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Interview with Gordon Tonetti – 1986
Gordon came to St David’s in 1974 going into grade 1 in the same classroom where Carol Ansell now
teaches. Carol taught him together with Heather Joseph, Willy Castle, Mrs Schaafsma and Mrs Napier. Mrs
Napier who taught him in standard 2 to 3 would throw her blackboard duster at you if you talked in class.
Gordon admits to belonging to a naughty crowd, didn’t do much studying and was often jacked by Willy
Castle and Terry O’Mahoney. In fact the boys used to compete to see who got the most jacks! Mr Murphy
was the headmaster in standard 6 but didn’t last long and Br Anthony came back for a term before Mr
Frielick was appointed. Gordon’s group was the smallest matric group in years.
Gordon’s father was a former pupil of St David’s and vice head boy matriculating in 1954, and Gordon’s
grandfather attended a Marist school overseas. His father recalled when at the age of 6, he was put on a
train in Barberton and was told he would be met by one of the Brothers at the Johannesburg station. He
arrived but no-one was there to meet him, eventually a policeman spotted him and asked him why he was
there alone. The policeman called his family in Barberton who then contacted the school and at long last
one of the Brothers arrived to collect him.
Gordon was a good sportsman and was awarded 5 scrolls for athletics and rugby and captained a few
teams . He played 1st team rugby throughout his high school career and was a member of the A and B
swimming teams, but didn’t play cricket. In standard 5 the school had a strong rugby team but sadly many
of its members left and went to St John’s whilst Br Timothy was headmaster. Gordon loved the athletics
and the long distance running, he held the long distance record in his time and regrets not having been
pushed further as he could have done a lot better. He has started running again recently.
Mark Reeves’s sister was a swimming coach, a tough battleaxe and Mrs Mah, another coach would see a
storm coming up but wouldn’t let the boys leave the pool. On one occasion lightening struck where the
clock tower now stands, hitting a line of wattle trees, a third of one tree was split and came crashing down.
Mrs Mah screamed like crazy to get the boys out of the pool.
He recalled that if a fight started in the playground during break the boys would move the fight to the 1st
team rugby field but as soon as the boys saw any teachers they all disappeared.
When sport finished Gordon would use the tickey (phone) box, call his home and just say “pick up”, put the
phone down immediately and thus had the call for free. The schooling was different back then and Gordon
wasn’t awarded an honours blazer but was given an open scroll for athletics in standard 9.
Sondiwe Nyirenda and his brother were enrolled in 1975 as the first black boys in the school. A good
sportsman, he and Gordon became good friends but they sadly lost touch after he left in standard 5.
Gordon’s younger brother Trevor was sent from St David’s to CBC Pretoria as Gordon had a run in with
Trudy Elliott.
Gordon was academically average but enjoyed his school career. In high school Gordon was taught by P.
Collier, Ms Howard, Mr Moore, Mr Kaliphy, Mr McFadden and Br Ephrem taught Science. Father Brewer
was the chaplain, a very nice man who was very involved with the boys.
Gordon remembers an Afrikaans camp in standard 4 and a camp at Golden Gate in standard 5. In standard
9 there was the religious camp but because of problems with the non-catholic camp at Hartbeespoort the
catholic boys camp was very controlled and not much fun.
Gordon regrets the fact that corporal punishment is no longer allowed and felt that it played a significant
role in the discipline of the boys.
As it was an all boy’s school the boys had no contact with girls except for every two years when they
participated in a school play with St Teresa’s. Nowadays the boys aren’t as awkward around girls as they
were then.
After matriculating, Gordon attended the technikon for a diploma in engineering, which involved studying for
6 months and working for 6 months. After gaining his diploma he did his military service and then went
overseas for a couple of years. On his return he bought his business from his father. It was a very shaky
period for the business at the time but he pulled it through and the company did well.
Gordon is married to Helen and his son Liam attends St David’s, currently in grade 5. Gordon wasn’t too
sure about the school but Rick Wilson convinced him it was the school for his sons. The school has
changed a lot for the better from the time Gordon was a pupil.
