was scary and had a selection of canes in her office which she used liberally. He remembered one occasion when Matthew Slavin was standing in line waiting for his book to be marked and Mrs Napier put a staple straight through his thumb, there was also another incident involving Ross Alcock. Walter had to write everything in italics with pen and ink and believes that is why he can actually write well today. Walter recalled a school trip in 1978 or 9 to the middle of Soweto. The boys visited a school to hand over donations. Mrs Kenesovitch and HeatherJoseph were involved. He remembers “Julius Caesar” was the standard 5 school play. In primary school Walter learnt to play soccer, although he had played club rugby in England and scored the quickest goal ever. He also played cricket and made the A team. When boys reached standard 4 and 5 soccer stopped, rugby was introduced and the boys played rugby U13, C and D teams for the high school. It was a great idea as the boys were introduced to rugby and became integrated with the high school boys. In the high school Walter played rugby, which was compulsory and cricket and participated in athletics inter-school meetings. He was named the cricket 1st team captain in standard 9 and again in matric. He loved school and became head boy in his matric year. One bad experience he recalls is being asked to play in the open age group when he was currently playing in the U14 team and his father refused. He played in the Beckwith week for 3 years and other tournaments but it was rare in those days for St David’s boys to be selected for provincial teams. Walter was awarded colours for rugby in standard 9 and used to go to the Wanderers U20 rugby practise after cricket practise at school. In Craven Week he and Brett Airey were selected to play together with Sandringham’s forward pack and Sandown’s backs against St Stithians 1st team and they beat them 55-0. Most of the English speaking schools in Johannesburg had excellent teams at matric level but very few boys went forward into the sport as a career unlike James Dalton and Brian Habana. Mr Murphy was well liked a big strong man, a disciplinarian and very strict. Walter remembered that it was decided to put on a school musical “Oliver” and Debby Hurley, the primary school Music teacher was conducting auditions. All the school was herded into the hall and it was chaos, a free for all, Debby Hurley eventually had enough and walked out and everyone calmed down. Mr Murphy walked in and blasted them all saying they had no manners, no respect and shouldn’t treat a female member of staff in such a fashion. He then picked out some boys to go on stage and audition and they all sang beautifully. Another incident occurred when Nick Pruim and some of the boys were hoping to go to Argentina and Mr Murphy made them do 1000 squats, in spite of that they never got to Argentina! The boys saw him on tv on a programme called “Late Nite Owls” showing how people earned a living after hours. Mr Murphy was a professional wrestler performing under the guise of Sean Reagan and was unmasked. The next day Br Anthony turned up and Mr Murphy was never seen again at the school. Walter came second in his class in standard 2 and from then on came first, achieving seven distinctions in his matric. He remembers “Julius Caesar was the standard 5” school play. Some of his school mates were Rommel Gobel, Vusi Wandile, Shongwe Moponya – Solly, his father always wanted his sons to go to a Marist school and Solly’s older brother Isak was also a pupil. Teachers - he will never forget Willy Castle! One of the greatest teachers was Tom MacFaden an ex-Brother who taught History and French, he could get the best out of everybody, was worldly wise, well travelled, well educated and well read. He taught History from matric essays not textbooks, his goal was for everyone to pass matric and go on to university. He is now living in Greece. Trudy Elliot, English teacher who made the boys write a matric essay every weekend or she took their honours blazer away. Mr Collier, an Obs old boy who taught Maths, Heather Joseph, Art in primary school. All the teachers were flamboyant and larger than life. Walter had a number of Biology teachers and remembers that the boys had a record in standard 7 for getting rid of the highest number of Afrikaans teachers. Brother Timothy ran the school as an autocracy not a democracy and wasn’t answering to the voice of the people and if the class didn’t like a particular teacher they just had to put up with it. Walter believes that there is too much leniency these days rewarding mediocrity and feels strongly that most especially in a boys school there needs to be a rigid line of discipline. He recalled Br Bernard caning a boy for accidentally knocking a rubber off his desk, the boys knew the rules and if they were contravened there were consequences. Walter cannot recall anyone at school with him having ADD of being hyperactive. The boys started school at 7.15am and after school there was sport either competitive or practise sessions up until 6.00pm and then they had to go home and do their homework. One of the negative things Walter recalls was being told at each assembly of former pupils who had been killed whilst on border duty. A former pupil Andrew Petit who scored a hole in one whilst at school winning a car sponsored by Volkswagen was one of those who went to the border and was killed. Walter was one of the last young men to do military service after varsity and felt that it had given him a different perspective and the ability to judge what’s important and what’s not. In his final matric year, Walter remembered Religious instruction classes were a farce and as a consequence a decision was made to send all the non-Catholics to a retreat at Hartbeespoort. Two Computer Science teachers were assigned to supervise the boys. The retreat ended up in a drunken mess, boys went off in their parent’s boats on the dam and walked out of the camp. The boys’ honours blazers were taken away and, because of this you won’t find many boys of that time coming back to St David’s. Sadly of the 30 – 40 matrics who were expected to get the highest number of distinctions ever, only achieved 13, the timing of the retreat was appalling. Walter feels that if there should have been a more visible handing over interim phase with the brothers on hand to instil the Marist ethos and way to the lay teachers and Heads which would have helped enormously. Unfortunately the brothers seemed to disappear and just hand over to the lay teachers. In all likelihood the school could not have afforded to entice a top principal at the time, the school certainly didn’t have the funds to replace the school bus. Walter is currently with the Jardine Lloyd Group. Walter was chairman of MOBS for 2 years from 2000 and was on the board of governors from 2005 – 2010 as he felt the need to sustain the long term stability of the school. If you want continuity and change it is often difficult to get the right people to serve and a strong board is needed. The Foundation was a concept to raise enough capital to enable previously disadvantaged and needy boys to be able to attend St David’s. JLE May 2012
