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Old Boys Assembly Speech by Batana Vundla

  • ZA ZAR STDS 20220004
  • Unidad documental simple
  • June 7 2019

Thank you very much to the Chairman of the Old Boy’s Committee – JP, for the warm introduction.
Good Morning Mr Thiel, to all the staff, parents, Old Boy’s and the whole College. It is a tremendous honour to be invited to our annual Old Boy’s Assembly to share a few thoughts and memories of my time here, whilst also sharing with you, what I have been up to ever since.
I arrived at St David’s in 1983. A petrified 5yr old who had no idea of what to expect. I was placed in Ms Walton’s class – the sweetest, caring and most loving grade nought teacher you could ever wish to have.
She completely embodied St Marcellin Champagnat’s belief that: ‘To teach children well, you must first love them, and love them equally.’
BUT, to be PAINFULLY honest, excuse the pun, there were also teachers who embodied the belief that ‘you have to love them equally, as well as BEAT them equally’. There was no discrimination!
The 80’s, like most decades in South Africa’s history and present unfortunately, was a challenging time.
Throughout Jnr school whenever the June 16th commemorations came about all the kids who lived in Soweto had to dress up in civvies to avoid being attacked by rioters for attending what were previously white only schools. There were literally teenagers creating roadblocks to check each car driving to the north if any children in a vehicle were wearing school uniforms.
We have a lot to be grateful for, for how some things have changed.
To avoid such situations I was invited by the Von Guilleaume family to stay over at their house. It was no wonder that Michael Von Guilleaume became the headboy in 1995.
In High School you could say I found my feet.
I was incredibly privileged to be part of an amazing generation of rugby players. From standard 6 to Matric, bar injuries I played with the same bunch of lads. Our first game in 1995 against Bryanston High was on the same day as the Rugby World Cup.
I remember revving ourselves up by saying if we win this game the Springboks will win the World Cup. We won!
We had the perfect rugby team.
Our front row were massive boy’s, our locks were tall and angry, our lossies were quick and athletic. Our backline was made up of a Zulu fly half who loved to run from the dead ball line, a half Greek, half Afrikaans inside centre alongside an Italian Stallion outside center, Simone Gallizio, may his soul rest in peace.
Our no.11, 14 and 15 were black boys who ran like we were being chased by Apartheid cops.
That same year St David’s had its first overseas rugby tour to Australia. The highlight of the tour was like a scene out movie. We were two tries down with a conversion needed to seal a win. In front of a packed stadium, with some of the crowd chanting monkey noises, with a few minutes left, first our fullback Karabo Denalane side step his way to the try line. Then from the kick off, deep in our half, after the full time buzzer had rang, through multiple phases the ball landed in my
hands. Touch down in the right hand corner. Our fly half Sydney Ngwenya slotted the conversion straight through the middle.
Such memories I will never forget.
But what has truly stayed within me, isn’t the rugby victories, in hindsight is our Marist motto.
Confortare Esto Vir, Take courage and be a man.
I'm not trying to be convoluted or overly sentimental but I believe that my school upbringing shaped
the man, human being, South African that I am today. After a stint at Wits then UCT I have ended being a filmmaker by profession.
My first big budget film which, I co-originated and co-produced, was released in 2017, it ended up being South Africa’s nomination for the 2018 best foreign language Oscars film. It came close but no cigar.
The film centred around a closeted gay relationship between two Xhosa men who are caregivers during a Xhosa initiation ceremony. For those who don’t know every year young Xhosa boys from the age of 13 to 18 are sent to an annual rights of passage ritual which is meant to transform boys to men. During the ceremony an outspoken and an openly gay initiate discovers the secret relationship of the closeted caregivers which results in deadly consequences. For me the idea for the film was inspired by Robert Mugabe. In and Around 2010 Robert Mugabe
Was carrying on as usual saying that being Gay is unAfrican that it is a disease exported from Europe. As a gay African, this clearly touched my heart.
Also at the same time across South Africa a phenomenon called corrective rape became popular. Where Lesbian were being raped in the belief that it would cure them of their sexuality.
In this fit anger the director and I came up with the idea for Inxeba. We wanted to show that Gay African men exist in all communities. From Urban to Rural.
Once we made film there was a massive backlash from particularly traditional quarters across the country. Which ended up having the film banned the film and publication board which controls what we see at the cinema.
We took the f.p.b tribunal to court where finally the ruling was overturned.
What I learnt during this experience is that there is a large proportion within our society who do believe in democratic principle of freedom of speech. I as well as the rest of the production team as well as the actors received death threats. I’ve been told never to show my face in the Eastern Cape.
Well as a filmmaker I see this a feather in my cap. A filmmaker worth his or her salt is meant to disturb, upset, inspire, disrupt and question the status quo. The greatest acknowledgement is when I get stopped in the middle of the street by young gay men, who close to tears thanking me for a telling their story. That is far meaningful than any international award.
In closing I want to end off with a Steven Spielberg quote:
‘ A dream is something you never know when it’s going to come into your life. Dreams always come from behind you, not right between your eyes. It sneaks up on you. But when you have a
dream, it doesn't often come at you screaming in your face, "This is who you are, this is what you must be for the rest of your life." Sometimes a dream almost whispers. The hardest thing to listen to is your own instincts, your own human personal intuition— it always whispers; it never shouts. It’s very hard to hear. So every day of your lives you have to be ready to hear what whispers in your ear. And if you can listen to the whisper, and if it tickles your heart, and it's something you think you want to do for the rest of your life, and you listen it. Then and the rest of us will benefit from it.’
I’ve tried to listen to the whisper, to that tickling in my heart, which I believe was by the foundation of being a Marist boy.
I wish the same for all of you. Listen to that whisper, listen to your hearts.
Thank you.

St David's Marist Inanda

2016 Chapel of Mary - interior

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000687
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2016

1 A3 laminated poster with two colour photos

St David's Marist Inanda

St David's Marist Foundation Annual Reports

  • ZA ZAR STDS 20220015
  • Colección
  • 2006

Loose copies are boxed in chronological order
Digitised copes are organised in chronological

St David's Marist Inanda

70th Anniversary Gala Dinner Speech by Sim Tshabalala

  • ZA ZAR STDS 20220001
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Speech at the 70th Anniversary Gala Dinner, St David’s Marist Inanda
Sim Tshabalala
No product of the Marist Brothers could fail to be beleaguered by tremendous feelings of humility, privilege and gratification at a function such as tonight’s; humility for being in the presence of luminaries of Catholic and Marist education as well as immensely successful products of St David’s; privilege and gratification at the knowledge that one is counted as a friend of St David’s.

I was lucky to have had parents who had the means to be able to send me to Marist Observatory in 1978. I was fortunate to be nurtured by the Marist Brothers in joint venture with the Holy Family sisters, the Ursuline sisters and the laity in an environment of love, fairness, equality and care.

I have always been struck by the intensity of the Marist faith. The sheer power of this faith reminds me of some famous lines of the great Catholic poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. He wrote, ‘The World is charged with the grandeur of God, It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.’ The Marist brothers in joint venture with the Holy Family sisters, the Ursuline sisters and laity who taught me at Sacred Heart College did indeed seem lit up from the inside by their faith; charged full of imagination, hope and energy. They shone with an unshakable determination to side with the underdog in pursuit of equality and fairness

I always felt at home at Sacred Heart. Though I was a little boy from Soweto, I always remember how special I was made to feel. And there I was given gifts beyond price: an excellent, fully rounded education and the skills and values I draw on every day as a professional and as a citizen of South Africa.

My mentors from this community included Brother Mc Cartin. Memories of him talking to me in the quad at Obs after school are indelible. I remember distinctly stories of his life in Ireland, his journey to South Africa and his Marist work. Because of listening to him, I even considered becoming a brother! How lovely that would have been instead of being a member of one of the ten most hated professions: banking. I remember fondly Brother Paul as he would walk to his room with his dog Susie, stop, and chat about this and that. I remember well brother Raymond with his strong Irish accent. He was our under 13 rugby coach, and that was the only year my cohort beat Inanda during the ordinary season – although, of course, we drew with them during the Inter Marist rugby tournament which was held at St Josephs Rondebosch in our matric year. That draw was sweet and it is unforgettable. I am on dangerous ground here, but I attribute our string of losses to Inanda from under 13 to our final year entirely to the fact that we became co-ed in 1980 whereas the Inanda leadership had the good sense to remain a Single sex school, one of whose benefits was the preservation of a strong rugby tradition. Neil Mc Gurk is unforgettable. I learned a huge amount from him: commitment to community combined with a deep desire to transform it; the love of philosophy; and an abiding adoration of St Thomas Aquinas’ work and natural law.

It seems to me that nothing has changed since I devoured Brother Mc Cartin's immortal words, grappled with Brother Neil's incredibly complex ideas and got routinely trounced by Walter Cronje's men. I have a tremendous love for the Marist tradition, and a permanent admiration for St David’s.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I was asked to speak tonight on the topic: ‘Confortare esto vir’ – ‘Take courage and be a man,’ I was immediately filled with trepidation. Was this some kind of coded message about a resurgence of the global financial crisis? Were the Marist Brothers trying to tell me something?
But once I had calmed down, I remembered that this isn’t actually a financial forecast. As you know, it’s really the inspiring motto of this great school, founded seventy years ago as an act of bravery and optimism in defiance of the surrounding horrors of the Second World War.
The motto comes, in fact, from the First Book of Kings, Chapter 2. They are King David’s dying words of advice to his son, Solomon, who was to become the wisest and best of the biblical kings of Israel. David said, ‘Take courage and be a man. Observe what the Lord your God requires. Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees.... Do this so that you may prosper in all you do.’
What I find most interesting about this text is that it says that courageous, wise and good people have to be observant and obedient. In a foreshadowing of the Marian tradition of striving always to be consciously present in the world and to heed the call of duty, these verses call upon us to look carefully around us; to work out what is required of us by our religion and our values; and to take steps to fulfil those requirements.
What do we find when we look about us in South Africa? I think we find many good things - including a democracy that has just reaffirmed both its vibrancy and its stability; an economy that is clearly on its way to recovery; and this attractive and excellent school. There’s much to be proud of, and certainly no need for gloom.
But we also observe a great deal of poverty and that we are the world’s most unequal country.
65% of the population live on less the R550 a month – less than a monthly satellite TV subscription. 12% of South Africans are desperately poor, struggling somehow to survive on R150 a month – less than the cost of a very modest lunch for two in Sandton. In other words, those of us who are lucky enough to be celebrating this anniversary here tonight live on a small island of prosperity in a sea of poverty.
South Africa is so unequal because we have one of the world’s highest unemployment rates. The unemployment rate for black South Africans under 30 is over 50%. Two-thirds of 15-to-30 year olds who want work have never been able to find a job. The reason why these millions of young people can’t find work - or create it for themselves - is simple. They have been failed by our education system.
Admittedly, there are some bright spots in the education landscape, and last year’s matric results may signal some improvement - but the overall picture remains extremely bleak. Two facts I find particularly telling are that the average Grade 3 literacy teacher can barely pass a Grade 6 test, and that the average South African maths teacher – teacher, not student – scores 39% on a test of the material they are supposed to be teaching. If the teacher can’t properly understand the work, how on earth are the pupils supposed to learn?
Our educational deficiencies look even worse in the light of global standards. This year the Global Competitiveness Report found that our inadequately educated workforce was the second biggest constraint to doing business in South Africa. (Our inefficient bureaucracy was first – and much of that inefficiency is also explained by poor education.) South Africa ranks among the bottom 10% of countries on the quality of our education system. We do far worse than many much poorer African countries, including Mali, Tanzania and even Cote D’Ivoire, which is just emerging from a decade of civil war.

The abject failure of most of the education system is not merely tragic and wasteful– it’s also very dangerous. This is because unemployment and inequality fuel crime and instability, and create an enthusiastic audience for destructive populist politicians.

Our motto tells us that good and wise men observe, and then obey.

I believe that this means that we are called upon by our faith and by our ethics to take active steps to improve South Africa’s education system. But what steps? I submit that the answers have been given to us – very appropriately – by two great Catholic educationalists: St Marcellin Champagnat and Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman.
St Marcellin founded the Marist Brothers nearly two hundred years ago in order to bring education and religious enlightenment to poor children in remote rural areas of France, and to ensure that they were taught with humility, modesty, simplicity and love. With the passing of time, Marist Inanda now finds itself in what is probably the most affluent part of South Africa’s little island of prosperity. The school therefore attracts most of its pupils from prosperous and sophisticated families. Through no fault of your own, St David’s is significantly less diverse in terms of both race and income than it could be.
I know that you are very aware of the tension this creates: How best can St David’s reconcile its present affluence with the Marist mission to the poor? More generally, how can those of us perched on the little island of prosperity respond with honour and courage to the sea of poverty and inequality around us?
It is entirely right that St David’s should continue to stretch itself to reach and serve disadvantaged pupils and badly trained teachers. I know that the boys at St David’s do a lot of outreach work. I can only say to them, ‘Thank you – and do more!’ And, of course, one of the main purposes of tonight’s event is to raise funds for the Marcellin Champagnat Campaign to establish an endowment that will provide pupil bursaries and the teacher learnerships here at St David’s. Again, I can only say, ‘Thank you – and be even more generous!’
I hope you won’t mind if I make a banker’s suggestion? From my perspective, St David’s Marist Inanda looks like a particularly successful ‘business unit.’ If we were looking for resources to, say, expand our branch network into new territories, we would have a debate about transferring some of the profits from the successful units to fund the expansion as this would be in the interests of the entire enterprise. This would not be an easy or a comfortable conversation. It would be necessary to avoid unfairness, and to think carefully about how much money and other resources could be transferred without damaging the profitability and sustainability of the successful business units. I believe that St David’s is called upon by its Marist values to keep on having this uncomfortable conversation. Please ask yourselves very regularly whether St David’s can do more to cross-subsidise other Marist and Catholic education.
Cardinal Newman was a leading figure in the campaign to achieve social and political equality for Catholics in Britain and Ireland in the 19th century. A former Anglican, he was the prime mover behind the establishment of the Catholic University of Ireland, which was to become the University College, Dublin, today, Ireland’s premier university. He argued that one of the most important tasks for Catholics was to create centres of unabashed educational excellence. At the time, almost all Catholics were very poor. But, Newman argued, this did not mean that the community should focus exclusively on immediate poverty relief and basic education. Instead, it should also aim to create centres of unashamed educational excellence, which could produce a new Catholic elite to lead the community and to influence society in general.
Newman was very interesting on what this new elite should be taught. He argued that a significant proportion of their education should be in the liberal arts and humanities. His view was that - even more than their specific professional training - leaders need the ability to think critically and clearly and to argue logically and persuasively. This has certainly been my experience, and I entirely agree with Newman that one of the characteristics of an elite school like St David’s should be a concentration on literature, history and debating – especially since the South African university system encourages most students to specialise in professional subjects from their first day at university.
I would urge you, therefore, to follow the Blessed Cardinal Newman as well as St Marcellin. As you stretch out to do more for the disadvantaged, do not lose focus on your core mission of empowering every St David’s boy to develop all his talents, to achieve all-round excellence, and to grow into men who are both wise and good. Also – and this is very important too – I hope that the school continues to ensure that every boy enjoys himself and is happy here.
On second thoughts, perhaps the boys shouldn’t enjoy their time here too much.... I’m thinking here of one famous Marist Old Boy – he knows who he is – he is the personification of the Marist way and the quintessence of the St David’s motto, he is a carrier of this institution’s values and beliefs and he has motivated and inspired thousands of boys in his long history with the school. He loved the school so much that he found it necessary to do matric twice, and then to stay here for another 40 years. He has given his name to a bursary which “is awarded to a boy who shows sporting promise and who will be able to maintain the required academic standard.” He is loved and revered and is prototypical of what St David’s boys ought to be, what they can be, what they will be.
Finally – and I know Willy Castle will agree with me about this - I’d like to say something about the merits of St David’s as a boys-only school. Certainly, there are dangers to be avoided in a boys’ school and such dangers are avoided in co- ed schools such as my alma mater, Sacred Heart College. These dangers include the risk of becoming obsessed with sporting success to the exclusion of other achievements, or of creating a culture which regards women as ‘a different species.’ But I know that St David’s avoids these risks, thanks to its emphasis on all-round achievement and to its thoroughly Catholic insistence on treating everyone with dignity and respect.
South Africa desperately needs more courageous and responsible men. At present, only 36% of children are being raised in a home with a father. Far too much of our social and political life is shaped by immature and irresponsible boy-men, whose paths to fame, wealth and power are littered with broken promises, risky personal behaviour and thoughtless or even cruel treatment of the poor, the weak, children and the elderly. St David’s is performing an extremely valuable social service by fostering a brave, wise and responsible masculinity that defies these trends and shows what being a man – esto vir¬ - truly means.
Long may you continue to do so!