Gordon is a member of MOBS and is currently a member of the MOBS committee.
JLE November 2014
NB Gordon has photos from his father’s time at the school in the 50’s

Interview with Andrew Kirkland – 2005
Andrew came to St David’s from Bryandale Primary in 2000, he was accompanied by three other boys
including Sean Howell; Curtis Montgomery. He had to jockey for position amongst the majority of boys who
had graduated from the prep school and who already knew each other, however he made friends quite
quickly.
The Glenmore camp was a big introduction for him, helping him to settle down into the school and Osmond
house.
He found it to be very different from a co-ed school, with a lot more direction and team building and with
hindsight the camp was pretty good.
The main reason he wanted to attend St David’s was because of the sport and his keen interest in cricket,
having played provincial cricket at primary school level. St David’s had a more personal side to its sporting
activities. Andrew played A team cricket all the way through high school. He was always the smallest boy in
the team and at the age of 15 and 16 he struggled. In another school Andrew believes he wouldn’t have
had the same opportunities. After grade 9, Andrew went through a slump in his cricket then picked up again
and did well. He was the top run scorer in the 2004 Beckwith week and subsequently got selected for the
U17A Gauteng team. He followed that up with the second leading run scorer in the 2-05 Beckwith week
and selected for the Gauteng U19B.
Highlights were the Australian Tour in 2003, when he was in grade 10 playing in the Marist Schools festival
in Bunbury in Perth, winning every game and beating St Josephs, the top Marist cricket school in Australia.
In the final game they played against St Gregory’s and lost by 1 run. The boys on the tour became very
close and still keep in touch. The highlight was winning the Beckwith week as leading run scorer and
achieving his specific honours for cricket in grade 11.
Andrew played B team rugby in grade 8, but it wasn’t the sport for him and in grade 9 he made the change
to hockey and played 1st team from grade 10. Through hockey he became friends with Kelsey Stewart and
Bryce Wray and attended provincial training camps in 2004. Alex Gitlin was very involved with the hockey
and was a good but very tough coach culminating in a successful Malaysian hockey tour and peaking at the
independent schools tournament at St Andrews in Grahamstown for their centenary anniversary where St
David’s won all their games. Andrew remains friends with Alex today.
Andrew was awarded an honours blazer, full colours for cricket and hockey, winning cricketer of the year in
2004 and 2005 and was sportsman of the year in 2005.
Andrew recalls his matric dance as being a bit of a disaster, he didn’t get the date he wanted and he was in
charge of the limo’s for the evening. They got there alright but the limo didn’t come to fetch them until the
early hours of the morning so they missed the after party.
Academically Andrew did alright but sport took first place and only when he reached varsity did he realise
what studying was all about.
The teachers he remembers most are Mr R Smith, housemaster and English –also taught the boys life
lessons; Mrs D. King another excellent English teacher; Mr D. Smith – Geography; Simon Holderness -
Maths, he organised the Malaysian hockey tour in 2004 and Mr Gitlin – hockey. Paul Edey was the most
well respected headmaster and an incredible guy, when he spoke the boys listened.
After matriculating, Andrew acquired enough points to be accepted to study for a BSc Construction and
BSc Hons at Wits University. Andrew also played cricket at Wits and originally wanted to play cricket for
Hampshire, England but there were many delays and he ended up studying at Wits for 5 years which
turned out to be better for him in the long run. During his first year there he felt he had a definite advantage
coming from St David’s as much of the work in the first year was covered, especially Maths that he had
done before. He did well in his thesis coming first. It was the first academic prize he had ever won and his
father teased him about it. It was quite hard going through university as he was also working for his father.
Andrew was involved with the organisation of old boys versus Ist team cricket eleven in August this year
with the old boys the victors. He also participated in the One Touch soccer events for the past two years.
