Interview with Clare Hedding Staff – 1996
Clare started teaching at St David’s in the middle of the first term in 1996 when she took over
Glenda Burn’s class whilst she travelled to New Zealand.
Apart from the usual curriculum, Clare also taught Religious Instruction throughout the term
which was new as no-one had been teaching the subject at the time. After being at the school
for only two weeks, and having been approached by parents who were unhappy about their
children not being taught RI, Clare attended an executive meeting and presented her point of
view.
The following term, Rick Wilson phoned her as Yvonne Sandie the grade 4 teacher had had a
stroke following an attack on her son. Clare ended up teaching until the end of that year but, as
her children were still quite small she normally preferred to do relief teaching.
Mitzi Claasen, together with Sandra Tarlie, was the remedial teachers and Mitzi asked if Clare
would join the remedial team teaching remedial Maths. She remembers teaching in what is now
Magda Ceruti’s office for 4 years, mornings only.
During this time she had thought that maybe her son James could attend the school but was
rebuffed rather rudely by the then prep headmaster’s secretary.
Willy Castle then approached her and asked if she could supervise the retreats for each class,
holding them in the brother’s chapel. Then Marilyn Middlewick the Music teacher resigned, she
also taught Religion to grade 7 and Clare was asked if she would cover that too. Shortly
afterwards Father Brewer was diagnosed with cancer and struggled to say Mass. Clare then
assisted him in distributing the communion. Father Brewer subsequently retired in 1998 and
died in June1999.
Once again Rick Wilson called her in and asked if she would consider becoming the RE coordinator
when, at the time she was not even a member of staff! Darryl Webb joined St David’s
and, together with Glenda Anderson wanted to start a bridging class. Clare then started a grade
3 and 4 bridging class and went to have a look at the way the Ridge school organised theirs.
The classes began in 2002 and two years later reverted to grade 2 and 3. Clare was also
teaching RE to grade 7 and was running the chapel. Cindy Cronje eventually joined the staff,
teaching the grade 2 bridging class followed by Helen Mills.
In 2004 Clare had a break from St David’s and went to Grahamstown to support her son whilst
he was studying for Matric. She returned to St David’s again the following year and retired at the
end of 2011, her position being taken by Libby Hill. However Clare was not allowed to languish
long as a retiree and Rick called her the following year, 2012 and asked if she could possibly
teach Afrikaans to the grade 4 and 6 classes. She found this hard in the beginning but now
loves every minute of it.
The amazing thing about Clare’s career at St David’s is that she didn’t actually ever apply for
any post but was always asked to step into the breach and she felt that God just wanted her to
be there.
Clare had strong links with St David’s as a child. Her brother John was a pupil at CBC in
Kimberly 1949 -50 but was expelled and eventually became a boarder at St David’s as transport
was a problem. Clare remembers the dormitories as being huge with so many beds in them.
She also remembers an occasion when she was very young and she came to the school, John
took her to his classroom holding her hand. The brother asked her some questions and then
proceeded to pick her up and placed her on a desk, she then recited “Mary had a little lamb”,
the boys all cheered, which pleased her no end.
John was a very good sportsman, superb runner and top of his league for many years. In his
Matric year, 1954 he played the role of the admiral in the “Pirates of Penzance” and was
awarded the victor ludorum. John was very much a people person and became a prefect. His
nickname was “Doc” after his surname Livingstone.
The bell in the Chapel of Mary is there because of John. The nuns of the Carmelite Convent in
Wynberg gave him their chapel bell when the convent closed down.
Clare’s younger brother Brian, matriculated at St David’s in 1959 beginning his career there in
standard 2. In 1954 their parents went overseas for 3 months; Brian became a boarder and so
enjoyed the experience that he stayed on. Brian had a friend Derry Moore of an Irish catholic
family and Clare was introduced to Derry’s sister Coleen which was the beginning of a firm
friendship which continued until Coleen became a nun with her brother Derry taking up the
Marist Brotherhood. Derry did his training in Melbourne, Australia and taught at St Charles for
many years.
Clare’s mother was very involved with the ladies committee and organised fetes as a fund
raiser. She also supervised the matric dance and the catering. Clare remembers accompanying
her mother during school holidays and recalls that Piet the cook gave her biscuits. Her mother
was a keen gardener and used to take slips for Brother Pius and helped him to build the rockery
by reception. Clare’s father retired in his 50’s and used to “consult” with Brother Edwin regarding
maintenance and building for St David’s.