St David's Marist Inanda

Ryan Roseveare 1990 Old Boys Assembly Speech 5 June 2015

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000929
  • Unidad documental simple
  • June 2015

Ryan Roseveare – Marist Old Boys – Speech – 05-06-2015
Thanks for having me here today,
The last speech I gave at this school was a “how to speech” its Title was “How to successfully Bunk school” – it was greeted with mixed reviews.
I will dispense with the normal formalities by greeting everything based of a social hierarchy, because I want to speak to you guys one on one in this massive gathering, so too all of you thanks for having me here today.
Who am I – Ryan Roseveare class of 1990 there were 29 of us - been married for 14 years to Gayle have 3 children Regan, Connor and Emma, no you can’t date any of my daughters.
What have I done, who is this guy!
I am famous for IT nerd but you have NEVER heard of me, work has made me well off but I dress like this, it’s given me choices and made me able to do things in life, but it all started right here !
When I was attending school our English teacher Mr Morgan gave us three pieces of critical advice, he said boys
 Rush – I did not follow that one
 Wife – I did not follow that one
 Speech is like a Cat – Let’s give it a Go!
I pass this advice onto you now, to do with it, what you want – Probably just ignore it
So faithfully following Mr Morgan’s advice - Why am I here? I am here to confess - It was me who threw the phosphorus in the pool ! But it was Gary’s idea and it had to be done !
I matriculated 25 years ago for those who can do basic maths, When I look back it seems far shorter more like 10 years’ time does fly so use your time wisely
I got my old school tie out last night and counted the number of jacks I got “elaborate” from Grade 6 to 12 it was the impressive number of 76 that’s one caning every 9.7657 repeating naturally - school days
So what’s changed? Well there are no more jacks and my record will stand into eternity – But in one word “everything” but actually “nothing”
 Apartheid,
 Tell Wing bus story,
 Internet it connects everyone,
 The power actually never went off,
 Tuck shop was under R 5 for a toasted ham and cheese, coke and packed of chips.
But what has not changed, is something all of us here have in common, we are all have attended this school and you know what - it makes us special !
But a quick story to demonstrate this – as fate would have it I was in a very high level meeting a few weeks back and during a break we got talking as you do about school, life, university and the like.
When one person asked me “Where did you go to school” and said St David’s and they said….
I knew it ! – It made me think…. Erm, why and I have been thinking about it for a while
We are DIFFERENT! – Use It !
You are right now part of a small social group or a community made up from people from different walks of life, in which you may have friends, Fren-A -me’s maybe, “guys you know”,
As the great MC Hammer once said “let’s stop”…. Look to you left… and right…. See these guys!
You will probably know them for the rest of your life, when you are half grey like me these guys around you will be in your life if you want it! How do I know… because that’s my experience!
You are all lucky to be here in this environment, IT makes you special in the race of life, you have a head start use it to make a difference in this world !
QingQile (Wing), Jean Paul (JP), Peter (Landdale), Gary (Gster), Adrian (The Lady), Brendan (OB), Chris (Wart)
I see these guys all the time, we are each other’s children’s god parents, we have walked log roads together, driven Bikes across Africa, walked across Europe, literally climbed mountains, drank too much, Raced fast cars across Europe - in the case of Wing and JP walked the road with serious things like cancer, Gary and Brendan virtually for every Springboks rugby game and many times travelled and watch games live, going to weddings and let’s not forget the bachelors in countries all over the world –
Keep these connections it’s what makes you great!
To get serious for a bit:
Look around at this place we are in… what has been given to you has been given to you for a reason, life if hard right… you will experience some pain and hardships will happen to you.
These things believe it or not happen to everyone, but it’s how you respond that makes you stand out, this school taught me to respond with power, passion, pride and energy!
Pause
Your times short, Matic’s soon you will be “free” some of you will be in university some might be going overseas, gap years, jobs, all of you
These people here right now (Your teachers) who are the people you should leverage from as much as possible.
People will pull down, but it’s in the getting up that you become a success, never giving in always pushing to the end this is something I learnt at this school ! – Writing lines for being a little naughty
All of you don’t forget – the lessons you have and will learn here! They will stand you in good stead and make your shine!
There are two types of people in this world when it comes to attitude and thought process
Now the first set of people – Wait for opportunities to come to them so they can “Quote un Quote” take them and they wait endlessly for some mirage or oasis to magically appear yet it never comes!
And they end up in some job they have no need to be in - doing some tinny task they have no desire doing
All because they were not willing to – Risk It or even Try
And the second set of people, these are the ones who find a way to create opportunities, these are the ones who make their own luck “so to speak”
 Live life on your terms
 Live life as you want to
 Live life as you envision
 Failure is a step forward, not backward
And what I have become to understand is the only difference is fear because those who are not afraid to go after something are the ones who turn out to be successful,
Success in life, school and relationships Whatever ! is often a result of not being afraid to accomplish Anything it’s going to be the guys you would never expect that make the biggest difference!
You are your own driving engine and your own break.
To the matric’s –
PAUSE !
Make a statement to the universe I am capable and powerful, there are gifts you have in your life that only you can tap into - Use them.
Have a irrational, illogical, passion in what you do ! I don’t know what your passion is but believe in it
You have the strength and the passion inside of you NOW to change the world.
Pause
Soon you will be an Old Boy! Remember what you have learnt here apply it keep your connections.
Thank you for your time!
And in conclusion!
Remember! - 76!

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Derek Mandy 1963

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000762
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Derek Mandy – 1963
Derek thought that school was one of the best things that ever happened to him and enjoyed his
time as a boarder at Inanda. His parents lived in Brakpan, hence he was a boarder from
standard 5 but was at CBC Boksburg before. His parents wanted him to participate more at
school. He felt that it was all pro’s regarding boarding – companionship, structured study, food
wasn’t too bad, sport at weekends and he played rugby and was vice- captain first rugby,
hockey, soccer, volleyball, athletics and received the open 880yds trophy. The only con was
the dorms – 40 beds in each. In standard 8 his brother Dudley was prefect of Derek’s dorm. His
main complaint was that there was a total lack of privacy, they were noisy and no radio was
allowed after lights out. The brothers had a room in the corner.
He was reasonably good at sport and was generally in the A team.
Academically he achieved a second class JMB matric, he wasn’t a boff but didn’t struggle, with
the exception of Maths due to the brothers teaching and a university student eventually helped
him with the subject. He received the SA Marist award in 1963 and was head prefect and house
captain for Benedict, vice-captain first rugby, secretary of Sodality and chairman of the MDC.
Derek, as were many of the other boys, was unaware of what was happening in South Africa,
they were apolitical and had no knowledge of apartheid. It had no bearing on their lives. He
does however recall that the government were not too happy to allow new brothers into the
country.
He remembers his first day or two and was initially homesick but soon settled in and it helped
having an older brother there. He remembers Brother Anthony, “Oranges” as being quite a
character.
His older brother Dudley was head boy in 1961 and who is now living in Texas. One day he was
called out of class and in front of the school, with the matrics in a semi-circle, they were told that
his brother was going down to Natal to become a Brother, this was just prior to writing matric.
Having written matric, Dudley gave it all up and reunited with his girlfriend.
His last day was a happy one it was time to move on even though he was unsure whether he
had been accepted at university. He also had originally wanted to become an American field
student but he couldn’t do that and study in the US, he eventually went to UCT to study
psychology but ended up studying law. Derek is the father of two sons who went to Bishops and
a daughter who attended Herschel. Had he been living in Johannesburg he would have sent his
sons to St David’s. He served Bishops Council for 10 years and was chairman of the parents
association during this time. Derek has competed in 27 Cape Argus events and is a keen
mountain biker. He has recently retired and is looking into getting involved in some charity work.
Due to his location, he lost contact with his contemporaries. He did attend two reunions, one
after 25 years with a number of old boys from Johannesburg who had not seen each other since
matric. The next one after 30 years, he was the only old boy not living in Johannesburg who
attended. He felt that perhaps the reunions should be less structured with more time, not like the
dinners of the past. He would be interested in the book and would be prepared to pledge/buy a
copy.
JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Darryn Haltmann 2008

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000754
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Darryn Haltman – 2008
Darryn Haltmann came to St David’s in grade 4 and remembers the anxieties and excitement of
walking into the school leaving his mother and meeting his soon to be friends.
The teachers he remembers are Mr Rod Smith, Mrs Glanville, Mr Reichart, Mrs Fleming and
Mrs Marais.
He enjoyed the sport and played 1st team rugby and cricket and was involved with soccer and
athletics.
He was most unhappy when they lost any of their sports fixtures, but thoroughly enjoyed the
rugby tour to New Zealand and Australia.
Darryn participated in the Advanced Maths programme and felt it was especially helpful for both
1st and 2nd year Maths and Stats at university.
He is still in touch with a number of his school friends and they are all members of MOBS.
He is currently studying for a Bachelor of Business Science: finance and accounting at UCT. He
was awarded a faculty scholarship and has appeared on the Dean’s list and received the
Kopano award for academic excellence.
JE May 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

1964 The Committee of St David's PTA

  • ZA ZAR STDS 20200591
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 1964

1 A5 black and white photo - copy. In yearbook p.91

St David's Marist College

Interview with Sabelo Sithebe 2005

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000931
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Sabelo Sithebe – 2005
Sabelo’s mother was determined that Sabelo be a pupil at St David’s and went in everyday to
the admissions department with this objective in mind.
Sabelo remembers his first day at St David’s in the old grade 0 block. He watched Andrew Prior
and Kyle Burger playing cricket, the first time he had seen the game played and joined in. His
teacher was Mrs Tyack and he made life-long friends that day. The head of the prep was Greg
Royce followed by Rick Wilson who built on the merit system which motivated many of the
young prep school boys and changed the mind set of many. He was a father figure who
interacted with the boys well and was always fair. He remembers Mrs Hurley, Mrs Rose who
pushed him with his reading and to achieve, Mrs Geldenhuys whose approach to Maths was
invaluable.
In the high school Paul Edey was headmaster and the teachers he particularly remembers are
Mrs Marais, Mrs Roman, who struck a good balance, being caring and tender but also strong
enough to control a class. Mr Van Den Berg taught him to enjoy Accounting and the atmosphere
he created. Great teachers had good balance and knew which buttons to press at the right time.
Sabelo feels that it’s not the buildings at St David’s but the people who make the school.
The school grew enormously whilst he was a pupil with the building of the Champagnat hall,
high school pavilion and library.
For Sabelo, school was a huge part of his life and he participated in sport in all the three terms
playing tennis, cricket, football, rugby, athletics and swimming. He learnt to swim in grade 6, as
Willy Castle took no excuses and said “you will swim”. Willy Castle was a father figure to all the
boys who were initially afraid and in awe of him. Willy pushed you to be better than yourself and
had a great influence on many of the boys. Sabelo thought the sport was fantastic and the way
in which it helped develop ones character. He was a member of the 1st team football, 1st team
rugby and also did a lot of running. The rugby was tough in the beginning, building bonds,
relationships with fellow soldiers, and believes that’s why rugby is important at a boy’s school,
Sabelo said it wasn’t the same at university, at school every Saturday was special. He recalled
the Johnny Waite victory over schools such as St John’s and learning that even being a small
school they could still achieve a lot.
He felt that there was a lovely balance of academics and sport as school is also about people
development, building young men who participate in society using the Marcellin and Marist
ideals with modesty. Those traditions were instilled in the junior primary with highlights such as
the football tour to East London. The 1st team were in their special kit and everyone played hard
to ensure they upheld the tradition and values of the school. In the high school going to St
Andrews, Bloemfontein was always great.
The camps were sometimes controversial with his grade 9 and 10 year camps being held in
appalling conditions with particularly bad weather. However the grade 11 camp held under the
same conditions went very well. He really hated the camps but really enjoyed that one.
Sabelo participated in the SMILE programme, performed in three school musicals produced by
Mr Dry, and remembers Nelson Mandela coming to watch “West Side Story”. He was also a
member of the school choir in grade 11 and matric.
Sabelo looked up to some of the older boys such as Jason Simaan, Robert Smith, Gareth
Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Bevan Winderly, boys he saw achieving and wanted to emulate them. They
were setting the standard achieving not just for themselves but also for the school.
On becoming head boy, Sabelo knew he would be amongst a group of individuals who would
help him. It was a phenomenal experience and also quite overwhelming being one of a line of
leaders of men such as Mike Von Guilliame, Gareth Kolkenbek-Ruh and Robert Stuart.
Academically Sabelo did very well and was in the top 15 when he matriculated with 7
distinctions. His last day was surreal and emotional and he is very much a product of St David’s.
He went to Wits and studied for a BA Accounting Science until 2009 and then went onto
Investec to write his articles and, having passed the exams, being the first overall in the country
and will start practising as an accountant in November 2012.
JE 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

St David's Marist Inanda Yearbooks

  • ZA ZAR STDS 2021001
  • Colección
  • 1940

Record of the school's activities year by year. Originally published as "The Maristonian" then changing name until St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook.