Andrew currently works in the family business Spiral Engineering, specialising in structural steel
architectural steel and spiral staircases, winning the steel award for the Malapa Beetle Project in the Cradle
of Humankind in 2014 in conjunction with Wits University. Andrew is project manager having graduated
from small accounts to larger ones. He was involved with numerous steel projects such as Soccer City,
Wits building rejuvenation, Standard Bank, Rosebank but unfortunately, with the labour problems
experienced of late the company has been forced to limit their projects. The company is involved with
community projects such as the Cosmo City Creche, the Malapa Beetle Project in the Cradle of
Humankind.
Andrew is a Member of MOBS and any son of his would definitely come to St David’s.
JE October 2014

Interview with Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh – 2003
Gareth came to St David’s in 1999 from Rembrandt Park Primary School. Gareth’s father was a devout
catholic and Gareth had had experience of the school when it hosted various primary school sporting
events, and he liked what he saw.
He remembers that on his first day he was collected from the “Thatch” by prefects and taken to the
amphitheatre, he was overwhelmed by both the size of the prefects and that of the school. As he was the
only pupil coming from Rembrandt Park he didn’t know anyone but by the end of the day he began to fit it.
The grade 8 camp was a great ice breaker and initiative where he got to know everyone. After three days
the grade 8 boys went off to camp during their second week at St David’s. Belonging to a specific house
gave you an immediate identity and Gareth was selected for Osmond.
Initially the jump in academics was quite a shock but the teachers helped to make it manageable. It was at
first strange coming from a co-ed environment into a monastic one but by the end of the first term Gareth
was enjoying the change. He now firmly believes it to be a good thing to be in an all boys environment
during high school. He grew not only academically but learnt how to be a man in today’s society which he
appreciated enormously.
The teachers he remembers in particular are Shane Gaffney, Graeme McMillan who was at times quite
scary, Rod Smith, Colleen Kennedy and Paul Edey. They were good role models and one of the reasons
why Gareth has chosen teaching as his profession.
His last year as head boy was an unbelievable year as far as the sport was concerned. St David’s won the
Johnny Waite Cricket, had an unbeaten soccer side, and the rugby team beat KES and Jeppe on their
home territories for the first time. Gareth believes that, especially in a boys school, if the sport is going well
then the general school vibe reflects that and is good and positive.
Gareth had heard that the position of head boy was a lonely one, however he had massive support from his
peer group and, so far it was the most enjoyable year of his life. He had a good relationship with Paul Edey
and Malcolm Williams who took over the headship in 2003.
Gareth was captain of soccer and cricket teams and was awarded honours for soccer, cricket and general
honours.
He played provincial cricket U17 and U19 and had a professional contract with Wits University for one year
in 2003.
Academically, Gareth did very well and earned 3 A’s and 3 B’s in his matric. Dave Smith helped him to
catch up on the Geography syllabus in the matric year as Gareth needed the subject to enable him entry to
the USA. The teaching staff was always willing to go the extra mile for the boys. Gareth was awarded a
Champagnat Medal and won the Brother Edwin Award for Cricketer of the Year; the St David’s Marist old
Boys Soccer Trophy; the Desmond Schatz Trophy for Sportsman of the Year; the Old Boys Trophy for
Leadership and Promotion of the Marist Spirit and the Osmond Cup for study, sport and leadership.
After matriculating, Gareth went on a soccer scholarship to the US to Gannon University in Pennsylvania
for three and half years. He studied for a BA English and PGCE or Postgraduate Certificate in Education,
graduating Suma Cum Laude.. He was tempted to stay in the US but his family was still here in South
Africa and in the US the educational system is different and teachers don’t coach sport. He returned to
South Africa and taught English in the high school from 2008 -9 and went on to KES in 2010 and became
head of English there in 2012. He was appointed deputy head of the primary school at St David’s in 2014,
is learning a lot from Willy Castle with good systems in place.
Gareth was also instrumental in getting soccer up and running in the high school together with Shane
Gaffney in 2002 into 2003.
Gareth is an active member of MOBS .
JLE March 2014

Interview with Earl Morais – 1989
Earl came to St David’s with his brother in 1980 as their parents wanted them to have a good education. As
far as he is aware they were the first coloured boys to be admitted to the school. His brother Kurt started in
grade 0 and Earl in standard 2 with Mrs Hayley as his first teacher. The boys both started a week late after
the school term had begun and were interviewed by Mr Manolios.