When the school needed some stalls for a fete, Clare’s father built them on the back lawn at
home and the school uses the same design to this day. Clare’s mother ran the handicraft and
needlework stall and made fairy dolls.
JE August 2012

Greg Royce 1989 to 1995 Greg was deputy head at St Martin’s until March 1989 before being appointed as
prep headmaster at St David’s. He and his wife Pam were very touched as staff held a welcome lunch at the
tennis courts.
Greg stated that the school was running well despite the lack of a headmaster for so many years. The only
problem he found was that each person was doing their own thing instead of sharing ideas with each other.
His first task was to formalise things and found that he got on well with the staff and that they accepted him.
He always got on very well with Willy Castle and, on one particular occasion Willy wanted a meeting with Greg.
A date and time was duly arranged but Willy didn’t pitch, Greg found out later that Willy and Carol Ansell were
having lunch together and that Willy had forgotten about the meeting!
Greg worked well with his deputy, David Spence. David had a flair for implementing Greg’s many ideas and
worked hard to implement the thinking skills and helped arrange for Dr Edward de Bono to visit St David’s.
Under Greg’s guidance St David’s became the first school to introduce Kumon in South Africa. The nursery
schools were also asked not to concentrate on table top activities but rather to concentrate on gross and fine
motor activities. Greg was also instrumental in introducing remedial therapy, occupational therapy and speech
therapy into the school. He also encouraged the reintroduction of music into the curriculum. Working with Paul
Davies proved difficult at times due to Paul being very dogmatic but on the whole they worked well together.
Paul introduced the house system and he brought more formality to proceedings. Greg felt that the prep
should be represented on the board and wrote a letter requesting prep representation. This was a slow
process and took about 2 years before Greg was allowed to attend and address prep issues.
Greg always found the parents warm and supportive but unfortunately they always compared St David’s to St
John’s or St Stithian’s. The one thing the parents didn’t take into account was that the fees were substantially
lower than these other schools so the school didn’t have the funds and thus it was difficult to compete with
them. The prep pavilion was built during Greg’s stay at St David’s. Greg had budgeted for a double garage to
be built to house equipment but once the parents saw the building in progress, they willing gave money and so
the whole project expanded and a concrete slab was laid to provide for a first floor. The school expanded into
3 streams per grade, which made St David’s more competitive and also provided more capital for projects.
As regards the board, Greg felt that Terrence Wilkinson was an excellent chairman. He brought
professionalism into the board and the school started to flourish under his guidance. The PTA also played a
huge part in school life. One major project was when they erected the roof over the stands surrounding the
pool under the chairmanship of Mike O’Shea. Greg decided to leave St David’s in March 1995 because he
was offered a very good package from St Peter’s and with a growing family this was important as was the fact
that Greg was an anglican and of course St David’s was a catholic school.
Greg has fond memories of St David’s as their third child, Liam, was born while Greg was headmaster here.
Liam enjoyed the life at school and a familiar sight was Liam being pushed around the campus in his pram.
Greg loved his time at St David’s where he worked hard and played hard! He started the potjiekos competition
which still takes place, as well as the staff christmas ‘thank you’ party. Greg enjoyed his wine but also loved
the bush and nature. He encouraged the school to plant indigenous trees and also took groups of boys on
camps into the bush. Greg loved animals and encouraged the staff to look after the birds and animals in the
birdcage in the prep playground. The guinea fowl on the property had chicks but one got isolated and was
struggling to survive so Greg put it in the birdcage for protection because he felt it would not survive outside.
He, unfortunately, had to release the bird due to huge pressure, but as suspected, the bird was killed on the
first day that it was released!
In closing Greg stated that he enjoyed his time at St David’s and has fond memories. He also enjoyed working
with the Brothers and meeting the other Marist Heads. January 2011

Interview - Beverly Geldenhuys – Staff
Bev is the third generation of her family to be linked to St David’s. Her grandmother, Beryl Smith
taught grade 1 at Koch Street, moving to Marion College when Koch Street closed. Bev’s
mother, Rosalyn Quillian, also worked at Marion College as a secretary. Bev started her
teaching career with two years at Marion College before joining the staff of St David’ in 1976.