St David's Marist Inanda

Interview with Brother Anthony 1957 - 1975, 1982

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000722
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2009

Interview with Brother Anthony 1957 – 1975, 1982
When he first came to St David’s, Brother Anthony was in charge of the senior boarders
in the boarding school. He recalls that the boys used to go to the Jukskei River and have
mud fights over the weekends.In those days the Maristonian club was on the main road
to Pretoria.
Brother Anthony was particularly proud of the development of sports facilities at the
school. The 45 acres (18 hectares) where the cricket oval, rugby fields, astro turf and
CEO’s house now stand were originally owned by a Scotsman, Mr McGill Love. The
gendtleman in question owned a company, Haggie Rand, which sold cables to the mines
and he gave the school fist option to purchase the land. In 1963 the school bought the
land for R150 000. The municipality then wanted some of the land to widen Rivonia
Road. Ronnie Walker was chairman of the school committee and Watson, the mayor (he
had a son at St David’s). The municipality paid R127,000 the land, 10% of the property
purchased. The money made was used for building the Science laboratories. ater,
McGregor, Dowson and Dobson leveled the fields for R14,000 and in 1966 the grass
was laid. McGregor’s son won 7 gold medals in the SA championships the cricket oval
was named after McGregor.
There was some debate whether there was enough space for a full cricket oval, and
indeed there was. Pete Springer a professional cricketer for England came together with
the Bishop Hugh Boyle to officially open the oval. Brother Anthony recalled that the
Bishop’s opening prayer was for chastity!! A party followed in the dining room which now
houses the college library.
The current CEO’s house, a Herbert Baker house was used at that time to
accommodate the professional cricketers – Dickey Bird, Dobson and for boarders
upstairs. The remainder was used for storage and for an office for the PTA. Don Wilson
saw a ghost of a woman at the top of the stairs. What was the A Dormitory is now used
for the grade 6 classrooms.
The first black child was admitted to the school in 1976, the son of the Malawian trade
commissioner.
Headmaster Murphy only lasted 6 months and Brother Anthony came to the rescue as
the new head was having difficulties in adjusting, there was no prep headmaster as Mr
Monolias had left to go to a school in Benoni after coming to St David’s from Bryanston
High School. Br Anthony checked out the rumours of Murphy’s wrestling career whilst he
was in Cape Town. Using the public library Br Anthony finally came across an article in
the Durban press relating to the wrestling. Br Anthony had to step into the breach and
was headmaster from 1981 – 2. He then escaped once more to the desert in Slough.
Outstanding boys that Br Anthony remembered were Roberto Amato , matric 1960. His
father was Rhodes scholar, he was a wonderful boy and was instrumental in starting up
a school band. The matric class of 1961 was a small class, a group of six boys, three
became surgeons and one a professor. B Haakman, Malcolm Fenzman, Nigel Sloane.
Prince Ipsolante who was related to Prince Phillip.
American field scholars used to come to St David’s as exchange students in the 70’s.
Br Anthony remembered another mother who was particularly angry with him and it
reminded him of being back in Glasgow watching a Celtic/Rangers match.
Fulton a US golfer was a former pupil.
One boy came to school with a gun and wanted to shoot a couple of the teachers
however, the next day Br Anthony managed to confiscate the gun and called the boys
father. It turned out that the gun belonged to the father and had been acquired during the
war from the RAF.
Another rather funny incident was when Br Anthony caught a boy coming out of the cold
room in the kitchen with a rather large stomach. He was hiding a watermelon under his
jersey!
In 1966 the first boy to become a drug addict was expelled after a debate with parents
on the issue.
There have been only three matrons in 70 years.
An amusing incident occurred when a teacher, Ms Janosch collapsed in the toilet, Br
Anthony went to her aid and managed to get her onto a carpeted area, whereupon she
grabbed his crucifix and pulled him down on top of her just as Br Andrew walked in!
There was a flourishing riding club with stables where the grade O block is now. Ken
Booth, the Queen’s chaplain was a keen rider and took teams of boys to the Hickstead
trials where they achieved first place in the second year of competing. Horses were on
the property and there was a riding club until 1980
There was a teacher named Zacharovitch, a former priest who Bro Anthony found
working in a local bottle store. Bro Anthony acquired the permission to employ him as a
teacher and he turned out to be a good one.
Br Anthony’s nickname was Oranges and Br Andrew – Drac. Br Irwin was the first head
after Br Wilson and only lasted 6 months – the auditorium was named after him.
Teachers – it was a priority that the school had to have good teachers but there will
always be those, a small percentage, who are no good.
The first board of governors included parents such as Moni, Herber and Paizes. School
fees were GBP4 per term in Bro Anthony’s time. They tried to keep the fees down but
the board of governors said that the fees needed to be adjusted. A proposition was
made to the regional council who gave the Ok to raise the fees. The local schools
followed suit. Subsequently there was a protest at the school gates and a Mr Emberton-
Smith and Mrs Hogg protested against the increase and handed out fliers.
Br Anthony coached rugby, there were 8 open teams and he preferred to teach the
weaker teams. He remembered the first time the school beat Jeppe (1000 pupils, St
David’s 238) the boys were enraged at being called Catholic Jews. There were quite a
number of Jewish pupils at the school during this time.
Br Anthony remembered two dogs, a female called Lola Brigida and a Doberman
Pincher called Dagwood. Dagwood was a very friendly dog who used his jaw to grab Br
Anthony by the hand but never bit him.
Brothers and Priests included Father Plestus, Br O’Brien who accidentally killed a
woman who ran out in front of him and was very upset also by the police comment “One
less” Br Anthony consoled him and gave him brandy but he was never the same after
that. They also had a Dominican priest for a while who had a nephew at the school.
The first chapel was next to the first classroom. Br Rowson, who was often “unwell”,
would light a candle to indicate his presence. Br Rowson only lasted 6 months.
The second chapel was in fact built as a library; the architect was Klench. The donation
for the current library was made by Mr Pinero now living overseas.
Vatican 11, 1967 was a significant and very disruptive time for all Catholics, there was
great upheaval in the church and many priests and nuns were looking for jobs. Some
priests were laicized and there was an exodus of brothers, Jesuits, Celesians etc. De La
Salle Brothers took in some of the priests.
Br Anthony remembered the school plays and one very good “Thomas More” in
conjunction with St Teresa’s. The schools didn’t have the numbers for big productions.
Musical evenings were held although there was no hall and the dining room, now the
high school library, was used. One production was held at the civic centre with Paddy
O’Byrne as MC.
There was a band competition which St David’s won and Peter Moni was the drum
major.
A big walk was held to raise funds for the blind, St Teresa’s Guild for the Blind with Br
Paul coming across for this fundraiser.
JLE April 4, 2009

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Brother Timothy 1967 - 1981

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000726
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2010

Interview: Timothy McCrindle (Br Timothy) 1967-1981
Br Timothy taught at St David’s for 6 months in 1963 and returned again in 1967. Initially he was junior
housemaster and in 1972 assistant senior housemaster when the boarding closed down because of the lack of
brothers to supervise.
Br Timothy taught Biology to std 8-10 and RE to std 8-10 and also taught Maths and Science. For extra-murals
he coached swimming and worked with Lee McGregor the Springbok swimmer; he was also the athletics
coach and Inanda won the Inter Catholic athletics for 6 years running. In addition he was the rugby coach for
the younger boys.
Br Timothy took over in 1975 from Br Anthony as headmaster. He maintains he was never an innovator but
highlights during his term of office were the building of the swimming pool, tennis courts and the development
of the sports fields. He also focused on academics and in 1981 Michael Urban was the first boy to achieve a
full house of distinctions in matric.
The one aspect of extra murals which he did not enjoy was cadets. He attended a cadet officer’s camp and in
the end Br Anthony asked him to take the cadets over. Mrs Moni was very pro-active and helped a great deal
as her sons were very prominent cadets. When he took over as head, Br Timothy decided to stop cadets at St
David’s.
Some of the staff he fondly remembers are Trudy Elliott, a wonderful English teacher who had an excellent
way of teaching boys. Gavin Nefdt, Tom McFadden, Ken Lipshitz, Bill Carew, Wendy Schaafsma, Father
Plesters and George Manolios was the prep headmaster.
Reflecting on Br Anthony, Br Timothy felt that Br Anthony had a wonderful gift of inspiring confidence in young
people and was very good at handling difficult situations and parents. He had a wonderful way with people and
was the person who built St David’s up. Br Anthony was never overbearing and worked very well with young
brothers guiding them and giving them responsibilities. He always checked up to see how they were
progressing. Br Anthony was not a very orderly person but here Br Andrew, deputy headmaster, helped him.
During his time, Br Anthony introduced the advisory council which later became the board of governors
St David’s first headmaster was Br Urban, followed by Br Edwin, Br Benedict, Br Anthony and finally Br
Timothy. Br Andrew and Br Bosco (Mario) were prominent brothers.
Notable parents who went the extra mile were: Mrs Moni, the Kourie family, Nassie Simaan, Steve Muller, Vito
Rugani, Darko Vidas, the Allem family, the Reeves family, Slavens, v d Handel, Paizes, Marlowe and Marsay.
The sale of the Inanda’s land:
Br Michael was Br Superior at the time and was very friendly with the McGill Love’s who owned the land next
to the school. There was a fire which the boarders helped to put out and following that, the McGill Love’s had
an agreement with the brothers that they would have first option on the property when they decided to sell their
home. When the sale went through there was an agreement that should Mr McGill Love die first his wife could
continue to live in Maryknoll until her death. Mr McGill Love died first and his wife stayed on in the house but
eventually the brothers offered to pay for her to move into a retirement home and the property reverted to the
brothers. For the acquisition of the property an amount of R150 000 was required. The parents decided, under
the PTA Chairmanship of Mr Walker that they would pay the extra R150 000 needed in the form of a levy
however, in 1971, the Sandton council needed to widen Rivonia Road and the school was reimbursed (R50
000) for the land that was required which covered the shortfall on the land.
The brothers later decided to sell off a piece of ground because they felt that the school would not ever need
the land and they were in a tough situation financially. The land belonged to the brothers not the school. Mr
Tim Marneweck, a parent, who was involved in property helped with the sale of the land. Sadly the parents
and old boys were angry because they felt that the money should have come to the school.
(See Br Jude’s Interview and Finance Weeks articles – October 14-20, 1982 p.100; 30 October 30, 1982 p.4
and August 22 – 28, 1985 p.509)
The school reputedly had two ghosts. Peter Stringer, the cricket coach was given accommodation upstairs at
Maryknoll once Mrs McGill Love had left. He maintains that he saw the ghost of Mrs McGill Love at the foot of
the staircase. The second ghost was that of Br Pius who is said to have wandered around the house where
the sickbay was situated. The brothers used to live in this house but once the administration block was built
the brothers moved in there. If there were any boarders who had to stay overnight in the sickbay then one of
the brothers would have to go down and stay in the house. One of the brothers was in the house one night and
heard a strange noise and went from room to room looking to find the source of the noise. He eventually found
a coat hanger moving in a cupboard! But the brothers always maintained that it was Br Pius walking around.
Br Timothy felt that Br Andrew was a very strict disciplinarian and an excellent Maths teacher who got on well
with Willy Castle. Willy came back to complete his matric and fitted in very well with his new class while most
other boys didn’t mix with the class below them. Br Pius was an excellent gardener and because of him the
gardens at school were well laid out. Br Aquinas enjoyed his whiskey and every Sunday evening the brothers
used to get together and would have a drink. Br Aquinas always had a whiskey and one evening he was called
away and left his drink. The other brothers replaced his drink with diluted Coca Cola while hiding the whiskey
behind the chair. They watched as Br Aquinas returned and continued to drink the diluted Coca Cola without
noticing the change. The brothers were too ashamed to say anything and never told Br Aquinas about the
incident.
Br Timothy left St David’s at the end of 1981 after many happy years at the school. He was appointed
headmaster at St Owens on the Cape Flats. This school was a far cry from St David’s and he taught std 8 –
10’s.
He later went on to help Br Anthony at Slough for a while, becoming Brother Provincial in 1989 until December

  1. He was then sent to the United States on a course and it was here that he met his future wife. After
    much soul searching he decided to leave the Marist Brothers and his future wife left her order as well. Timothy
    now works for the Catholic Schools Office who look after the affairs of the 10 schools run by the diocese in
    Gauteng.
    November 2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Alex Quail 1962

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000395
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Alex Quail 1962
Alex started at St David’s in 1958, came into the high school straight from the bush –
Carltonville. There were no English high schools in the area at the time and Bishop Wheelan
helped him get into St David’s.
Johannesburg ended at the entrance to the school . A Dairy Den was about 1 kilometre down a
dirt road and Sandton City did not exist, the area was just veldt and the occasional farmhouse.
Alex was a boarder and remembers everyone being very competitive in sport and with each
other. There was a boxing ring and the “Beak” Br Benedict would organise the boys to sort out
their grievances in the boxing ring. The school was tough and there were very real fights
between the boys especially the Lebanese and the Jews. There was iron discipline and boys
were caned for any reasonable misdemeanour, however it did them no harm. The discipline was
fair and not vindictive, some old boys found it unfair and were very bitter about it. It was rather
like being in the army and the boarders became a band of brothers and those that saw it
through became very good friends often for the rest of their lives. On one weekend per term, the
parents were allowed to visit their sons on Sunday and they went home during the school
holidays.
The boys were very cruel to Mr Bishop the only lay teacher, who was tormented by the boys.
There were 60 boys in a class which reduced to 17 by Matric. All the brothers taught,one
brother was Spanish, another Afrikaans, quite a good mixture. Brother Bonaventure, “Bonnie”
was a big tough guy who used to sit on his desk and fall asleep. He was very laid back teacher
and Alex can’t remember what he taught. Br Anthony taught Afrikaans and Maths but he was
always so busy so the clever boys in the class ended up teaching them. Br Edwin became too ill
to run the school in 1958 and Br Benedict “Beak” took over followed by Br Anthony.
In 1962 there were 17 matrics in the class and they beat Observatory in rugby. Those were
harsh days without the rules and regulations that protect the players now. There were 200 boys
in the high school competing against other schools with over 1000 pupils for example, KES,
Jeppe, CBC Boksburg, CBC Pretoria. One of the boys Chris Dempster, lost a kidney after he
was badly tackled and the teachers pumped his legs. Darko cracked his skull in one match. Alex
was too small to make the 1st rugby team but played in the 2nd. He played cricket and was
captain of the 1st hockey team. His father was captain of Transvaal in the late 30’s and got
together with the brothers to help develop hockey.
He could not swim but was dragged into the inter-high gala. The school pool is where the prep
playground is now. He was in Benedict house and was a prefect..
The cycling club was good for them and they were able to bring their bikes to school. The golf
club was formed and the first golf tournament held, Alex was involved and his brother Michael
was a good golf player. Unlike today he well remembers walking out to the cricket pitch without
a hat.
Alex feels strongly that the boys who became Springboks should be honoured with a school
honours board. The first Springbok was Ray Bischoff for swimming and Gavin Webster for
hockey. John Daley was a very good tennis player.
As far as academics went, St David’s was a seven subject school with three languages English,
Afrikaans, Latin, Geography, History, Science and Maths. He was an average pupil who wrote
the JMB matric. The clever boys did Add Maths.
There was an incident in the eary 60’s. NASA had just got going and the boys wanted to
develop a solid fuel rocket. Alex had a recipe and they used the Science lab on the second
floor, brewed some stuff up which then exploded! Br Anthony flew up the stairs to see what
damage had been done, but no-one was injured and Br Anthony was relieved. Eventually a
rocket was built by one of the geniuses of the school – Hawkins who is now Professor of
Applied Maths at Wits. Another pupil Bernard Haakman, seemed dopey, but became a vet.
David Sole, went on to study chemical engineering and worked for the government developing
rocket fuels or something similar.
He recalled an incident during study time in the standard 6 classroom that accommodated 60
boys. There was very little swearing in those days and debating was popular as the boys got to
get out of school occasionally. Doug Wickins stood up to make a speech and asked the
question “How can you call George that name, he is a boy”? (cunt). Br Dennis (Tickey) blushed
a deep purple, but Doug continued with his speech which was honest and full of integrity. He got
a round of applause and was not reprimanded by the brothers.
After matric he went to the Pretoria Technikon and did a National Diploma in Civil Engineering,
Land Surveying and remained mainly in Johannesburg.
He has no memories of his first day at the school but would have had to be there a few days
early as a boarder. On his last day he was so pleased to get out into the big wide world and was
very confident. He remembers walking into Barclays Bank, an uncle was a director, and asked
to open an account.
He says the boys were not prepared for the outside world due to the essentially classic
education they had received (No “life skills taught in those days”) but the fact was that they were
able to cope with whatever was thrown at them. Some did very well and most not too badly.
Once a year a Marist recruiter (crow catcher) used to come along and they all avoided him. He
was aware that Michael Heubeck, an American became a brother, he was with them until
standard 9.
Alex’s brother, Michael (deceased) was a really good cricketer and fast bowler. In those days
the cricketers wore boots. Michael played in a final and took 5 wickets against KES. A nonconformist,
he was presented with a cricket ball at assembly whereupon he promptly threw the
ball at Br Anthony. Needless to say, he was expelled but allowed to write his matric. He went on
to become a doctor.
Alex felt that the boarding was where the spirit of the school lay and that the character of the
school changed once the boarding facility was closed.
JE June 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Max Leipold 1959

