Item 202000957 - Interview with Willem Van der Merwe 1981 - 2012 Staff

Original Digital object not accessible

Identity area

Reference code

ZA ZAR STDS 202000957

Title

Interview with Willem Van der Merwe 1981 - 2012 Staff

Date(s)

  • 2012 (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

A4 transcript in MSWord Pdf file

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Archival history

Historical collection

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Historical collection

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Interview with Willem Van Der Merwe – 1981 – 2012 Staff
Willem joined St David’s as estate manager in 1981 at the time when Br Timothy, the then
headmaster left followed by the first lay headmaster Mr Murphy in 1982. Willem supervised a
staff of 20 including, ground, kitchen and cleaning staff all living on the property. Currently only
10 members of the ground staff live on the property. His foreman was Julius and George
Ndlovu. It was the beginning of the mission in Kuruman and Willem found that helping Br
Anthony was very special in the early 80’s. They couldn’t get tradesman in that part of the
country and Willem did most of the plumbing. Br Anthony was one of the best men he had ever
met in his life and was very approachable.
Paul Edey came in 1995 as college headmaster and got the school going again together with
the new development plan which saw many changes in the building and development of the
school. When Willem first arrived at the school there was no fence around the property allowing
access to all and therefore there was a problem with theft so Willem started to fence the
property in. He also constructed the roof over the terraces of the swimming pool. The PTA
funded it and Willem completed it at a far lower cost than had been quoted by outside
companies. Willem was also very much involved with the school fetes, twenty-twenty cricket and
the fireworks with this year being the best controlled event so far.
Already a paddler and, at the request of Paul Edey, in 1995 Willem initiated canoeing as an
extra-mural activity at the school. Willem has trained seven or so SA paddlers during that time.
They competed all over the country with the Duzi, Fish River in Craddock, Cape Town, the
Breede Marathon, just about every river race there was. The SA Schools was held in a different
province each year and Willem encouraged some of the weaker boys and saw the boys grow.
Alex Roberts was one of the best paddlers and the best team he ever produced was with Adrian
Gebers who was the first ever St David’s paddler to make a B final overseas in the sprints.
Willem is grateful that through St David’s he was able to give his sons Vaughan and Matthew a
good education. Vaughan, the eldest studied for a BSc Hons Anthropolgy at Wits University and
was the first person to go as a Gap student to Campeltown in Australia and now runs his own
recruiting business after trying various other options beforehand. He also has a carwash
business and was married last year. Matthew was awarded a scholarship at Varsity College but
he is now at the Design School in Greenside and doing well.
JLE November 2012

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Content within this entry

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Copyright St David's Marist Inanda

Conditions governing reproduction

Copyright St David's Marist Inanda

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Digital object (Master) rights area

Digital object (Reference) rights area

Digital object (Thumbnail) rights area

Accession area

Related people and organizations

Related genres

Related places