She later took a break when her children were born but taught an hour a day at R20 per lesson
and came back to teaching full-time in 1984.
She views her time at St David’s as pieces of a jig-saw puzzle of stories. For example bumping
into a past pupil now aged 36, in a shopping centre and being told that Bev’s mantra, when she
taught him in standard 4, was one that he lived by; at the wedding of a past pupil when he broke
their walk up the aisle to introduce his bride to his former teacher, these are all pieces making
up the whole picture and the happiness and fulfilment she has had whilst working at St David’s.
She felt that when one followed the careers of many past pupils and knowing that one has had a
part to play it made it all so worthwhile.
She recalled that when she first joined St David’s, at first break, tea and cakes were served and
at second break, a three course meal which left everyone mellow and chilled and gave them
energy for the remainder of the day. Now she and many other members staff phone out to
Fabianos or Thrupps to get their food preferring freshly made fare to that which the school tuck
shop offers.
She enjoyed working with Paul Edey as headmaster, liked George Manolios and Greg Royce
but did not like Paul Davies. Greg Royce used to call her the R11 note – rare!
She remembers an occasion when she was part-time, substituting for a standard 2 class. The
children were being very naughty and on the second day they asked her why she didn’t throw
the blackboard duster at them as their teacher normally did! Bev had a style of teaching which
often saw her standing on a desk which usually grabbed the attention of all the pupils and
enabled them to remember the concepts being taught. She often thought that they were all
waiting with bated breath to see if she would fall, hence the concentration.
After her recent illness, many of her pupils ran up and hugged her on her return to school and
made her promise never to leave them again. In fact, the mother of one of her young pupils
insisted on being taken to visit her in hospital to make sure that she was still alive.
Both Bev’s sons went to St David’s and have retained friends from their days at school and her
grandson Riley will also follow in his father’s footsteps. Her son Gary didn’t miss one day of
school from grade 0 to matric and was presented with a special award by Paul Edey.
JE August 2011

Interview with Emma Sithole – Staff – 1982 to date
At the age of 28, Emma joined the support staff of St David’s as Head Cleaner. She was interviewed by
Willem Van Der Merwe and reported to him. She also used to cook for the brothers when Richard or
Mjomle were away.
In those days the committee room was the brothers dining room and the staff workroom was the kitchen
and pantry. The original walk in fridge is still in existence in the tuck shop kitchen. The tuck shop was the
mothers’ kitchen and catering equipment was stored there. The current administration offices were
originally the brothers’ chapel, kitchen and dining room.
The brothers’ lunch usually consisted of soup followed by fruit. Later when Julius was away Emma would
prepare sandwiches for the brothers and staff.
Emma didn’t live on the school premises as she had six children to care for and lived in Alexandra
Township. Life was not easy for her bringing up her children during difficult and different times.
In 1991 Emma took over from Julius, cleaning the tuck shop, helping the mothers and working together with
Enoch Mhlongo. Mrs Van Guilleaume ran the tuck shop and the ladies entertainment committee with Victor
Shibambu joining the staff later.
Over the years Emma saw a lot of changes with Shelly Watson coming in then Jon Jon Dry. The tuck shop
now not only caters for the staff everyday and for individual functions but also provides meals on a daily
basis for some of the boys. Emma still makes the sandwiches and some salads for the staff. She misses
Shelly who retired last year and regarded her as a friend and mentor who took care of her.
When Emma retires she would very much like to help and do the cooking for an orphanage near her home
looking after the children with no parents and some that have aids.
Emma retired in 2015
JLE 2014

Willem
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, the Marist Brothers who are present here, Mr
Greeff, Mr Wilson, Mr Williams, members of the board and PTA, staff, Vaughan and
Matthew (Willem’s sons and other family members) and all the friends of Willem J van
der Merwe. In Marist school culture there is a Marist style based on presence,
simplicity, family spirit, love of work and Mary’s way. Willem’s love for the Marist
Brothers is evident with their presence here and he really appreciates you coming to
share this occasion with him. Willem was born in Cape Town and went to school at
Northlea in Rhodesia and he is the only South African citizen that I know that has two ID
books with different dates of birth and I leave it up to your imagination as to what he
uses them for.