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000847
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2010

Interview with Max Leipold - 1959
Max started as a boarder in Std 2 in 1951. His parents lived in Standerton and in Std 9 they
settled in Illovo and then became a day student. He was very unhappy and missed the
camaraderie of the boarding school so went back as a boarder in matric. Brian Nicol was head
boy and the Joint Matriculation Board exam was written.
Max played 1st team rugby and was in the team which beat Obs for the first time despite Obs
having future Springbok Sid Nomis in their team. A tour had been arranged for Obs to visit Port
Elizabeth and play against Marist Walmer in 1958. Due to the very poor season Obs were
experiencing it was decided that Inanda, who were having a good season, should travel in their
stead. Br Bonaventure and the boys travelled by train. The team lost to Victoria Park and Grey
College but beat Walmer 11-3.
Max enjoyed the boarding system and in those days there were two dorms with 44 beds in
each. Max enjoyed collecting the pictures of girls on the back page of the Sunday Times in
those days and made a scrapbook. On this occasion the boys were all sitting round looking at
the pictures when Br Ephrem came ‘gliding’ by. Not wanting to be caught they threw the book
out of the window but it fell near to Br Bonaventure’s window. His parents were called in to see
Br Benedict, the headmaster to discuss this.
Max was born in 1941 and retired at the age of 53 and moved to the house they had built in
Hermanus. He originally worked for IBM but then moved to Ellerman shipping company where
he was a director. Max’s hobby is photography and he and his wife travel extensively in pursuit
of this hobby.
Interview: 12 October 2010

Anderson, Glenda

Interview with Eric Ambrosioni 1966

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000769
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Eric Ambrosioni -1966 & Rohan Erleigh – 1967
Both Eric and Rohan were boarders. Eric’s two half brothers Edward Barale and Italo Barale
also boarded and Rohan had two brothers follow him. They knew each other through the
boarding and played in the same rugby, cricket and athletics teams. Goodenough, a kitchen
hand could outstrip every athlete and broke the school record running barefoot. The highpoint in
cricket was when professional, English cricketers came to the school, Ken Palmer and Peter
Stringer who lived at the school and Donald Wilson who got married here and lived above the
chapel. On Saturdays if any major cricket team was playing, the boys had to dress up in full
uniform and walk to Wanderers wearing straw bashers..
They recalled an American field scholar, Philp Marsden who could throw a tennis ball higher
than the tennis captain could with his racket. Julio Cesneros’s father was the Spanish
ambassador, who assisted in bringing the Spanish football team, Real Madrid to South Africa.
The Springbok, Ray Bischoff swam against the Dutch and broke a South African record. The
cycling team was started with Deon and Brett Sacks and Rohan remembers his bike breaking
down near Gilooley’s Farm. There was also a model airplane club, all the planes took off and
then crashed! A Tiger Moth was donated.
Cadets were also started in their time and Eric was one of the first five cadet student officers.
There was a Southern Transvaal Schools Drummer competition and the school won the bass
and tenor drums section beating 700 other schools – who weren’t there!!!
The drama society was initiated together with Parktown Convent and was oversubscribed!
There was a debating society with Dave Lyons, Pat Noble and Andrew Lindiker and debates
were always held on a Sunday at the convent. There was also a dark room where some of the
boys developed their photos.
Gertie the 3 ton utility truck used to convey pupils to various sports events and was eventually
sold and replaced with a new school bus that was painted blue and was involved in an accident
after the first three weeks, the driver being Zebron.
Mrs Buckley-Jones was the much loved matron who however made them write tests whilst in
the sick bay. Mr Drummon-Bell was the Music teacher who produced the “Pirates of Penzance”.
Eric remembered a teacher called Mrs Cane, at Marist Borthers Koch Street Johannesburg, (the
primary school to both Marist Brothers and Inanda) who used it (the cane) with gay abandon.
The first lay teachers in the high school were Mrs Buchan – English, very English, unattractive
but kind, Mrs Pretorius – Afrikaans, she was good looking but unfriendly, Mr Ward – Maths, Mr
Hewitson – Art. Eric remembered a pupil from Greece who chatted in class and when Mrs
Pretorius asked him what he had said Eric told him to say “Ek is jou lief”!
There was a Science lab but when they left it was replaced by a newer one and Eric’s two
brothers – Orcellis – donated two glass windows.
For two years during the mid 1960’s, the brothers hired a catering manager and his wife, the
Coopers. They had a corgi which started off thin but ended up as a blimp! The boys used to
regularly raid the kitchen. Flat bed trolleys were used to carry food, boxes etc and the boys used
to pile onto them and ride down the inclines resulting in quite a few stitches.
Eric was designated, together with George Da Matta to act as cinematographers for the film
every Saturday night. Someone had to collect the 16mm films and they were given pocket
money to get the bus, however George’s father would fetch them and take them to his café to
gorge on fish and chips etc and then after to collect the films in the centre of Johannesburg.
They then caught the bus back to Dunkeld and had to lug the box of 16mm films to school.
The first Spur restaurant opened in Rosebank and several boys were caught bunking in the
Spur and in Ken Rosewall’s snooker saloon. They recall that disputes were resolved between
the boys behind the games room next to the tennis courts.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Champagnat they made the great trek to Cape Town, all
the buses broke down and all the schools ended up at St Joseph’s.
They remember the land bought by the school and the boys of 1966 planted the grass on the
rugby field and cricket pitch.
There was no real communication then, only the telephone and radio. They had vague
memories of the assassination of Kennedy and the attempted and actual assassination of
Verwoed. They had a day off school due to the “Bay of Pigs”. They did remember the stance
taken by the Catholic schools with regard to admitting black children which wasn’t popular with
the government.
Both Eric and Rohan have been back to St David’s for a 40 year reunion and would be
interested in supporting the publication of the book.
Individual memories of Eric Ambrosioni:
Eric’s mother died then his father and in Standard 8 his step brothers came to an arrangement
with the school to enable him to stay there. He had no bad experiences although Brother
Ignatius would lash you for no treason.
Joe Mulaneu lived at the bottom of the bottom field and Eric lived opposite him. He remembers
fooling around with him and hitting him with a metal rod, subsequently their parents banned
them from seeing each other. They later became good buddies and Joe became a
paediatrician.
After the Saturday cinema one night he raided the kitchen, realising a brother was there he tried
to get rid of the evidence and a paw paw rolled down the hall and he was caught by Brother
Liam.
He also remembers going home in the first term and crying about being bullied. His brother
advised him to put a shoe in his pillowcase and wait until the bully fell asleep and then whack
him with it. The bullying stopped after he tried that out.
When he finished school he wanted to go to varsity but, having no family to support him, he
ended up in a bank and was then balloted into the army in which he stayed for three years. He
then went into the oil industry and was seconded to the UK and his company was bought out by
BP. He was repatriated and offered a package in 2004, bought a pasta machine and became a
pasta maker his wife having bought an Italian deli. He made pasta for the deli and sold to other
delis and shops in the Cape Peninsula. He sold the pasta machine at the beginning of the year
to his nephew, another Marist old boy Ted Barale who owns Piccolino in Fourways. He is
married to Louise and is the father to two daughters.
Eric’s brother Italo (1953) married Myrna Morgan whose brothers went to Inanda, Harold and
Ronny who became a Marist Brother.
Individual Memories of Rohan Erleigh:
His parents lost everything they had in business but insisted he went to a private school. They
had an old car, a 1947 Plymouth and he was so embarrassed he told them to meet him outside.
Rohan was an altar boy.
After finishing school Rohan went gold mining outside Sabi, gold was then at $25 per ounce. He
subsequently went into the navy for his national service and made a naval career. He studied
for a BSc at Stellenbosch, rose to the heights of naval captain becoming a military attaché and
retired in 2000 after a final posting as officer commanding the navy’s training base on the west
coast. He spent time on the maritime border during the war in Angola.
He married a Morgan girl and is father to two sons and a daughter. The Morgan boys all went to
St David’s and Ronnie Morgan became a Brother.
Old Boys they are still in contact with:
Jo Stravino, Dereck Schoombie, Peter Moni, Eddie Assad (orthodontist) Peter Struthers
(maxillofacial surgeon) Michael Ford, Clive Bergman (singer), Tony Walker brother of Jeff
Walker (Master of the John Ross), Strati Malamoglou (Dyna Chem), Steve Taylor (sub-ed
Times ltd), Charlie Platt, Patrick Nobe, Brian Jarvis, Kevin Peel, Terry O’Mahoney, Emilio
Iglauer, Anthony Barale (doctor in Canada).
JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Willy Castle 1957 - 1968 Pupil; 1976 -2013 Teacher; Prep Headmaster 2014

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000960
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Willy Castle – June 2010
In the original letter requesting the enrolment of Willy as a pupil at St David’s written by his
father, his father said that he wanted any son of his to be a Marist boy. Willy began his
career at St David’s in 1957 beginning as a day boy in grade 1 with Mrs Brick as his first
teacher until grade 5 when, because of sport, Mrs Buckley-Jones recommended that he
become a boarder.
The school hours were 8am until 2.45pm followed by sport. During his first year as a boarder
he was told to go to the chapel, he thought he had done something wrong but, sadly was
told that his father had died.
Eventually, Br Timothy was the only brother teaching at the school. Willy remembers that
Brother Benedict (Beak) was the first headmaster and that Br Bosco changed his name to Br
Mario.
The school was then considered to be out in the sticks, with no fence around it with people
taking short cuts across the school grounds. Willy used to ride his bicycle home on Sunday
with no cars around. He loved the weekends, just played sport and there was always
something on at Wanderers. A burger and a movie was the highlight of the week and it was
26 kms to Little Falls for a day out swimming.
Many boys came from all over Africa and there were 50 boarders allocated to one room –
with four dormitories A, B, C, and D. The food was magnificent with chef Piet, a huge, strong
man. The boarders had 3 meals a day with morning coffee and afternoon tea, and Sunday
roast with cold drinks and ice cream. They had to wear school uniform all the time but,
occasionally were allowed to wear a suit. Br Anthony allowed them access to the pantry but
they had to eat everything there. The boys used to climb out of the dormitories and take food
from the fridge until the brothers padlocked the fridge door, but the boys worked out a way to
lift the door off its hinges helping themselves to food during the night.
The school buildings stopped at the chapel and went down to Rivonia road which was the
Love’s farm. When the owner’s died, the school bought the land right down to the Inandas.
Maryknoll was the original farmhouse and Willy’s house was the family library. The old
workshop was originally the stables.
Because of the boarders, the school had powerful sports teams and the brothers used to
train them hard. The fields were where the current swimming pool and tennis courts are now.
Mrs Kempster, was headmistress of the prep (she retired in 1974). The current high school
library was the dining room and then the hall. The staff room and admin block was formerly a
rose garden.
Marist cricket week, which has since disappeared, was a great event. Rugby matches
against other Marist schools and rugby tours, like the 1967 tour to St Joseph’s when all the
boys were bussed down and back.
Willy recalled some incidents, In 1953 the matric exam papers were stolen, whilst on camp
at Happy Acres, Oliver Green slipped down the river bank and cut himself very badly. Willy
drove him immediately to Sandton Clinic, making the trip in 20 minutes!
There are also some sad stories. Paul Visser and his brother,who was deaf. Paul eventually
shot himself and the other brother got into an argument in a pub, ran outside and was
knocked down and killed.
Another sad event was when Keith Schafer died. Jason Giles, a naughty boy had been
caught smoking and Keith as senior housemaster had to reprimand him and he usually just
whacked the boys. Paul Davies, the then headmaster called Keith to his office and really
dumped on him. Later Keith was marking exams in the staff room and began to shake and
then fell off his chair. Someone ran to get matron who gave him oxygen; the paramedics
came too late as he had died. Keith had a son in grade 0 Andrew Schafer.
Willy also recalled a time when he offered a cash reward to any boys that told him who was
guilty of marking the bathroom tiles with his shoe every day. Willy couldn’t open his office
door because of the number of pieces of paper that had been pushed under it! Hamilton was
the guilty party.
Sean Sandie, grade 9 was walking with his girlfriend by the Braamfontein spruit when
someone grabbed his girlfriend’s handbag and stabbed him. He lost a lot of blood and had
visual damage. It was a miracle that he lived and three years later wrote matric.
Willy matriculated in 1968, came back in 1976 and 1977 as a student teacher and joined the
staff in 1978 for two terms then went off to St Stithians when Murphy was the headmaster. In
2014 Willy was appointed headmaster of the prep achieving a dream. He is currently
chairman of the Marist old boys.
The rest is history!
JE August 2011 – edited 2016