It was quite a culture shock for Earl with only one black pupil, Siphiso, in his class having come from a coeducational
environment into a monastic one. Compared to his previous school, he found St David’s to be
very competitive from a sporting perspective. Earl couldn’t swim a stroke and Willy Castle, his Physical
Education teacher told him to just get into the pool and I will teach you how to swim. Earl was an
accomplished swimmer by the time he left St David’s.
The teachers he remembers are of course Willy Castle to whom he feels he owes a lot; Mrs Anderson, a
strict Afrikaans teacher; Mrs Bowles, standard 3; Mr Buchanan, standard 4. Mr Kotze, standard 5 ; Ms
Joseph –Art ; Mr Bronkhorst – Sport and in the high school he recalls Mrs De Wet, standard 8 ; Mr De
Sousa, standard 9; Mr Hill; Mr Van Rooyen, standard 7; Mrs Marais, standard 10; Mr Webster, standard 6 ;
Mr Finlayson, high school sport(rugby) and Mrs Trudy Elliott who was a magnificent English teacher. Br
Ephraim was a disciplinarian but very popular.
The paddock was where the Mini-Marist is now based and George the tractor driver working with Willy Van
De Merwe kept the fields in pristine condition. Willy was a mechanic, builder, canoeist and runner. Mr
Norton was also a canoeist and Willy Castle encouraged Willy to run.
The retreats were an eye opener and often quite difficult but the teachers handled the situation well. Movies
were always organised by Willy Castle on the last day of school and soccer clinics during the school
holidays which his sons now attend. Mass was held every Friday but that didn’t mean that Earl and his
brother didn’t have to attend church on Sundays as well.
Earl remembers the RAPS plays and that Mrs Elliott had a personal relationship with Atholl Fugard which
resulted in the boys performing one of his plays set as if the audience and cast were in church. The boys
won their round of the competition but were not allowed to go to Grahamstown because of the deemed
racist content of the play.
Earl also has fond memories of a “Can-Can” show in standard 3 where the boys dressed up as girls and
thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Earl was a member of Osmond House, became vice-captain and played basketball with the courts situated
where the Champagnat hall now stands.
The matric dance was held in the school hall with the standard 9’s and 10’s. Earl is still friends with many of
his contemporaries and they intend to celebrate their 25 year reunion this year.
Earl’s biggest love was boxing from an early age but he still had to participate in other sport whilst at St
David’s. After leaving school he went to the University of Durban-Westville to study for a BSc for a year
until the family experienced financial difficulties. He went on to become a professional boxer and became
the South African National Cruiserweight Champion from 2000 to 2004 and the World Boxing Association
Champion from 2002 to 2003. He attributes his success to his upbringing at St David’s with teachers like
Willy Castle instilling the motivation and pride required. “Confortare esto vir” Take courage and be a man.
Seeing it as a means to an end, Earl retired from boxing in 2008. He is involved with auto-gas, refitting
taxis to use gas as a fuel and now owns his own company, Greennovation making buildings more energy
efficient and is involved with various government departments,
Earl’s father always dreamt that his grandsons would attend St David’s and Earl’s two sons are in grade 0
and grade 7 with a daughter who attends, Auckland Park Preparatory School carrying on the tradition set
by his parents.
His brother Kurt intends sending his boys to St David’s as well when they return from abroad. He currently
works at the World Bank head office in Washington.
JLE May 2014

Brother Jude
Br Jude started teaching at Marist Observatory in 1963 and subsequently from 1965 until 1974, he was
stationed at Walmer, Port Elizabeth. He was appointed Brother Provincial at the end of 1974, at a time
in when the brothers were grappling with a number of issues. Among others, there had been a drop in
the number of pupils attending the schools, a declining number of brothers and discussion about the
possible consolidation of some schools. Already in the second half of the sixties, to assist with the
running of the schools, advisory committees were introduced. These were followed in due course by
administrative boards and finally the board of governors
In the early 1970’s there was discussion among the congregations of sisters and brothers running the
Catholic schools in South Africa about the desegregation of “white” Catholic schools .While already in
1957 the Catholic Bishops Conference had declared that “Apartheid was intrinsically evil”, other than
attendance at Church services and gatherings, Catholic institutions had, by and large, remained racially
separate.