How do you summarise a lifetime? Well, it will take a while so I suggest you make
yourselves comfortable and pay attention.
Willem arrived at St David’s 32 years ago and I still recall my first meeting with him
when Brother Anthony introduced me to a Texan smoking, ex-Zimbabwean soldier,
cement factory builder, farmer, handyman, steel worker, grass grower, builder, plumber,
welder and fixer of anything but unfortunately Willem couldn’t swim. Willem and I took
swimming lessons at the Eskom swimming pool and I had to pretend that I couldn’t
swim so as not to embarrass him as he was training for Iron Man.
When Willem first arrived at St David’s it was very simple, there was no tractor, there
was no bakkie, no tools and there was definitely no golf cart. There were no fences
around St David’s and keeping people off the property was a huge nightmare. Pupils on
motor bikes were the worst especially when they chose to ride on the cricket pitches.
One such person, who shall remain nameless proceeded to do a victory lap down
Rivonia Rd after destroying one of the pitches and with the help of Brother Aidan’s X-ray
vision, we got his number plate and the rest was history.
Years ago the school still owned the four bottom rugby fields and additional oval that
bordered on Rivonia Road and on one of our excursions down there to see what was
happening, we found a shebeen buried in the ground. On one cold morning we had to
remove a dead body. This person had obviously succumbed to the cold weather. The
police were called and order was restored.
One weekend, on a trip to the Rugani farm, we brought the old tractor back to St
David’s where Willem fixed up Rugani 1 and that is the red tractor that you still see
driving around the school nowadays.
I see Louis, Willem’s brother, John Williamson and Alex Chemaly and a few other
friends here who attended a bachelor party at John’s grandmother’s house where we
needed to bring in a full cleaning company to restore the house to it’s former glory, after
the party. I still think Louis and Willem are traumatised by that event as they had just
arrived from calm Zimbabwe.
We all remember Willem’s big foot Ford bakkie that was used for pulling the
lawnmower, carrying building supplies from the hardware, and giving kid’s rides on their
birthday parties. Willem loved custom made vehicles and fast bikes. Every three
months the latest, fastest motor bike was heard driving out of his house on Sunday
mornings to the breakfast run.
My first recollection of Willem’s sporting ability was when we were sitting in Willem’s
lounge in January 1980 and we were watching television and Willem said how great it
would be to run the Comrades marathon that was advertised on TV. My immediate
comment was to tell him that the first thing he needed to do was to stop smoking. He
then picked up the last pack of Texan Plain and threw it in the rubbish bin and the next
10 Comrades were history.
Willem has toured the world and been to places that we would only dream of. After
returning one holiday from a trip to Tokyo and having arrived at home at 2 in the
morning, he was rudely awakened by Tom McFadden and I as we had not yet qualified
for Comrades and had to run the Benoni Marathon that morning to qualify.
Willem’s claim to fame after Comrades races was that he was always dehydrated and
had to be taken every year to hospital to have drips put into him to rehydrate him. Two
incidents that really stand out were on one of our Comrades races, at 62km, I was going
to stop with ITB. Needless to say, on sitting down on the pavement, I received a quick
smack on the side of the head and was told to get my A into G and reminded that this
was my fault and he would be dragging me all the way to Durban.
Another incident I recall was on a flight to Two Oceans with George Ndlovu, Willem’s 2
IC on the support staff. There was a bomb scare over Bloemfontein. The plane
dropped out of the sky, the chutes came out, and Willem and George had to run from
the runway to the airport. He did have quite a job to get George back into the plane to
get down to Cape Town as George had never flown before.
I’m sure Willem remembers these trips to Cape Town where we used to sleep in the
sick bay at St Joseph’s and our long chats with Bro. Benedict and Brother Lawrence in
the evenings.
Willem has, apart from Comrades, Two Oceans and Iron Man also completed numerous
94.7 and Argus Cycle races, Fish Canoe Marathons and over 20 Duzi’s. I will never
forget the day when he asked me to second him on one of his Iron Man escapades.
Needless to say that, I was more broken than he was at the end of the event.
One night when Willem and I were on a training run down Fricker Rd. All the cars were
parked on the pavement for the cricket test at the Wanderers. On running past one of
the cars, we noticed someone lying on the front seat. We decided to turn back and see
what was happening. Someone was trying to steal a radio out of the car so we decided
to play policeman and immediately hauled the chap out of the car. We managed to get
some wire and tie him up to the door until the police arrived to take him away.