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with James Miller 1955

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000806
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with James Miller – 1955
James Attended Koch Street from 1944 until 1946 and became a boarder at Inanda from 1947.
Brother Urban was the headmaster followed by Brother Edwin – “Jack Bones, The Boss” and
Brother McGurk was a traffic cop. Although he was a non-catholic he made some great
friendships and is still in touch with Derek Stansfield who lives in New Zealand.
He remembers his first day, he was about 8 years old, when he was taken to school by his
mother in a taxi as the school was considered far out in those days. He sat at the gate crying his
heart out. A whistle blew and all the boys queued for their meals outside the dining hall. His two
sisters were in a convent at Boksburg.
He enjoyed being a boarder and went to a Marist school because of Brother Aquinas. The
family were living in Joubert Park, his father was killed during the war and Brother Aquinas was
instrumental into getting him into Koch Street and then Inanda.
He enjoyed sport the most and played U13 soccer, 1st and U14, U15 rugby, from 1954 in
standards 9 and 10 he played 1st team rugby and remembers the great rivalry with Obs –
Observatory. He was in the boxing team in standard 6 (when it was stopped) and in a match
against Observatory, boxed against Alan Zimmerman who was then in standard 9, all the boys
were all soundly beaten. He recalls a yearly athletics tournament against Germiston Boys High
and another school, maybe CBC Boksburg. There were no provincial or national colours for the
boys as all the other schools were Afrikaans we were never selected
He wrote matric but was not great academically. There were 40 in the matric class that year.
He was house captain of College house. Most of the Brothers were good teachers, Brothers
Aquinas, Bartholemew, Ralph (the rugby coach), Ephraim (matric teacher)but there were some
bad moments. Brother Joseph, who was killed in a plane crash, taught Latin and was very
unpleasant and always walked in with a strap and used it at every opportunity. He remembered
Mrs Kempster in standard 4 a very good teacher, then in standard 5 Mr Bishop. The boys used
to ask him questions from the encyclopaedia and he always answered correctly. In standard 6
there was Mr Hoar who was a bit deaf and the boys unkindly mocked him.
Boarding school food was ok but for the weevils in the porridge. New boarders wouldn’t want to
eat it and the other boarders ate it for them until they wised up. He looked forward to Sundays
when they had eggs and bacon. On Sundays they used to walk to St Martins in the Veld. There
were 176 boarders with each dorm having 44 boys in ABCD dorms. The toilets were in the quad
and when the school had a féte, the Brothers used to cover them in sacking and made them into
a temporary ladies cloakroom.
There was an annual dance. The last one they had was at Parktown Convent and, on the way
home, Nicki Tvrdeich asked him if he had a partner for the matric dance and promised to
organise someone for him. On the night of the dance his partner didn’t arrive and he never
forgave Nicki.
**He remembers Robbie Brunton who was head boy in 1955 and also cricket and rugby captain,
Fred Hoppert, Naldo Brocco the father of Renzo, Neville Kirschman and his brother Brian known
as “Kippie”, Dan Robinson now living in Durban North, went to the Northern Rhodesian police
and his father was killed in the war. He later joined the Hong Kong police force for about 20
years. Brian Jeffries living in Uvongo. Vito Rugani – 1954, John Venter 1954, John Livingstone
1954, James Tonetti 1954. Aubrey Chalmers 1955 Graham Talbot 1955 Jack Kamps 1955 Ron
Gbrcic
At the end of his school career he had to spend a couple of days at school writing exams
before they broke up. He remembers all the boys signed a class photo. He can’t remember
where the matric dance was held but Pam Horwitz was his partner, the love of his love at the
time.
After school he did his military service which was compulsory for one year. He then joined the
police force in Zambia (Northern Rhodesian police) then worked on the mines and came back to
South Africa in 1967. He worked in the industrial storage and equipment field for over 30 years.
He met his wife on a blind date when they went to see “The Odd Couple”. He had 3 daughters
and has 5 grandchildren the boys are at Grey College. He spent many years in the Eastern
Cape in E.L. and Port Elizabeth returning to Johannesburg in 1988. He was transferred to Cape
Town in 1997, the company was sold in 1998 and all staff were retrenched. He decided to go it
alone and eventually retired two years ago and now lives in Kommetjie and has a black belt in
Judo. He last visited the school about three years ago and would be interested to stay in touch.
JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Renzo Brocco 1963

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000888
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Renzo Brocco – 1963
Renzo has an unusual family history and connection with Marist Inanda and it was for only one
year since its inception that a member of the family was not at the school. His father was a pupil
at Koch Street. (His aunt Myra Barale has a family tree) Renzo’s uncle, Stan Barale was the first
head boy and his brother Frank Barale was also a pupil at the school. Other uncles, Ronnie and
Cecil Morgan attended the school and the latter became a brother only to leave the brotherhood
later.
Other relations who are old boys are Harold Morgan, Kevin, John and Michael Peel – first
cousins; Michael and Sean Hackner – his sister’s sons, Ricardo – Renzo’s son (2002) and
Truda with Paul Truda being on the PTA.
When Renzo came to St David’s, Brother Edwin was the head followed by Brother Anthony. It
was a marvellous period in the school’s history and he enjoyed boarding for the last 18 months
of his school career and regretted not being a boarder for all his school life. Religion played an
important role in school life.
One of his schoolmates, Francis Gerard, lived next to the school and, in standards 5 and 6
some of the boys would go to his house during break and play darts. One day they didn’t hear
the bell and were caught by Brother Anthony who gave six of the best and warned them that
they would never become prefects, even though some of them eventually did.
Another brother who took them for woodwork was deaf and the boys used the opportunity to
ignore the bell, were then late for class and all of them got a whacking.
He remembers his first day, his father took him to school in his builder’s truck. He had with him
a little suitcase which he still has. As he was always fetched late in the day, Renzo used to play
with the boarders after school. He lived in Highlands North and used to get a lift to school with
Mrs Brick.
On the academic front, he was a member of the debating society and passed his matric. He was
deputy head boy to Derek Mandy together with Gerrit Hartman.
He played 1st team rugby, cricket, tennis and hockey. In those days they had to go to Ellis Park
to play tennis and there were no rugby or other coaches, the brothers took them right through.
He was a champion in the high jump and a member of the swimming team. A highlight of school
life was to play in the Marist rugby and cricket festivals with all six Marist schools getting
together at a different school each year. From there a Marist side was selected. He was
fortunate enough to attend three cricket festivals in Cape Town, St Joseph’s, Walmer, PE and
St Charles in Natal.
The teachers he remembers were Mrs Martin, Mrs Brick, Mrs Kempster, Mr Bishop in the prep.
Old boys he is in touch with include John Keene (63) curator of the war museum, Gerrit
Hartman, Gordon Slabbert, Edo Foly who did a lot of advertising for the school and Brother
Anthony.
The matric dance was held in the dining room (now the Library) and they wore their school
blazers. He remembers his first dance in standard 8 when he didn’t have a partner and, instead
took his sister. The last matric dance was nowhere near the splendour and extravagance of
today and the canteen did the catering. It was an important occasion as all the scrolls were
handed out.
He cannot remember much about his last day but perhaps relief that it was all over not realising
that in six months he would be missing school like mad. He enjoyed school especially boarding,
the sport and the brothers (“Crows”) who he feared but loved towards the end.
It was the time of the “Beatles”. He went to Wits, studied for a BCom and started a band and
played at most of the school dances, they were called “The Visitors”. He opened a couple of
steak houses and “Thunder Gun” in Blackheath is still going strong. He eventually went into the
building business as his father needed him and has been involved ever since. He undertakes
work for Avis, Barlows, BP and is now also taking on smaller contracts.
Renzo’s son is now teaching at a school for autistic children in London. After completing his
studies at Rhodes he was offered a position at St Andrews the same year that Paul Edey
became headmaster there.
Renzo was chairman of the PTA and of the old boys association for a time, and every year they
used to organise dance, gaming and stag evenings. One year they had a stag evening with
Eddie Eckstein (Obs) and Deoz Richardson (Walmer) for about 350 people, but sadly all this
petered out. Many of the old boys used to play for the Maristonian club after leaving school
JE October 2011
Additional information –
Marist Brothers St David’s
Stan Barale first head boy in 1948
Harol Morgan started in 1942 – 1948
Ronal Morgan started in Std 1 1948 – 1958 – was a Brother 12 years including St David’s in
1970 as Bursar
Frank Barale started in 1944-1954
Lorenzo Brocco started in 1952-1963
Eric Ambrosioni 1954-1966
Kevin Peel 1954 – 1966 1st cousin to Renzo
John Peel 1967 – 1978 1st cousin to Renzo
Michael Peel 1967 –1978
Anton Barale 1981 – 1985
Sean Hackner 1985 – 1990
Ricardo Brocco 1989 – 2003
Sebastian Truda 2007 –
Leonardo Truda 2009 –
Nikola Truda 2011 –
William Biddulph 2015 -

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Father Michael 1999 - 2007 Staff

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000772
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Father Michael 1999 – 2007
At the end of 1998 Father Brewer had retired because of advancing lung cancer. Father Michael
had left Rivonia having completed a 10 year contract 1988 – 98 and was in London on long
leave in May 1998 staying at the Jesuit church, Farm Street when he was told that Father
Brewer had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. There were boys at St David’s whose families
were parishioners and he was sometimes invited to functions at the school. As he had always
liked the school, he offered his services and was accepted as chaplain.
He had taught in three Jesuit schools when younger and he prided himself that he never had to
use corporal punishment on the boys and always managed to subdue them with a look or a
tongue lashing. At St David’s he joined the RE department and taught RE to the matrics and
then to grade 8. It is difficult teaching a subject that is not counted for marks so this provided the
opportunity for some boys to misbehave. Also this teaching caused him to be regarded as a
teacher and member of staff rather than as chaplain and priest.
Father Michael considered that extra-curricular activities were important occasions to interact
with and get to know the boys, so he was involved with debating, public speaking and was time
keeper at the swimming galas and judged inter-house plays together with Julie Egenrieder. He
had a good relationship with Paul Edey.
After he had a knee replacement, he became rather unstable having no sideways movement
and boys like Greg Hammond would see him coming and clear a path for him. They were
spontaneous and protected him. He had a good relationship with a number of boys.
high school mass was held on Thursdays, before the chapel was built was celebrated in the
Champagnat hall on a table on the stage. There were volunteer teams to transfer the
requirements for mass to the hall and to return them to the sacristy afterwards. They were
faithful and utterly reliable.
He remembered Stuart Fould’s production of “Guards, Guards” by Terry Pratchett and felt
strongly that there really wasn’t any acting just a lot of shouting. Gareth Dry’s gift to the school
was instituting musicals of such a professional standard which revived interest and brought new
energy into the school. It was Paul Edey’s idea to get a musical component into the school and
the musical for 2006 was “West Side Story” with David Schneider taking the male lead role and
managing the aria when Maria is dying. It’s a very difficult aria and without, any musical
background, David pulled it off. Father Michael found it very emotional and was very involved.
In 2007, Gareth Dry approached him with the request to put on a musical “Jesus Christ
Superstar” and asked him if he would have any objection to such a controversial musical. Father
Michael said he would use the occasion to catechise on the gospel events to instruct the boys.
He and Gareth were on the same wavelength and at no stage did he have to say this is
inappropriate. However a former pupil, Deneys Williamson living in the States sent an email
complaining about the musical. Father Michael decided to ignore it and the irony was that his
younger brother Alex Williamson played one of the high priests in the show. Kylo Molefe played
Jesus Christ and found the part to be very emotional for him and for the cast. It was also difficult
for a boy like Kylo to be head boy but he had the support and the ability to handle it.
Father Michael is rather proud of the organ that was donated to the school for use in the new
Chapel of Mary. It is apparently one of the best organs in any school in Johannesburg if not in
the country. He thought it would be appropriate for it to be used for recitals and mentioned
Cameron Upchurch (St John’s) who is teaching a number of boys to play and also plays the
organ at the university church on a Sunday.
JE August 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gavin Muller 1987

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000783
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987
Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0
class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to
escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom
was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located.
Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau.
Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming
team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5.
Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but
fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the
pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On
the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet.
There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the
junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun)
were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught
English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got
less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs
Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came
to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst
she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent
man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically
beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin
enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History
syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4
weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no
leadership.
The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50.
There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys
used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the
time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys
absconded and many were caught with alcohol.
Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is
still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was
the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches
back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult
leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy.
For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations
and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their
last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night.
It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the
appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then
Mr Boswell.
Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University.
He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate
School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then
went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years.
He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House.
He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the
board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82)
who subsequently emigrated.
Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand.
JLE May 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Ivor Bailey 1957

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000804
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Ivor Bailey – 1957
Ivor began his school career at Marist Brothers, Koch Street in 1948 with Br. Aquinias as
principal. His parents were not very well off but his mother was catholic. He then went onto
Observatory but didn’t do very well, and then in standard 8 he was getting straight E’s. The
family came into some money and was sent to Inanda in 1956, as a boarder. Br Edwin (nephew
of Neil McGurk) nicknamed “Jack” was principal and he believes that his entire life was changed
because of him. He was an incredible teacher who suffered from rheumatism but had a very
strong right arm with which he wielded a cane. Discipline was a way of life. Br Edwin taught
Maths and History and was especially good at Maths. Ivor achieved a distinction in Maths after
6 months of his teaching and managed to get a “B” for his matric. Br Edwin made him realise he
could do it and he was then able to go to university to study engineering and truly believes it is
all due to Br Edwin.
Another brother who influenced him was Br Ephraim and was the English teacher. He was a
gentle man, very well read and instilled in him a love for reading and languages.
There were no more than 30 in his matric class. He knew Peter Owen already and shared a
dining table with Peter Johnson and Douglas Karan. He didn’t do too well in sport but played
rugby and was scorer for the cricket team as he was pretty useless otherwise. There were such
a small number of boys at the school so they didn’t do too well in rugby. He remembers that
they were transported to and from games in an open Bedford truck. He remembers that some of
them used to smoke in the back of the truck, although not too many of them smoked.
Edith Owen did a lot for the tennis and was a legend. Her sons Peter and Patrick were good
tennis players.
There were 4 dormitories, he was in A dorm with 44 boys in all and Br Gerard was the boarding
master. The food in the boarding house was quite good and there was a waiter called Charlie
who used to give his table extras. Sunday lunch was chicken and chips followed by ice cream.
The highlight of boarding school was the Sunday walk, especially past Dairy Den, where the
Gautrain station is now. From there they would walk to the Klein Jukskei through what is now
Morningside to have a mud fight in the river. They also walked to the old boy’s club just off Louis
Botha not far from Barlow offices. Grayston Drive was Grayston stables. They were taught
ballroom dancing in the dining room and the boarders had to go to Rosebank Convent,
Immaculate Hall for socials. The nuns wore wimples and big habits and used to keep a beady
eye on them. They had to walk there and back.
He remembers the flu epidemic and how wonderful matron Buckley-Jones was.
When he first arrived at the school he was taken aback by the rigidity and was not used to
conforming to such strict discipline. However, one night he and Johnson broke out of the school,
Br Benedict was principal and Br Anthony was around, they went to a Rosebank hotel, were
collected and taken to Mayfair to a 18th birthday party. They returned in the early hours of the
morning undetected and they didn’t tell anyone until the end of matric.
His son Gordon went to De La Salle due to them living in the area. His son was the last head
boy before the school amalgamated.
He formed more lasting relationships at varsity as he was probably at St David’s for too short a
time. When the school bought the additional land, Ivor surveyed the fields for Br Anthony.
Coming for the interview was the first time he had been back to the school in years; however he
would be interested in the book and a possible commitment to purchase and in the Jubilee
celebrations.
JE July 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Batana Vundla 1996

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000709
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2011