While a few schools had already admitted black children at the start of the 1975 academic year, ironically
it was the South African government itself which provided a catalyst. In the early 1970’s,the government
was desperately trying to establish diplomatic relations with other African countries and eventually
managed to do so with Malawi. This however presented a problem for the government when it came to
considering where the children of diplomatic staff were going to go to school. They could not be enrolled
at a “black state school” because of the dire standard of schooling in these schools nor at a “white state
school”, something which would have been completely contrary to state policy. The result was that the
government gave “permission” for the children to be enrolled at “white “Catholic schools. As a
consequence St David’s and St Theresa’s Convent School, Rosebank, were among those who admitted
the children of Malawian diplomatic officials in March 1975.
See article “Focus on the black child in search of education” by Linda Vergnani -Sunday Tribune, 16
March 1975.
Attempts to meet with the administrator of the Transvaal, Mr Sybrand van Niekerk, to discuss the
admission of local black pupils to “white” Catholic schools proved futile. This resulted in Catholic schools
in the Cape and the Transvaal quietly admitting black pupils.
Early in 1977 the media broke the story about the number of black children that were being educated in
“”white” Catholic schools in the country. This resulted in the administrators of the Transvaal and Cape
Provinces both issuing statements that all children admitted illegally should be removed immediately and
the schools would face deregistration. The then minister of national education, Piet Koornhof, intervened
and a series of meetings followed. These finally resulted in a cabinet decision in December 1977 that
while the government could not condone what Catholic schools had done, the children who had been
admitted illegally could remain in the schools but there would be no more admissions without the
express permission of the provinces. Application with full motivation had to be made for each and every
pupil. The Catholic schools were informed of the cabinet decision and were encouraged to submit their
applications before the beginning of the new academic year in January 1978. In the Cape all but one
application, due to reasons of age, were accepted. In Natal there were not many applications but all
submitted were accepted. In the Transvaal, by the day before schools were due to reopen, no response
had been received from the provincial authorities. At a hastily convened meeting of the provincials and
principals concerned a decision was taken to go ahead with the admission of all pupils whose names
had been submitted. On the day that schools reopened, school inspectors descended on the school to
check on admissions.
This resulted in further meetings with both the administrator and the minister with the Catholic schools
standing firm on their admission of children regardless of racial classification. These meetings continued
over the next few years with the Catholic schools continuing to admit pupils with ongoing opposition from
the Transvaal authorities. Finally, towards the end of 1982 legislation was passed which allowed the
admission of black pupils to schools registered with the provincial education departments.
For years the private schools in South Africa registered with the provincial education departments had
struggled with the government for school subsidies, these were finally granted in the early 1980’s. Not
long thereafter the government attempted unsuccessfully to use the subsidies to enforce a quota system
on the admission of black children.
From mid-1980 opposition to apartheid and its structures increased significantly resulting in the
declaration of two states of emergency. In an attempt to crush opposition the state security forces
targeted the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Council of Churches and the
Catholic Bishops Conference. Within a space of months COSATU House, Khotso House, the
headquarters of the South African Council of Churches and Khanya House, the headquarters of the
Catholic Bishops Conference were destroyed.
The 70’ were tough times for the brothers and the Marist schools in South Africa, times requiring much
consultation and discernment. The brothers looked at their number and ages (at the end of 1974 there
were 68 Brothers in SA) and realised that the majority were likely to lose, through death, the majority of
the brothers in the province at the time within the twenty years or so. The situation was aggravated by
the small number of local vocations and the fact that there were no longer brothers coming to South
Africa from Europe. They were also faced with the fact that there were fewer brothers available to take
on positions of responsibility. Also of concern were the very significant discrepancies in facilities between
black and white Catholic schools. They were also conscious of the call of Vatican 2 for lay people to be
given their rightful place within the church and church structures and felt the need to honour it and allow
lay people to take on positions of authority within their schools. This eventually resulted in the first lay
headmaster being appointed to a Marist school in South Africa, Linmeyer in 1977. This proved to be very
controversial and took some years before the appointment of lay people to senior promotional posts was
accepted. Another move was that of withdrawing brothers from senior Marist school positions and
making them available to work within black Catholic schools where there a significantly greater need.