When Willem arrived at St David’s, his first workshop was part of the old stables which
also doubled up as a shebeen for Osborne, next to what today is the Astro. His love of
work was pushed to the limit as the area adjacent to his workshop, the present car park,
was a huge hole where parents would drop and fetch their kids. Willem went about
filling the hole turning it into a prep school playground with grass and irrigation. It took
over 200 loads of sand to level that area.
In his first few years at St David’s, Willem’s love for family was demonstrated by
extending his involvement in school activities. Willem used to help coach rugby and
accompanied tours especially our trips down to East London where he had a fine
reputation of dancing all night in the Numbers Discotheque. He then started the canoe
club which went from strength to strength and a number of boys that he coached have
represented the country and our boys have done exceptionally well in SA championship
races particularly our prep team who, for the last three years have won the South
African prep school championship sprint awards.
If it wasn’t for Willem, I would probably not still be at St David’s, so you can blame him
for me still being here. He built my house on the property from scratch and he also built
the swimming pool roof with help and prayers from Father Brewer that makes our pool
the best school pool in South Africa. Not many of you know that Willem laid out the
piping for the clinic in Slough that Brother Anthony was building. He assembled it on
the service road and then took it apart and took it to Slough to fit into the new clinic.
Our prep pavilion was also one of Willem’s building projects. When Mr Royce, Willem
and I decided to build this we had no permission from the brothers or school to build this
facility. We had trucks delivering in the middle of the night and laid the roof between 2
and 4 in the morning so when Brother Timothy saw this building going up, he
immediately challenged us and some very smooth talking took place to allow us to
complete this building. Willem also revamped his present house which was the old
brothers quarters and sick bay and was also our fourth pub on the property on our pub
crawls. At this point the usual procedure was to drink out of the ladies shoes before
heading off to the next house. No more will be said about these escapades.
The Roxy Rhythm Bar in Melville with Brother Vincent as our handbrake often turned
into very late nights and very quiet Friday mornings.
I remember having tickets for the Michael Jackson concert and the only one I could
force to come with me was Willem. What are friends for? Willem also went to see ZZ
Top but didn’t like them too much! He was jealous of their beards.
Willem loves animals and Socks and Megan were always part of the school and
everyone on campus knew who their boss was.
At the end of each term, we always used to have fantastic staff parties and on one of
these occasions, at Glenda Anderson’s house, Willem and I managed to put a huge
rock in the passenger side of Carol Ansell’s box Renault. The car immediately tilted to
the left. After the party, we all stood and watched Carol Ansell drive home sideways
without even noticing that her car was at an acute slant and how she got home we still
wonder to this day.
Willem and I used to have great fun on evenings when Mr Paul Davies, the then
headmaster, when he would entertain and we would sit in The prep school playground
with a six pack and keep switching the lights off in his house periodically. Needless to
say, Willem was called to his office the next morning to get an electrician in to sort out
these power surges.
Our fields, buildings, gardens, swimming pool, cricket pitches hold testament to Willem’s
huge contribution in maintaining our facilities which no other school can match.
We wish Willem good luck, good health and our thanks go with him in the next stage of
his life. We are really going to miss you.
Please charge your glasses as we propose a toast to the super man of St David’s
Marist Inanda.

Interview with Dave Smith – Staff – 1997 to date
Dave came to St David’s from Bryanston High School in 1997 as head of the Geography department. His
first impression of the school was that it was very small having come from a big co-ed high school with
1300 pupils to teach two matric classes with 5 pupils in one and 12 in the other whereas Bryanston had
three classes with 30 pupils in each. Currently 60 to 70 pupils take Geography as a matric subject which
shows the growth in the number of pupils attending the school.
Paul Edey was the headmaster and together with Kevin Brewer, chairman of the board, motivated the
development plan for the school. At the time the quad housed an ablution block and the pavilion was a
Zozo hut! The school wasn’t very competitive apart from cricket but is now very competitive and is in the
top echelon of the pantheon of boys’ schools.