Interview with Batana Vundla -1996
Batana was a pupil at St David’s from grade 0 to matric and recalls there being at least 3 or 4
black pupils in his year during that time.
Mrs Walton was his grade 0 teacher and he remembers his first day, crying because his uniform
was uncomfortable but by the end of the day he didn’t want to go home.
Mr Royce had a big impact on him in the prep school, and had a steady hand. In the high school
there was Mr Brownlee,(who he understands helped him become a prefect in matric), Mrs
Marais, Mr Edey who enjoyed teaching and was always fair, inspiring but strong.
He has known Mike von Guilleaume since grade 0 and his was the first white person’s home
that he visited. At the time in the 80’s he somehow thought that white people had green blood.
So you can imagine he was a bit nervous sleeping over at his house. Other boys he remembers
are Murray White, the Chandler, Contardo and Fiaschanaro, families. There was a good school
spirit, Sifiso Ngwenya was St David’s first black head boy, the school was ahead of all the other
private schools in this regard. He was grateful for all the support he received and to get such a
good education at St David’s.
He was fortunate as his parents did well and his mother ran the family business. Although he
sometimes had to travel to school in civies (At the time attending school in white areas was
taboo) he always travelled in a private car which helped in getting around. His mother
developed cancer whilst he was in standard 7 and was ill until he matriculated. It was a very
stressful time for him and he didn’t handle it too well.
On the sporting front he played B team soccer, athletics, and cricket in the prep and then A
team rugby in the high school until matric as a wing. In 1995, year of the World Cup the rugby
side was the best St David’s ever had. Mike von Gulleaume was head boy and Johnathan
Kyriakakis, 1st rugby team captain. It was the year of the first overseas tour in which the team
won all of their games and they used to sing Sho Sholoza coming off the pitch. In the opening
game Batana scorred the winning try. He also remembers the game against Bryanston High,
the same day of the Rugby World Cup final, the stands were full, they played really well and St
David’s won. They felt that the Boks would win because they had. In this year Batana was
chosen for Transvaal U18 development team.
He was involved with plays for College house and had mainly bit parts but no major roles. He
was involved with debating and recalls Mrs Henderson who started a campaign asking for
peace in SA, she also taught Geography.
Batana never achieved academically, he admits to being a lazy student who underperformed.
He was relieved on his last day to be finishing school but was nervous and counting the days to
the results. He looked forward to going into the real world. He passed his matric and went to
Wits then onto UCT where he studied Drama.
Batana is currently a film producer working on a production dealing with the protection of
information and corruption in the ruling party. He is also involved in the film industry assisting
youngsters to get into the industry. He has also been on the MOBS committee for the past two
years and would like to send any sons, which he may father, to St David’s.
JE December 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Ross Alcock 1986 . Board of Governors 2006 - 2012

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000899
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Ross Alcock – 1986
Ross began his career at St David’s in grade 1 in 1975. He had two older brothers at the school
and remembers being very excited on his first day. He was very familiar with the school as he
had already been there with his brothers on numerous occasions. His first teacher was Miss
Busscheau.
He remembered Father Plesters, the Chaplain who later became Monsignor, Mrs Walton grade
2, Mrs Ansell who was a temporary teacher, Mrs Webb standard 1, Mrs Napier a rather
authoritarian figure, Mrs Joseph, standard 3 and Mrs Anderson. In standard 2 Ross caught a
virus, one boy died and Ross was lucky to come through it, didn’t attend school and was unable
to walk for quite some time. Mrs Napier and Mrs Aubrey helped him with extra work at home.
Ross really enjoyed the sport and recalls sports coach Terry O’Mahoney together with Tim
Coetze standard 5 and Willy Castle standard 4. Willy also coached the grade 1 soccer team.
Br Timothy was the headmaster followed by Mr Murphy who appeared to be very authoritarian
in the beginning until his demise when he was seen by all the boys on TV as a wrestler. Mr
Frielick who was too soft followed and then came Mr Boswell, the Afrikaans teacher who was
influenced by Mrs Elliot, many of the boys thought she really ran the school and that he was
merely a figurehead. There was an incident with the non-catholic retreat in 1985 led by the
Doyle brothers which showed a lack of leadership within the school. Ross felt that the
leadership in the high school was sadly lacking and that the boys needed a strong leader.
Father Brewer was the type of person who should have led the school. He was an incredible
man, unlike a conventional priest. He taught RE but loved sport. An eminently practical and
pragmatic man he could give the boys guidance in life and, even though he was extremely
religious he was neither distant nor removed from reality. He helped Ross with extra Latin
lessons whilst he was at university and had incredible patience. Father Brewer married Ross,
counselling him and his wife beforehand, he also blessed his son but sadly died shortly
afterwards.
In standard 5 a number of boys left to go to St John’s as St David’s was then going through a
bad patch, although it wasn’t a good time for the school, the boys got on well together and there
was great camaraderie through the sport .Some of his pals at the time were Greg Lambe;
Gordon Tonetti and Craig MacKay. He remembers a black pupil joining in grade 2 and that there
were a few black boys at the school including the Shongwe brothers and a number of them went
to their father’s funeral in standard 7 held in Atteridgeville, Soweto.
Ross played rugby in standard 4 and 5 against the high school’s U13C team. As many boys left
at the end of standard 5 it was a great loss to the rugby team. Ross played Transvaal Nuffield
cricket in 1986 and stayed at Hilton College. He was awarded colours for rugby in mtandard 9
and again in his Matric year and won trophies for leadership, cricket, rugby and the Osmond
Cup for sportsman of the year. He was vice head prefect and captained the 1st rugby and cricket
teams.
His favourite year was 1985 playing 1st team rugby and cricket and he went on cricket and rugby
tours to Cape Town. At the Marist schools’ festival they had a very good side and made up the
vast majority of a combined Marist schools team. They stayed in old dormitories at St Joseph’s
and for the cricket tour stayed at the Newlands Sun and being boys managed to get up to some
mischief.
Ross was involved with inter-house plays in the primary school and remembers being in the
team that won the inter-house quiz in standard 5. However he didn’t last long playing one of the
guards in “Hamlet”, Trudie Elliott wasn’t his favourite person.
Ross loved his time at St David’s although he did have some regrets that he hadn’t gone to a
stronger school from sporting and other perspectives. He felt he would have further flourished
but only realised this later. After leaving school he played cricket for Old Eds and for Transvaal
and realised that had he been at another school he would have without doubt played Nuffield A
in 1985 and 6. He actually played for the B side and knew he was better player than many on
the A side. Because of this he didn’t return to St David’s for quite some time. Ross firmly
believes that when sport is poor the perception is that the school is poor. St David’s loses a lot
of focus on sport and does need to be more competitive.
Academically Ross was no star but did well enough to get one distinction in matric and went
into Law studying for a B Proc at Wits University and for his LLB through Unisa whilst doing his
articles. He missed the army by continuing to study and when he finished his LLB he went
overseas for a year, then did his articles at a small firm and joined Edward Nathan Sonnenberg
in 1997 and has been a partner since 2000.
Ross has two sons at St David’s and his eldest son will be going to Hilton for high school as a
boarder.
Ross’ company is the only law firm that has dedicated offices in Alexandra and Mitchel’s Plain
and everyone on the staff has to complete a certain number of hours of pro bono work to
support these offices. They also work together with the Department of Justice and Small Claims
Court in Alex and the managing partners sit on these courts and supply advice.
JLE October 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Martin Lebos 1978

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000842
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Martin Lebos – 1978
Martin initially went to St Paul’s but came to St David’s in standard 1 and Mrs Watson was his
teacher. His class was in the house block (where the CEO’s house is now) where standard 1,
1A and 2 and 2A were taught. He remembers that, in the winter, they used to make up a fire in
each classroom. The following year he moved out of house block to a classroom just below the
old chapel and Mrs Napier was his teacher. There were still boarders at the school at that time
and, where the tuck-shop and library is now was the boarder’s dining room. He remembers
other teachers, standard 3, Mrs Geddes, standard 4, Mrs Sacks, standard, 6 Mrs Knesovitch
who was very strict, used the cane but was a very good teacher.
The headmaster was Brother Anthony and the other Brothers were Timothy, Andrew, Mario,
Aquinias who taught Maths in standard 6 and 7, Bernard who taught Latin and Brother Aidan
who was the bursar. He learnt in standard 5 that if he really studied he could do really well and
eventually was awarded Dux of the year. High school teachers were Afrikaans – Mr Klaasen,
English – Penelope ?, Maths – Br. Aquinias, Geography – Mr Maritz, Mrs Sally Saunders taught
Geography at a lower level in the high school – Mr Maritz, Biology and Science - Mr Karoo, they
all taught through to standard 8. Mr Zacharawitch taught History, was of Russian origin and had
been in a concentration camp, he left at the end of standard 9 followed by Mr Manolios and Mr
MacFadyen who was a very good teacher. For the higher standards there was Mrs Elliot for
English, Mr Lipschitz for Maths, Br Timothy who had wonderful hand writing and was brilliant for
Science, Br Bernard for Latin, and Mr Needt for Afrikaans. Mr Lipschitz was ahead of his time, in
matric he took Martin out of his class and made him do past papers in the hour and taught him
Ad Maths with the result that when he went to varsity he was already ahead of everyone in Ad
Maths. Mr Lipschitz also coached rugby, stayed in Fricker Rd and drove a lime green Volksie
Beetle.
The new Science block was opened, a new pool built and boarding came to an end. The library
was run by Mrs Zent was in the old Science room. The land the Inandas are on now was still
part of the school until it was sold off. Families living in Chiselhurston had a gate with access to
the school grounds.
Martin swam, was a member of the water-polo team, played 1st team rugby, participated in
debating and was a member of a good team which that year narrowly lost to St John’s in the
Colby Cup. The final decision was made by a judge with a bias towards St John’s. He also
remembered an inter-catholic schools athletics held at the Wanderers, Willy Castle was in
matric and Nolan Springer was a brilliant sprinter. At that time the prep playing field was the
track.
Nassey Simaan was the rugby coach and in standard 1, his wife Aggie used to cook Martin
lunch. He remembers a rugby match where the school lost to KES by two points. In 1972 the
school had a really great rugby side. Martin’s matric class was small and could just about field a
second rugby team, the closing of the boarding gave the school a huge knock in this regard.
Boxing was withdrawn as a sport when someone got badly injured. The astro turf was where the
practise cricket nets were and the grade 00 block was the paddock.
Assembly was held every morning in the quad where the trees are now for the high school and
the junior school where they still line up now. The high school swimming gala was held in the
evening and the old boys used to come and compete. The boys used to go to the Beefeater
restaurant, where Giovannis is now, and have hamburgers after rugby and play pinball.
Champagnat day was really enjoyable. It started off with all the boys going in buses to mass at
the Catholic church in Keyes Avenue and he remembers the hymns they used to sing.
Boys he remembers are Jeffrey and Jerome Kourie, Patrick Riley, Oliver Setton, Desmond
Morgan, Fulton Allen, a top golfer who used to stay with the Kouries, George Nikas who was a
brilliant hurdler and good rugby player (owner of the ocean Basket) the Saad’s all went to the
school. Forsman, Martin’s sister’s son, Lawrence Kourie was in the same class and now lives in
San Diego. The head boy was Andrew Snyman and the vice head boy, Mike Peel who now lives
in Nelspruit and has done some amazing research into flora and fauna. Roy Zent is a top
nephrologist in the States and his brother is one of the top oncologists in the States. Marcel
John, Jimmy John, Michel, Costa, Raymond.
Martin went to a 30 year reunion but there was only one other old boy from 1978 there.
Martin loved the school and thought it was wonderful, the school was like a family with the
brothers who were an important part of the school. The school took a big knock when the
boarding facility closed down. His son Joseph is presently at St David’s in grade 8.
Martin is not a member of MOBS but is still passionate about his school. He likes the display of
all the matric photos in the Champagnat hall.
Martin is still very passionate about his school and thinks that the moral standard of the school
has never dropped, but feels strongly that no current parent should be on the board. There
should be a book of rules and regulations and the school authorities should be consistent with
upholding the same and not allow some boys to be relieved of punishment. He also believes
that the teaching staff should have more influence regarding the election of prefects, head boy
and the awarding of Champagnat medals.
NB Martin’s brother is married to Heather Joseph’s cousin.
NB No longer has his matric Yearbook
JE January 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Stanley 1974

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000857
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Mike Stanley – 1974
Mike is the youngest of a family of five boys and when he joined St David’s in standard 6, two of
his older brothers were already there and all of them were boarders. He was called “Baby
Stanley or Little Stan” and he remembers his brother carrying his belongings to the dormitory
and his mother made his bed. Because he was the fifth child at the school his parents did not
have to pay fees for him.
Brother Anthony was still there and Mike thought he was a wonderful man, Br Aidan, an
amazing man was the bursar, Br Bosco, Br Timonthy “Tin Man” taught Science, Br Andrew
“Drac” was Spanish and drew blood when he caned the boys., Br Aquinas was an elderly
bulldog of a man who taught English and History. Br Bernard taught Latin and a younger brother
who was an unpleasant and vindictive man taught Art and was in charge of the junior boarding
house. Mr Zacharias – Mr Zac was a wonderful History teacher who had escaped from
Germany hiding underneath a train. There were some pretty female teachers Mavis Hartman,
English, Beverly Ballard (Tremeer) Science and her husband taught at KES’ Mrs Janusch
taught Latin, Mrs Culligan was from an Irish family and had a son Barry at the school. Mrs
Kempster was head of the prep school and Mrs Buckley-Jones the matron, Mrs Buchan taught
History and had a son at the school, Mrs Rudiker a Biology teacher who was very attractive and
wore miniskirts. There was an Afrikaans teacher “Bubo” who battled as there was zero interest
in the subject.
Mike remembers the boarders having to move the stands for sporting events. The boys were
allowed to spend one weekend per term with their families and there were some Sundays when
they were allowed to visit their sons. At weekends the boys were allowed to watch the cricket at
Wanderers. His brothers watched the match in 1967 when South Africa beat Australia in a test
series. It was compulsory for the boarders to support the 1st team in rugby. They watched reel to
reel movies on Saturday nights. At the end of each term the boys had “Beano” which was the
only time that they ate roast chicken and had a pudding the night before they went home.
During term time the boarders often used to break into the kitchen and raid the fridge. Piet was
the school cook. The sister school was Rosebank Convent.
Mike was a member of Benedict house, played cricket and was captain of the 2nd team, played
3 and 4th team rugby and was in the boarders hockey league. In 1972 they had the strongest,
unbeaten rugby team but in a heart breaking match they lost to KES. The captain was Terry van
Heerden from Zambia, other team members were Harry Curtis, Carl Eb, James Cronin - centre
was the only player to be sent off in a match against St John’s for straight arm tackling. Mike
recalls Br Andrew “Drac” telling Cronin “you’ve got to take out that Williams boy”. He recalled
rugby tours to Bloemfontein and other SA cities but never to exotic places like Australia.
Academically, Mike did reasonably well achieving a first class matric and went on to Wits
University to study a BSc as he wanted to go into medicine. Unfortunately he didn’t do too well
in his first year and went into the army for 2 years service and signed on for an extra year. In
1979 he finished his army service and signed up to do his articles with price Waterhouse
Cooper where there were a number of ex St David’s boys He is now involved with the concrete
flooring industry. Mike’s son didn’t attend St David’s as the family lived in Cape Town for a
number of years and when they came back to Johannesburg Mike and his wife divorced and
needed their son to attend a boarding school.
Mike thinks that the years he spent at St David’s was a beautiful time especially in the high
school. He still has many friends from those days and he and Michael Macfarlane have been
friends for 48 years.
Families he remembers having a number of boys at St David’s were Kourie’s, Saad’s, Deeb,
Sopas (Elias, Michael and Basil), Resek, Moni, Marsay, Macfarlane Other old boys such as
Fulton Allem, Lindsay Ralphs now at Bidvest whose nickname was “Pooch”, George Nichas,
Terence Lavery (1968) who unofficially equalled Paul Nash’s time for the 100m, Richard Stavro
Captain 1st Team rugby, Alan van den Handel, Kevin Peel, Rob Adair, Billy Colton, Angelo
Haggiyanis. There were a few ambassadors sons at the school such as the Greek Ambassador
to the Congo.
JE August 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Simon Franklin 1985 - Standard 7