Thus Br Anthony left St David’s and together with Br Christopher, went to set up a mission in Slough, a
resettlement area on the edge of the Kalahari. Some people incorrectly interpreted these initiatives as
signs that the brothers were abandoning the “white” community.
The brothers also had to face two other significant challenges besides the matter of opening all
promotional posts to lay people and the withdrawal of brothers from the other schools to make brothers
available in areas of greater need, namely the issue of co-education and the desegregation of the
schools already referred to earlier. With the pending closure of several convent schools in the 1980’s
because of the declining numbers of religious sisters, the question arose whether the brothers would be
prepared to admit girls to what were at the time their “boys” only schools. The brothers were open to the
schools becoming co-educational institutions, a position not shared by all the members of the Marist
family. The first of the Marist schools in South Africa to become co-educational was Sacred Heart
College, Observatory. This followed decisions taken by the Ursuline Sisters and Holy Family Sisters to
close their schools and link up with what was at the time Marist Observatory. When the La Rochelle
Convent school was due to close there was some initial opposition from the board at Linmeyer but this
gave way and Marian College, Linmeyer, became co-ed as well. In the 1970’s and 80’s pupil numbers
dropped at both St David’s and Rosebank Convent and the respective school authorities looked into
integrating the two schools. For a variety of reasons this was not pursued.
Brother Jude was Brother Provincial from 1974 until 1983. In 1985 he was asked by the Catholic Bishops
Conference to set up the Catholic Institute of Education which thirty years on, continues to provide a
great service to the Catholic schools in the country. At the time he was a member of the St David’s
community. In 1988 he was asked to take over as Secretary General of the Bishop’s Conference of
Southern Africa, a position he held until 1995 when he was again appointed as Provincial of South
Africa. In 1998 a series of consultations took place within the Southern African region to form a single
Marist Province in Southern Africa. In April 1999 these resulted in the formation of the new Province of
Zambia and Zimbabwe. A year later Angola became the sixth country to be a member of the Province.
Br Jude served as Provincial of the new province from 1999 until 2004.
The issue of the sale of land where the “Inandas” now stand was in reality necessary as the brothers and
schools were experiencing a very tough financial situation at the time. The school was only using a
portion of the land available to it and the question was whether the school would actually need the corner
section in the future. The property was in fact zoned as agricultural at the time with its corresponding
property evaluation. The brothers looked at various ways of handling the sale. What was finally entered
into was an agreement with a developer which allowed for the brothers to benefit from the progressive
development of the property. In terms of the partnership arrangement that was entered into, the brothers
gained not just from the initial sale of the property as agricultural land but from each successive stage of
the whole development process as the land was rezoned and the units were finally sold.
July 2015

Interview with Tristan Schafer – 2010
Tristan came to St David’s in grade 0 in 1998, the year that grade 0 first started. A photo of himself and
Brendan Mitchell appeared in the local paper at the time.
On his first day he didn’t know anyone and Mrs Milne was his teacher. He remembers that Mrs Milne taught
the boys the alphabet with “Letter Land” and each week a new letter would appear on the chalk board and
one of the boys would be assigned to that letter. Tristan loved the twisty bread which he bought with
tokens and loved running around the playground and the jungle gym.
Mrs Nieman was his grade 1 teacher and he found all the teachers to be quite different, Mr Sinclair who
was extremely well read; Mrs McWilliams; Mr Thackwell an awesome English teacher; Gareth Dry who
brought a huge amount of professionalism and a completely different element to the school, Tristan was in
the choir and sang at the Linder auditorium in grade 6. He remembers the choir received a standing ovation
and also went on tour to the Drakensberg Boys Choir School. The headmaster, Rick Wilson used to come
and read to the boys regularly and his favourite story was that of “King Solomon’s Mines”.