The leadership programme has grown enormously. In 1997 Dave took all the matrics to a camp in the
Magaliesburg and now there are camps for every grade. The camp, specifically for the prefects with the
main focus on leadership has also grown and now any matric can get a leadership scroll other than
prefects. Thirty two matrics in 2012 received leadership scrolls.
Dave was appointed housemaster of College house in 2000 and senior deputy headmaster in 2003
overseeing student affairs and school administration. He is also editor of the school magazine and sees not
just the physical changes in the school but in the number of pupils and the range of activities on offer. St
David’s has become one of the top boys’ schools worldwide with the vision that was created by Paul Edey
and continued by Malcolm Williams. However the school does have an achilles heel, rugby.
Dave believes St David’s to be an incredibly happy school with the boys having their own identity. There is
a sense of tradition and what makes a good tradition. One regret Dave has is that he gave up mentoring
the matrics when he became deputy headmaster.
On the staff, the characters he has encountered include the likes of Rod Smith, Belinda Marais and Annika
Carter to name but a few. Malcolm William’s concept of “Presence” has been unbelievable and the energy
he put into everything he did.
JLE December 2013

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Interview with Belinda Marais – Staff – 1989
Belinda began her teaching career working in government schools but after 8 years she took a break, saw
an advert for the position at St David’s and applied. She was interviewed by Brother Brendan and Trudy
Elliott and was appointed as head of the Afrikaans department commencing employment in January 1989.
The first task she was given was to mark the grade 11 Afrikaans exam paper. As it was literature, Belinda
had to first read the book and set the memo before she could begin marking. The previous head of
department had left and she had no-one to consult with. It was a difficult time for the school with a new
headmaster, Paul Davies and prep headmaster, Greg Royce and numerous newly appointed members of
staff including Leon Benade (deputy head of the prep school), Gary Norton, Biology, and new Maths and
Geography teachers. Having never taught at a TED school before, it was quite a challenge for Belinda and
initially she liaised with a teacher from Sandown High.
Sifiso Ngwenya, the first black headboy and junior city major, was in her class and distinguished himself by
achieving an A for Afrikaans in his matric. The discipline was poor and Belinda was the only black on the
staff, teaching a subject which the boys hated, but she held her own. Other boys she taught then were
Frederick Barnard and his brother Chris was also at St David’s. She remembers Cedric de Trevou whose
son is in grade 9 and Earl Morais whose son is now in the prep school.
Paul Davies was instrumental in restructuring the house system which became more established and
Champagnat medals were introduced for the first time. Paul Davies left in 1994 and Gary Norton was
acting headmaster until Paul Edey was appointed and took up the position in 1995. Belinda has seen a lot
of changes at St David’s however many things remain the same and the heart of the place is very much the
same.
A highlight for Belinda was the pilgrimage in which she participated in 2001 when she visited Rome and the
Hermitage. Belinda felt that the pilgrimage made everything so much more real; opening up a whole new
world and things became more tangible. Belinda grew up as a Catholic although she is a non-practising
one.
Belinda has always been very involved with the SMILE programme which was initiated in 1993 by Robin
Henderson, an English teacher. She was contacted by an NGO and began to implement the programme
started by St Mary’s in Kloof – St Mary’s Interactive Learning Experience. Robin left the following year and
Belinda took over. The value of the programme was in teaching English oral skills but the interaction of the
boys with younger children from poorer communities was mutually beneficial. Belinda also feels that it is a
very practical programme and has a definite purpose. She currently liaises with two schools in Tembisa –
Ebony Park Primary and Drake Koka Primary School whose staff are willing to accompany the children. Mr
Edey was always very supportive and helped out during the holidays participating as a SMILE guide and
other teachers took the classes. The holidays are no longer covered with St David’s having three terms
and the government schools having four. However, thirty Wednesdays per year are covered, with Ebony
Park’s grade 5’s coming for the first half of the year and Drake Kaka‘s children coming for the second half.
The children benefit from the help and enjoy the food and drink they are given.
Belinda has always been very instrumental in the success of Champagnat day which originally was a mass
followed by soccer matches between the staff, prefects and pupils, the boys were given a cool drink and a
doughnut and everything finished around 11am. In 1994 the staff bursary fund was established and Belinda
suggested raising funds by selling, food etc. on Champagnat day. It started off in the prep school pavilion
with Belinda buying sweets and cool drinks on special and asking mothers to help making some food to
sell. In 2013 the more extensive and established Champagnat day festivities raised R113 000.00 for the
bursary fund.