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000934
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Simon Franklin – 1985 Standard 7
Simon and his brothers Adrian and Jeremy attended St David’s with Adrian (vice head boy)
matriculating in 1984 and Jeremy in 1985. Their father was chairman of the board during the
time they were there. Simon didn’t stay on to matric but left and went to St Andrews,
Grahamstown at the end of 1985 when Mr Boswell was headmaster. There are a couple of
reasons for this, Simon got into some arguments relating to his almost certain election as a
prefect simply because he was a Franklin, this did not go down well with him and the fact that
his brother lost his honours blazer due to the disastrous non-catholic retreat in 1985. St David’s
was going through a bad time without strong leadership and Simon felt it was time to leave.13
out of 15 boys in the U14A rugby side, a really good team losing only a couple of matches that
season, also left that year.
Simon began his career at St David’s in standard 3 in 1981 and cycled to school, the family
home being in !st Avenue. He and his brothers used to access the school through a hole in the
fence. Brian MacFadden lived on the school grounds and Simon used to hang out with him at
his house and the pair of them used to ride a motorbike around where the Inandas are today.
They were naughty and considered the school their playground. Willy Castle and his wife and
young children lived next door to Brian.
Having two older brothers at the school made a big difference with Jeremy being the prop for
the 1st team rugby for two years, he was a big strong boy but is now much slimmer and an artist
who exhibits at the Everard Read, Standard Bank, and Goodman Galleries. Adrian who was
vice head boy to Nick Pruims, head boy is now a successful businessman running one of the
Fortune 100 companies.
Simon was a great sportsman playing A team rugby, cricket, swimming, athletics and held the
high jump record. When his brothers were playing 1st team rugby, his father invited the rugby
team to Dullstroom for the weekend together with Mr Collier and Mr MacFadden.
The teachers he remembers are Heather Joseph, the art teacher, a Mr Kotze who looked like
Freddie Mercury, someone who taught technical drawing who was a stand up comic and was on
TV sometimes. Finlayson was the rugby coach, Isaak Cronje, Walter Cronje’s brother, the
Physical Education trainer and Mr MacFadden who taught History and French and whom the
boys liked.
He enjoyed the prep but the high school doesn’t really stand out apart from the time spent on
the sports field. Academically Simon’s performance was poor, he did enough to get by and his
friendships with his peers and sport were more important to him. He participated in a “Can Can”
production in standard 3 in the old hall with Heather Joseph as producer and his Gran made him
a black and red outfit with stockings.
Of his peers Grant Dykes left at the end of prep, others were Brian Steele, Paul Allen, Sean
Johnson and Greg Black with whom he is still in touch. He recalls Gary Beuthin breaking his leg,
with the whole leg in plaster which did not deter him from lying on his motor bike and riding to
school. Mike Erery, matric 1985 a huge guy who drove a really small car. Other names he
remembers are Michael Wood’88, Tonetti and Roland Retz.
Being an Anglican, the Religious Education was something Simon had to do and didn’t really
appreciate until later and especially at St Andrews where he was nicknamed “The Rev” because
of his knowledge. He felt he was given the tools to decide whether or not he wanted religion in
his life.
Simon was 17 when he matriculated and went into the army in the medical corp it was the last
year of intake and he finished in 1990 when he enrolled at the Cape Technikon to study
marketing and played ruby for Villagers rugby. His first project was the 1995 World Cup which
took him all over the world. He joined FIFA in 2006 until 2011 which gave him huge exposure,
travel and introduced him into a different way of thinking. He was then commercial director for
SAFA and is now with Megapro.
Simon has a son currently in grade 0 at St David’s. Simon is glad to see that St David’s has
adopted football and that a number of boys have been assigned to professional soccer league
teams. He feels that the sport has improved over the last few years and believes that academics
are crucial but that sport is very important and the school’s performance on the sports field.
JLE November 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with John Hazakis 1972 (Standard 7)

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000816
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with John Hazakis – 1972 (Std 7)
John first came to St David’s as a boarder in 1968. Having come from Mozambique where his
home languages were Greek and Portuguese, he found it very difficult to integrate in the first
few months.
He recalls the boarders being given a single avocado for breakfast and often they would have to
escape from school to go downtown Johannesburg for a decent meal and a movie. In those
days it was quite safe to bunk out. The boys would squeeze through the dormitory windows,
take a bus into town and return to school after a night out. One couldn’t imagine doing that
today.
The boy slept in open dormitories, 40 boys to a dorm with rows of beds and a small cupboard
separating the beds wherein the boys kept their few belongings. As a boarder he was quite
lonely. He recalls listening to his transistor radio after lights out, under the bed covers so the
radio would not be heard by the brothers doing their regular night patrolling. No ipods and
blackberries in those days.
He recalls how the school boys would dash for the cheese board after meals. On week-ends the
boys would make small braais at the lower-end rugby field, using bent metal coat hangers to
braai the boerewors.
Cinema evenings were held where the Science block now stands. These evenings were a treat
for the boys.
Br Timothy, house master, was in charge of their pocket money allowing them 5 cents a day to
purchase their tuck - a small frozen orange juice and a packet of chips.
Br Anthony was the headmaster, Br Bosco (Mario) taught Science, Br Bernard the artist and
sculptor taught the boys various artistic techniques. John recalls how he was taught to do wood
carving by Br. Benard.
There was strict discipline in the school. The Brothers would carry canes and deal with any
indiscipline by caning the boys. To avoid the pain the boys would tuck layers of toilet paper in
their pants. If discovered they would get a few extra “cuts” for cheating.
He recalls how at breaks the boy would play marbles, rolling the marbles from one end to the
other of the long corridors outside the dormitories.
There was a volley ball court where the quad is now. He recalls how the boys would wake up in
the cold winter mornings and make their way to the open quadrangle for a hot cup of coffee at
the start of the school day.
John left St. David’s at the end of 1972 when the boarding facility was discontinued. He moved
to St.John’s where he completed his schooling. Reflecting back on life of a boarder, he doesn’t
regret any of the experiences. In fact it taught him a lot about life and how to be independent.
After matriculating in 1977, John went to Wits Technikon, to study Mechanical Engineering. He
joined Siemens as a technician trainee in 1978. He has spent most of his career with Siemens
and is now business unit director for renewable energy. He finds his current job very stimulating
and interesting. He is very excited about being part of a motivated team that is introducing
renewable energy to South Africa. Siemens’ renewable energy portfolio includes wind, solar and
hydro power generation. In the past he was involved in the fossil and nuclear power generation
activities, however, considering the current global warming he is glad that he is contributing
towards a cleaner environment.
John is married with two children. His son is studying at Wits and his daughter is still at school
(Crawford Lonehill). This was the first time he had been back to the school in a long time but is
interested in keeping in touch.
Some of the boys John remembers are:
Fulton Allem, who became professional golfer and later went on to win the Sun City million
dollar, Evangelos Nichas who became a vet and now lives in Bloemfontein and Chris Darras a
very successful ophthalmologist,
JE July 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Clarke 1951

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000852
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2012

Interview with Mike Clarke – 1951
Mike attended St David’s from 1941 when it first opened and became a boarder in standard 7
when his mother decided that, as he was the youngest at home he should become a boarder.
His elder brother Christopher was sent to CBC, Kimberly he hated it and ran away and joined St
David’s in standard 9. Mike remembers the Dunkeld bus and the walk to St David’s from the
terminus.
He remembers Br Pius well who taught him in standard 3 and because of him he still has
beautiful handwriting. Mrs Lindsten and Mrs Stirton taught the grades, the former owning a
Hudson Terraplane a large car which she drove to and from Marist from Troyville and collected
some boys on the way. Mrs Brophy taught standard 1 and Harry Best the PE teacher a boxer,
started boxing as a sport and brought a well known boxer, Alf Ramsay to the school. Carl
Vermeulen decided to become a boxer and won a bout at Observatory and then gave it up.
Br Osmond was the first headmaster followed by Br Edwin who was a marvellous teacher
whose subject was History and whom the boys called “Bones” as he had arthritis. Br Edwin told
Mike that he wouldn’t do very well, however Mike ended up with B’s in his matric and proved
him wrong. Br Urban was marvellous, Br Benedict was the cricket coach, Br Celestine an
Australian was wonderful and a real academic and taught Latin, Br Alban taught English, Br
Bartholemew didn’t have much of a chin and Mr Bishop was lay teacher.
The school at that time consisted only of the grades block and playground which ended by the
line of pine trees and road where the after care centre is now. There was a house at the bottom
of the road where the brothers lived.
Mike enjoyed his time at St David’s in spite of the tough discipline, he was a prefect together
with Carl Vermeulen, Ian Kerley and Alyson Zylstra enjoying the sport and the atmosphere of
the school. Some of the boys discovered where the communion wine was kept in the chapel
and helped themselves to some of it until Father Kunz noticed the level going down rapidly.
After matriculating, Mike first went to Wits University to study architecture but decided that was
not for him and looked at a career in accounting but then went to Natal University where he
studied English and History, decided he enjoyed the academic life and became a teacher. Mike
went to Zimbabwe after Sharpeville in 1960 and met his wife there. After 14years he returned to
South Africa with his family of 2 young children. He contacted Mark Henning and joined the staff
at St Stithians and taught Latin and English there for 23 years. He then retired and became
head of Bishop Bavin’s Prep and afterwards taught at St Peter’s part-time and in 2004 finally
retired for good and relocated to Knysna.
Mike has lost contact will all his colleagues but is still in touch with Carl Vermeulen and Alan
Schwarer.
Mike’s three children, two boys and a girl did not go to St David’s but to St Stithian’s with him
being a teacher there and his eldest son Rick now teaches English and is a housemaster at
Wellington College in England.
Carl Vermeulen was a lawyer with Werkman’s.
JLE October 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gabriel Simaan 1986 (Standard 6)

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000777
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Gabriel Simaan – 1986 (Std 6)
Gaby began his school career at Boskop Primary and came to St David’s in standard 2. His first
teacher was Mrs Hurley. He enjoyed his time at St David’s and has very happy memories of his
time there and friends he made. It was a close family orientated type of school. You were made
to feel you were someone at St David’s and were made to feel part of the school.
Gaby enjoyed the sport and participated in soccer, cricket, tennis, cross country, athletics,
swimming and was in A team rugby in the high school. He was also involved in public speaking
and debating and in the inter-house plays in standard 6. Being a small school everyone got the
opportunity to try everything. The mix was also good with both rich and poor parents sending
their sons there. There was also a lot of involvement with MOBS and the sons of MOBS, an
important status.
One person he will never forget is Willy Castle who made him absolutely love sport.
Willy ran soccer clinics which he enjoyed even though all the boys were so scared of him.
By the time Gaby attended the school there were no longer any brothers teaching. Sadly, as the
school was going through a bad patch with several changes of headmaster, Gaby’s parents
decided to move him to St Stithians for a better infrastructure and academic tuition. Gaby
battled with the change and rebelled which affected both his sport and school work. He didn’t
have a good relationship with most of his teachers. There were 5 or 6 other boys from St
David’s at St Stithians at the time. Gaby only managed to get into the B team rugby and didn’t
participate in many of the things he had done at St David’s. The competition was tough and only
the best were accepted both for sport and public speaking and debating. He always regretted
leaving St David’s and his grandfather, Nassey showed his disappointment with Gaby’s parents
decision by no longer supporting him at any rugby matches. Gaby recalled a match between the
two schools where his father turned up wearing his St David’s honours blazer. St David’s won
the match as a former St David’s boy playing for St Stithians missed a kick by miles. Gaby’s
father ran onto the field and hugged him!
After matriculating, Gaby went to Wits University to study for a BComm and then started off in
the pharmaceutical industry and is now managing director of Trinity Pharmaceuticals. Gaby’s
father is a pharmacist.
Gaby still has close ties with the school and his son is enrolled to start in Gr00 in 2016.
JLE June 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Costa John 1973

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000744
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Costa John – 1973
Costa remembers his first day with the fish pond at the entrance to the junior school which
seemed like a mystical treasure.
He enjoyed his school days, the structure and deep teacher engagement. As a day boy he
went home every day but felt that the boarders seemed to bond better.
Anne Buchan was a teacher who was caring, articulate, highly structured and inspirational.
He didn’t enjoy the corporal punishment which he felt was a troubling practice all the way to
matric.
He remembers an unhappy moment, confronting the school over incidents where his
brother’s poor Geography grade was made his problem, the next year, and later when his
younger brother was unfairly singled out for punishment.
A good memory was when he set a new school sprint record as an 11 year old when South
Africa went metric and all records were being set for the first time.
Costa enjoyed the sport and played soccer, cricket, rugby and was an athlete. There weren’t
any sports camps in those days. Costa was a member of C.L.G., the debating society,
Science club and 3rd team rugby.
The matric dance was a proud moment with beautiful decor, wonderful catering and was still
a black and white formal event. There was an all-night after party that ended the next
morning with many of the boys enjoying breakfast in Rosebank, still in tuxedos and evening
gowns!
Costa was elected head prefect in his matric year, received his honours blazer and scrolls
for Merit, Studies, and Debating and was awarded the victor ludorum..
His last day was poignant and he realised he would sorely miss the rich mosaic of academic,
sport, faith-based activities and the maturing phase from a child to a young man in the army..
After matriculating, Costa went into the army for a year then studied for a BCom and MCom
at Wits University followed by a Phd in the USA.
He is currently CFO of a San Franciso software company. He is a member of the Red Cross
disaster response team with service at Ground Zero (Terror attack) 2001, Katrina
(Hurricane) 2005, Joplin (Tornado) 2011.
Costa last visited St David’s in 2013 when he addressed a high school assembly.
JLE July 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Franco Lambiase 1976