Tristan was not a very good Soccer player but enjoyed the game and the Soccer clinics run by Willy Castle.
He got involved with Canoeing in Grade 5 and with other sport in Grade 7 and swam in the B team and A
team Water Polo until the age of 16 when he concentrated on paddling.
Tristan was an altar server for 5 years from grade 6 until grade 10, with Father Michael who was awesome
and also when Bishop Tigale came to the school. Tristan is not very religious but is a spiritual person.
Tristan connected more with the teachers in high school. In grade 9 he chose to do Business Studies but
hated it and then changed to Art with Anneke Carter, winning the Art prize 3 years in a row; Mohammed
Jena taught Maths and was an awesome teacher who gave a lot of his time and took the boys on a Maths
boot camp before matric; Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh was an old boy teaching English with whom you could
connect. Other teachers who stand out are Stephan Bauer and Bridget Fleming, Geography; Belinda
Marais who was kind hearted; Gareth Kolkenbek-Ruh and Gareth Dry with whom he did film study
“Shawshank Redemption“, “The Mission” and ”Tsotsi” incorporating visual arts, Music, and writing with all
art forms in one which was very creative.; Rod Smith was a cool guy, all the English teachers were good;
Simon Holderness was a great Maths teacher and rugby coach; Shane Lotter who took golf to a different
level; Will van den Berg; Dave Smith. The teachers were all there for the boys supporting a tradition which
holds the school together.
Tristan enjoyed the grade 8 camp, loved playing rugby and water polo and supported 1st team rugby. He
also enjoyed the weekly war cries practices. He still misses eating lunch at break with his pals, there was a
massive feeling of brotherhood and they all helped each other out. His best friends now are boys he got to
know in grade 0. A notable thing is that many of the boys in Tristan’s year went into diverse and
unconventional careers following their passion and included quite a few entrepreneurs. Brad Latilla-
Campbell went to Harvard, Barry Morisse studied Drama at Wits, Chaid White plays soccer for Jomo
Cosmos and Matthew Rigby studied Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch.
2010 was a great year for sport and gave something for the grade 8’s to aim for. The school needs that
kind of continuation. The negative thing that year for Tristan was that the prefects room and that privilege
was taken away and also that Chris Brown, climber who represented South Africa was not given an
honours blazer.
Canoeing or paddling was started at St David’s in 1995 by Willem van der Merwe a very kind hearted man
who helped many boys to find their niche in canoeing. Tristan went on prep and high school canoeing tours
which he found really cool and many of the boys became Springboks. In grade 10 Tristan was canoeing
captain with only 5 boys in the team but by the end of the year there were 25. Tristan firmly believes that
sport should be fun and is to be enjoyed.
Tristan became a prefect and was head of The Bishop’s with Gabriel Ally as head boy. Tristan was
awarded an honours blazer for canoeing and was a peer counsellor in grade 11. In 2010 for the first time,
all the prefects went on a camp with the grade 8’s and Francesco Mariano, head boy 2014, was Tristan’s
mentee.
After Matriculating, Tristan went onto study at Afda Film School covering acting, film and TV. He continued
to coach the school canoeing team for 3 years until Willem left. Whilst studying, Tristan won a few awards
with other students including the Ster-Kinekor Vision Mission award creating an advertisement for
disadvantaged children which he directed and wrote. Whilst on an exchange at Chapman University in the
US, Tristan was involved with a graduation film group that won pretty much all the categories.
Tristan has now started his own company “Old Soul Films” and is adopting that approach to storytelling and
is hoping to get into web advertising and web series especially in the US, Europe and the East.
Tristan was also involved in some charity work with Absa making 3 short films going into communities and
uplifting them. This included a bakery in Westbury that feeds the local children; a young artist in Alexandra
who was abused as a child; a woman from Somalia documenting her story and how life in Johannesburg
compares favourably to Somalia. He was paid for doing these films but then followed up on his own. Tristan
is also doing some pro-bono work for a girls’ orphanage in Malawi where the girls are taught sewing skills.