As Belinda was employed at St David’s her two sons became pupils. Terry went into grade 0 in 1989
followed later by Bradley. Terry matriculated in 2001 and Bradley in 2005. St David’s played a significant
role in her sons’ lives, they were very happy at St David’s and Belinda would not have been able to afford
the school fees had she not been a teacher. Terry is currently a teacher of Music in London, a pianist giving
recitals and Bradley is training to be a lawyer and is doing his articles with Lowndes and Dlamini.
Belinda believes that St David’s is an authentic community with the brothers, colleagues, boys and parents
and this is what she loves and appreciates about St David’s. St David’s has had a great influence on her
life, she feels valued.
Belinda is very much a people’s person, various individuals have impacted on her life, but as staff change
she feels they bring a renewed energy and value with them. Children are children and if you treat them
fairly and as fellow human beings they will respect you and do what you want. Belinda has enjoyed the
rapport, with the occasional hiccup; she has had with the boys over the past 25 years and has observed
that they carry with them a special conscience when they leave. St David’s has done something right.
Belinda still enjoys teaching and wouldn’t want to do anything else and feels that it has, on the whole been
a pleasant experience. JLE Feb’2014

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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

Interview with Cheryl King - Staff – 2000 to 2015
Cheryl was interviewed by Rick Wilson, prep school headmaster and Mike Forder, bursar and was initially
employed as a secretary to the deputy headmasters Willy Castle and Darrel Webb, taking over from Robbi
Orr who had been employed in the position for 5 years. She shared a very small office in the grade 1 block
next to Carol Ansell’s classroom together with Pam Groenewald who was Rick Wilson’s secretary. Cheryl
recalls that when she was interviewed she said she was familiar with Ms Word etc but then went and did a
course. She had to find her way and sink or swim, organising her own space her own way.
Cheryl and Pam had to share the grade 1 toilet with the little boys! Cheryl remembers hearing Carol Ansell
often saying “Excuse Me” to her pupils which she still does to this day. Cheryl’s younger son Calvin was in
gr 2 with Carol Ansell as his teacher, and found it convenient to come and visit his Mom whenever he had a
problem.
In those days there were no emails or internet and Cheryl was inundated daily with phone calls from
parents as communication was very difficult. Working for Willy was a shock to the system as he and Darrel
Webb were like a pair of Duracell bunnies, always on the go. At the time Glenda Anderson was head of the
junior primary phase, Paul Edey was headmaster of the high school with Malcolm Williams, deputy head
with Lindsay van Heerden and Dawn Arnold as their respective secretaries.
Cheryl saw to all the little boys’ aches and pains sending them to matron when necessary. She was
responsible for the newsletter which was printed every thursday working from pieces of paper which was
very time consuming. In addition to this Cheryl also had to help Norman Cahi, the chairman of the PTA with
all his work and often helped Ron Thackwell. Cheryl also typed out exam papers including Mike Mitchley’s
Maths paper which was quite a challenge with an old computer, entering all the symbols and formulae. As if
this wasn’t enough Cheryl assisted teachers who were not computer literate with their termly report
comments
Cheryl also had to deal with the grade 7’s and the pupil development programme which had different tiers
that the boys worked their way through. The grade 7’s then had responsibilities which were good for them.
Darryl was making huge strides in the prep school introducing a new curriculum in addition to the
implementation of Edu Admin. Previously every child had a file; everything was printed and went by pupil
post or more official documents by the postal service.
Cheryl enjoyed Rick Wilson as a boss he was lovely to work for and then the secretaries used to get one
half day off per week. Being a working mom at the school was great in that she could go to the various
assemblies and sports events that her sons were involved in.
Willy Castle was given a cell phone, he then phoned non-stop for everything and anything and would often
call and ask Cheryl to come to the field where he would then tell her what he needed. However they both
worked well together, working hard with long hours often until late at night. Cheryl had to attend all the
functions, there were 75 boys in each grade and each received a personalised letter signed by Rick Wilson,
Willy Castle and Darryl Webb. Copies had to be made and it was all very time consuming.
Cheryl also organised the tours for each age group, grade 3 to 7, booking transport and tickets. There was
no school driver and Red Arrow coaches were utilised. Willy Castle also had a full teaching load followed
by sport in the afternoons.