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000773
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Franco Lambiase – 1976
Franco came to St David’s as a day boy in 1970 from Bramley Primary School after his family
had emigrated back to South Africa from 18 months in Italy. Arriving in standard 6 he found St
David’s to be a very strict school with mainly brothers teaching. Having come from a nonconformist
environment Franco found St David’s to be regimental and it was difficult for him to
adapt.
Brother Anthony was the headmaster until 1975 when Brother Timothy took over. The brothers
he remembers include Br Bosco (Mario); Br Bernard; Br Aquinas, Br Timothy, Br Aidan the
bursar; Br Ronald and Br Andrew (Drac). Of the lay teachers he remembered Mr Saunders -
Afrikaans, Mrs Zent the librarian who gave him writing lessons and Heather Joseph was friendly
with William Carew (Bubbles), Trudy Elliott, - English with whom he kept in touch.
Franco wasn’t very sporty but played 3rd team rugby and hated swimming. He was there when
the new Science wing and auditorium were opened in 1972. Franco was quite artistic and was
awarded a trophy for Art and also did the decorations for the matric dance – a medieval theme.
Academically Franco did not excel but managed to pass his matric.
After matriculating, Franco went on to Wits University where he studied Pharmacy. He ran a
pharmacy until 1993 when he finally gave this up to become a confectioner and now runs his
own business making specialty cakes. He makes cakes for magazines, wedding expos and is a
member of the Cake Decorators Guild. He judges for Angela Day the mince pies, hot cross
buns and Christmas cakes.
Franco is not a member of MOBS but participated in last year’s St David’s Christmas market.
JLE February 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Rick Wilson 1996 - 2013 Staff

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000891
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Rick Wilson – Staff 1996 to date
Rick was appointed headmaster of the preparatory school in 1996, prior to this he had lived in
Botswana for 11 years and before that taught at St Stithians. The reason for leaving Botswana
was that his two young sons needed to go to high school and there was nothing suitable in
Botswana.
Rick didn’t warm to the architecture of St David’s, finding the face brick too Victorian but he
came to love it over the years and in every subsequent project a great deal of effort has been
made to match the existing style. His first assembly was held in the old hall where now the high
school library is. Fairly apprehensive, coming from a very rural and multi-racial environment he
introduced himself to the 350 boys, as they sat on the floor. He talked to them about himself and
his life and how he played in a rock band during his teens. He appeared to have broken the ice
and quickly won the boys over.
As St David’s lacked a suitable large facility, the first speech night was held down at the pool
with the lectern and dignitaries lined up by the baby pool and the boys and parents on the
grandstands. As Rick began his speech, three Egyptian geese flew in and landed in the pool –
Rick jokingly said that his reputation as a good speaker had gone before him and had even
attracted the geese to come and listen to him.
Rick recalls that he was handed the keys to his tiny office in the grade 1 block, now occupied by
a therapist. He saw a cricket clinic in progress on the playing fields and decided to take a look.
As he walked over he was conscious of fierce scrutiny by a short bearded man. He introduced
himself to a suspicious Willy Castle. It took Willy two to three weeks before he had weighed Rick
up and didn’t venture to offer anything in the way of help until he had accepted him as the
newhHead.
Over the years a strong friendship has developed between them. Rick originally lived in the
house next to Willem, the estate manager and one day he and Gerry, his wife were sitting
outside when they heard the most terrible noise which turned out to be Willy and his wife Linda
revving the engine of Willy’s pride and joy, a V6 combi. They had come to fetch them to go and
eat pizza at Panerotti’s which had a special every Tuesday. Both Rick and Willy love garlic so
their pizzas looked rather like a snowstorm of garlic had landed. Afterwards they would then go
and buy sweets at a local sweet shop with Willy buying a huge bag to satisfy his sweet tooth.
On another occasion Rick had decided to go and fetch a video but, on reaching the main gate
realised he had left his wallet behind, he turned around and went back home where he ran
inside leaving his car engine running. He returned to find his car had disappeared; He had
heard of the car theft in Johannesburg but couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He went
in search of his car only to find Willy and Linda sitting on the bonnet of his car grinning from ear
to ear. Another time his prepared Weber braie disappeared only to find it behind the library
where Willy had hidden it.
Rick recalled another rather sad occasion when late at night Willy came knocking on his door
begging Rick to confess that he had stolen his beloved combi. Willy had gone to mass at
Rosebank, parked the combi only to come back and find it gone. This time it had been stolen
and Rick was absolved of seeking revenge.
In 1996 Rick and Paul Edey in consultation with the then chairman of the board, Terence
Wilkinson, then CEO of the Lonhro Group, formulated a rigorous development plan . The school
needed to modernise if it was to become a leading role player in the northern suburbs. The
facilities needed to improve and technology needed to be embraced going forward. In 1997
together with Kevin Brewer and the board the development plan commenced with a grand plan
of all the things that were required to improve the school including a new hall, classrooms, D &
T and IT centres. First came the classroom block to the left of the hall followed by the hall which
was built on the site of the old basketball court. Rick and Paul visited many school halls in
Johannesburg before consulting with the architects. One thing Rick was determined to
incorporate was a steeped or sloping balcony which would afford everyone a view of the stage
together with underground storage. The IT department had been started by Steve Eilertson and
was originally located in a long thin corridor with 10 state of the art 486 machines, which were
totally inadequate. Aware of Rick’s desire to upgrade the technology, the parents started a
petition to the board in support of their headmaster. He undertook three feasibility and
justification studies which was accepted, Jean Rodell was appointed head of IT for the prep
school and the fibre optic backbone installed.
The grade 0 classrooms were where the current IT department is and their playground where
the after-care is now located. Rick’s plan was to initiate two grade 00 classes and house them
together with three grade 0’s in a separate building, The pre-school block eventually followed
and the grade 0 classrooms were converted into our current computer classrooms.
When Rick first arrived the high school pavilion was an asbestos shed with no change rooms
and the boys were forced to change in the open in full view of some admiring mothers!. Rick
had built a state of the art D&T and IT centre at his school in Botswana and was determined St
David’s should have the same. He put together a justification for a D & T centre which was
approved by the board. Darryl Webb, deputy prep headmaster was given the job of overseeing
the project together with the new Music centre and high school Art centre.
Parents at St David’s have been extraordinarily generous with their donations and Rick was
never afraid to approach parents on behalf of struggling families for financial assistance when
needed. One parent who was leaving the country gave a donation of R2 million which with his
approval was used to build and refurbish the prep and high school libraries. When the hall was
built there wasn’t enough funding for a clock or stained glass windows for the tower. Rick
requested help via the school newsletter and the money came pouring in. There have been
some extremely kind benefactors who wish to remain anonymous.
Rick’s relationship with Paul Edey was an exceptionally good one and they used to spark each
other off. He enjoyed working together with him on much of the early development. He found
Paul to be an inspirational influence in his life.
Rick also feels that he has been blessed during his seventeen years with a stable, happy and
settled staff. This has been a source of great strength in the prep school with teachers who have
bought into the Marist philosophy resulting in the grade 7 boys being fully prepared for the
challenges of high school. The power of Marist cannot be underestimated and Rick also
believes strongly in the circle of contentment whereby, if the teachers are happy - then so are
the boys and if the boys are happy then so are the parents. Usually about 8 to 12 grade 7 boys
leave the school. Some win scholarships to prestigious boarding schools whilst some boys are
victims of the “Spud effect”. Rick always follows up on these boys and they always do
exceptionally well in their new schools having been given the foundation by St David’s prep
Rick believes he has been the longest serving headmaster at St David’s and, when he retires at
the end of 2013 will have served the school for 17 years and he observes that with the
exception of one year he has seen a new building development each year.
One of the aspects of his time at the school, which he values highly, is the role he has played in
staff development especially with interns. Many teachers have gone on to be heads or deputies
of other schools of which he is justifiably proud.
JLE January 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Rowan Stafford 2003

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000928
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Rowan Stafford – 2003
Rowan came to St David’s into grade 8 from St Peter’s Prep and after one month at St Peter’s College. He
and his good friend Matthew Alford both came from St Peter’s, their friendship goes back a long time.
Rowan arrived at St David’s on a Tuesday whilst assembly was in progress in the old hall, not knowing
where to go or what to do. James Barrow was assigned to show him around and then at first break he met
up with Matthew.
Rowan enjoyed the sport and was a member of 1st team hockey for 2 ½ years. He made it to the final trials
but didn’t make the provincial team. He was good at athletics and a keen cricketer but didn’t quite make it in
the larger school that was St David’s and played in the B team. He was injured in his first game of rugby
and didn’t play again. Rowan also enjoyed golf and got down to a 3 handicap playing after school at
Wanderers.
As to the camps, Rowan thought himself fortunate to miss the grade 8 camp at Glenmore but thought the
grade 10 camps were more fun. The boys went to St Lucia where they had to camp out on the beach with
only their sleeping bags. Unfortunately there was an absolute deluge and the boys ended up sheltering in
some nearby toilets, cold, wet and shivering. There was a 1st team hockey tour to Cape Town instead of
Argentina where they got a hiding from the big schools down there. During another tour to St Albans with
Andrew Taylor as captain, the boys sneaked out to go to movies, were caught and did not play the next day
and Andrew was stripped of his captainship.
The teachers all had their individual ways of disciplining the boys – Mr Buys used a water polo ball, Mrs
Cameron her high heeled shoes and Mr McMillan his cricket bat. There were some bad moments with
Marius Buys with his strange stories and methods of teaching. He particularly liked Mrs Roman who had so
much patience and love for her pupils. He recalled an incident when she was writing on the board and
someone started throwing naartjies around. One naartjie narrowly missed Rowan and ended up splattering
the board next to Mrs Roman, she just sighed and carried on. Mrs Voorendyck was also popular but once
ended up sending the whole class out because none of the boys bar 3 had done their homework. Mr
Andrew was quite scary in that one could never tell what kind of mood he would be in. Paul Edey also
impacted as a teacher, having so much charisma and no one wanted to get a bad mark. Rowan felt he was
a major influence with a personal relationship with every boy in the high school.
Rowan together with Matthew Alford used to edit the school’s weekly newsletter working for Reverend
Bruce. They did this for 2 ½ years giving up the job before their matric exams. They had to get it ready for
printing on Thursday and there was always a rush to find a cartoon for the front page.
Rowan recalls bunking assembly and Afrikaans often using the newsletter as an excuse. Sometimes they
would join Jason Sturzenegger in his booth where he operated the sound. On one occasion they thought a
teacher was coming and had to climb up through the trap door to the bell tower and wait until assembly was
over.
Jason remembers the matric ance and in particular the after party held at Melrose Arch when they were all
kicked out the venue and his father came and took him and Matthew home rather drunk.
Rowan received half colours for hockey and was a library prefect. He remembers that particular assembly
when his girlfriend from Kingsmead was there and Mr Williams made the announcement which came as a
complete surprise to him. Rowan also received a prize for Mathematics standard grade in 2003.
Rowan matriculated with distinctions in Art HG and Mathematics SG and went on to study at Rhodes which
he found to be a big wake up call. He studied a BComm and majored in three subjects going on to do an
LM in Trusts and is currently finishing off an LLM in tax through Unisa. He is currently employed by Mahons
as a commercial attorney dealing with general commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, trusts and tax.
Rowan didn’t feel strongly about the school when he left but after time realised how important it had been
and enjoyed the recent reunion and the MOBS reunions held at Rhodes. He would send any sons of his to
St David’s and is a member of MOBS. He would also be interested in participating in future matric rites of
passage.
Rowan recently played in the hockey tournament held in honour of Malcolm Williams and realised just how
fit he was when at school.
Rowan’s company participates in community development with one of the senior partners being a board
member of the Teddy Bear Clinic donating cash and legal services.
JLE December 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Raymond John 1977

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000885
  • Unidad documental simple
  • 2013

Interview with Raymond John – 1977
Raymond first came to St David’s in the early 1960’s as he had strong ties with the school
being the second youngest of 6 brothers and currently has a son Marco John in grade11. His
brothers were Jimmy (1964); Michel (1972); Costa (1973); Yango (1974); and Marcel (1978).
Raymond joined St David’s as a day boy in 1967, grade 2, the first year the grades were
introduced, he had attended Rosebank Convent for grade 1.
It was not unfamiliar territory for Raymond as had always been involved with his brothers
watching Rugby against KES and other schools. He remembered the bright red buses that
used to bring the KES boys, whole school to support at such big matches.
The teachers he recalls are Mrs Marsay grade 2, Mrs Elliott Std 1, Mrs Napier Std 2; Mrs
Geddes Std 3; Miss Cougan Std 4 and Mrs Kensovitch in Std 5 – she was very strict but
included a spiritual aspect in all that she taught and had a big influence on Raymond’s
spiritual upbringing. Of the Brothers there was Br Ronald, Br Bernard who taught Latin, Br
Mario, Br Aidan and of course Br Anthony.
Raymond enjoyed the sport and played cricket, rugby, soccer and participated in athletics
and played A team cricket until matric when he played a few games for the 1sts and was
captain of the 2nds. In 1970 the cricket oval was opened and top overseas cricketers were
there. He remembers bowling to Geoff Boycott who stayed at the school for a while. Don
Wilson who became the coach for the MCC and Peter Stringer who is the cricket coach at
Trinity College. Raymond was also captain of 2nd team rugby.
He recalled that the matches against Observatory were very intense and competitive
whether it was rugby or water polo and that in 1971 Obs boys came and defaced the school
with spray paint.
Raymond’s house “The Bishops” always came last in inter-house competitions but they
always won the Spirit Cup.
On the cultural side, Raymond was a member of the debating team and in the semi-final of
the Kobe Cup. He also played a role in “Hamlet” fencing with Marc John.
He recalled that St David’s in 1975 was the first school in South Africa to admit black pupils.
The apartheid government was establishing relations with other African countries and had to
accommodate the Malawian ambassador’s children as they couldn’t do that in the public
schools.
Something else that stands out in Raymond’s memory was that of Desmond Tutu coming to
the school and addressing the boys.
There were no camps as we know them today but Raymond remembered an outing to the
planetarium and a rugby camp in Std 9 when he was injured.
Raymond felt that, at the time, the school didn’t pay enough attention to academics and that
the prep school wasn’t as good as it should have been. However he remembered that Br
Ezekial was a really outstanding Maths teacher.
In 1972 the boarding facility, the back bone of the school closed which had a huge impact.
Many boys, sons of ambassadors, those from outlying areas of South Africa had to find other
boarding schools to accommodate them.
Raymond was awarded an honours blazer and had scrolls for studies, merit and debating of
which he was very proud. Raymond was the top student in grade 7 and also in his matric
year.
His last day was a half day and a bit of a letdown. He then went into the army for 2 years to
do his national service it was the first year that the 2 year commitment started. Originally
Raymond wanted to study medicine but after his army service studied instead for a BComm.
at Wits University. He then worked at the JSE eventually ending up at Investec for 17 years
and now runs his own business.
Raymond’s late father was very involved with the school raising funds to buy extra land. The
brothers presented the school with the Costa John Memorial Trophy in his memory, for
excellence in swimming, academics and athletics.
Raymond is currently on the board of governors for the Lebanese Catholic School in the
south of Johannesburg which has now opened up to grade 2. He is also a trustee of the
Opus Securitatus which administers the priest’s pension fund. He is also a member of
MOBS. He was also fortunate to visit Br Anthony at Nazareth House before he died. He
remembered fondly that Br Anthony was the guest speaker at his brother Jimmy’s 21st
birthday celebration.
JLE June 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

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