He will be filming a short documentary and will be involved in the building and construction of the sewing
room.
Tristan is a member of MOBS and would certainly send any sons he may father to St David’s.
JLE June 2015

Interview with Teresa Voorendyk - Staff – 1997 to date
Teresa joined the staff of St David’s in 1997 together with Dave Smith and Stuart Foulds. She was
appointed as librarian and English teacher by Paul Edey, the same position she had with her former
employer KES. She recalled being interviewed by Paul Edey, Gary Norton and the head of English, Richard
Girdwood.
In her first year she taught two English classes and MUG (media user guidance) to the grade 8’s and 9’s.
Teresa shared the library facility together with the prep school librarian, Mary Clover. With the different
teaching hours and timetables, the conditions were not ideal however she enjoyed the freedom to buy
books and encouraged her library monitors to select books within an allocated budget she set them.
Teresa eventually moved into teaching English full-time and was peripatetic for a few years until she
inherited her present classroom from Liz Sheratt.
Teresa has filled a number of roles in her time with the school being, head of English, housemistress of
Benedict, mentor to the matric group and now being head of Life Orientation, she has enthusiastically run
the long distance running activity at the school and also takes the boys on corporate relays and other runs
outside of school.
She has seen people come and go with many changes some good some not so good. She has so many
memories of events, individuals, matric groups, and the long distance runners and now some of the pupils
she taught are colleagues such as Matthew Schneider, Richard Carey and Kyle Biller. She recalls the
matric group of 2005 as being very special, they were an odd ball bunch of characters but she had a close
bond with them. She still sees some of “her” runners, many of whom have continued to compete after
leaving school.
Teresa has been very happy at St David’s. It has become a very busy school and initially she and other
colleagues were able to attend all the events and functions but now there are too many to cope with. In
1997 there were 42 boys in matric which are now 112 and with 610 in the school. Previously there was time
to talk to each other and the boys, now it is not quite the close knit community it used to be. The school is
competent in so many areas and so many things. Teresa knew not only the names of the boys she taught
but of all the boys in the high school, now there are far too many. She realises that St David’s has to move
with the times and has to compete with other schools.
Teresa prides herself on being the only high school teacher who still has a blackboard in her classroom.
This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t use technology and is not IT illiterate but she prefers the old way of
teaching.
For sometime Teresa was responsible for the school’s trophies, taking over from Father Brewer when he
became ill. This has now been taken over by Karina George and Teresa is grateful that she no longer has
to track down and ensure the return of the many trophies, ensuring they were in good condition and
engraved every year in time for prize giving.
Teresa always enjoys seeing the old boys and there are very few of whom she has negative memories.
She helped many of the boys without charge, some appreciated this and others took it for granted.
Of her colleagues she remembers Paul Edey who made people believe in themselves, he was warm and
kind and made her feel special and she valued that she mattered. Although she initially didn’t get on with
him, she ended up teaching grade 10’s with Rod Smith and he was immensely supportive when she was
made housemaster. She regards Willy Castle as very special and she would run through a brick wall for
him. During her bleakest year in 2005, he encouraged her to run the Comrades marathon and she hasn’t
looked back since. He has been her mentor, friend, running partner and has the ability to make people
believe in themselves.
Teresa has changed direction in her career and is happy to remain at St David’s until she retires; she
regards St David’s as her home. St David’s is a special place and the pride and tradition doesn’t just belong
to the men and the boys and old boys. She was greatly affected by the “bus incident” and how it impacted
on the school and finds it difficult to understand the mentality of the matrics and their expectations of how
they want to treat the grade 8’s.
Teresa believes that the school needs staff that understands and relate to what the staff actually do here
and are prepared to contribute. One has to believe in what one is doing and that not every day is going to
be fun.
JLE February 2014

A5 Booklet compiled by the Marist Brothers

Rules compiled by Willy Castle for the Port Elizabeth football tour 2000

A5 programme 5 pages

5 colour programe. 12 pages

2 pages of school stationery