Cheryl moved to the current prep secretaries’ office in 2003 when Pam resigned and Coleen Donaldson
took over as secretary to Rick. It was exciting then to receive emails but Cheryl still had the responsibility to
call all the schools to confirm venues for all the sporting fixtures. Willy used to put all the fixtures on an
enormous sheet of paper and Cheryl then had to type it up.
Cheryl remembers the fantastic end of year and end of term functions, with parties accommodating all ages
with everyone having good fun.
In 2005 Chantal Ratcliffe was employed as a consultant to the school .Tony Chappel was then chairman of
the board and an advert was placed for the foundation post for which Cheryl applied. Paul Edey, who had
been appointed executive head in 2002 and Chantal interviewed Cheryl. Cheryl was nervous about taking
the job and making the move and discussed this with Willy appreciating his advice. She and Chantal
started working in what is now the deputy head’s office and for the first four months Cheryl updated the
MOBS data base inherited from Stephan Contardo. Patrick Busschau was chairman of the old boys
committee at the time. In 2006 they moved offices again and were in what is currently the admissions office
and the Foundation trust was officially launched.
Initially Cheryl and Chantal’s focus was raising money for the chapel which was completed in 2007. There
were so many events to organise to introduce the Foundation around which there was a lot of negativity.
Functions were organised for old boys and many didn’t arrive. The old boys were pessimistic about the
Foundation and felt that they were just being asked for money.
In 2008 Chantal and Cheryl moved once again to an office in the admin block. Chantal left in 2010 and Lara
Klement was appointed Foundation and marketing manager. The marketing then almost took over, but
MOBS was getting stronger. Lara had a huge task on her hands, introducing a new corporate identity and
she bought in new marketing material with the gazebos, banners and hand outs. Cheryl also had to work
hard with the old boys getting them back into the school. Paul Vidas took over from Patrick Busschau as
chairman of the old boys and now with Willy Castle in that position he has brought a new energy and
enthusiasm with him. The database is now sitting on 5000 old boys, the Grahamstown and Cape Town
events are very successful and Mike Greeff has also made visits to the UK and to Australia. There was a
different vibe this year at the Cape Town reunion with a sit down dinner at St Joseph’s. Facebook is a great
media giving MOBS and the school exposure. Before he left, Malcolm Williams was very supportive and
was instrumental in introducing the old boys assembly, in particular the memorable assembly in 2003 for
old boys of 1973 and 2003. Mike Lamusse organised a get-together and dinner for the 1973 MOBS which
was incredibly successful. In 2007 the Matric Rite of Passage was initiated which was a positive move to
introduce the current matrics to MOBS.
Cheryl finds her role very frustrating at times but is passionate about MOBS and the potential of the
Maristonian and acknowledges that she couldn’t cope with all the events without the help of the support
staff. The highlights of the Foundation and MOBS functions were this year’s rugby festival with the St
David’s 1st team rugby beating their opponents, St John’s. It was an emotional and unforgettable day
seeing the old boys and the school boys together doing the war cry with Willy Castle standing under the
rugby post.
Relationships have been built over the years with parents, staff and MOBS. The old boys have been
tremendous and it is very special now with Willy Castle being prep headmaster and chairman of MOBS.
It has been a difficult decision for Cheryl to resign and to work on a part-time basis although it is better for
Cheryl and gives her more flexibility but still enables her to continue to pursue her relationship with Willy
Castle and 2016. Carey Fisher is now handling the marketing so Cheryl can focus on the alumni. Fiona
Budd’s focus is on fundraising , strengthening the Foundation and bursary funds especially the Willy Castle
bursary fund, having already introduced Snapscan and insituting debit orders. The years ahead will be
challenging and difficult but Willy will be happy as he will always be remembered with his bursary fund.
Cheryl will also be working on the MOBS bursary fund raising more finance, but MOBS will be Cheryl’s
major focus and Willy Castle is very supportive.
The school has grown substantially and it is comforting to see MOBS bringing their sons back to the school.
It’s all about relationship building and is almost like a circle within the school – admissions – prep – high
school – then MOBS.
JLE November 2014

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

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

Interview with Carol Ansell – Staff – 1975 - 2016
Carol was interviewed by Brother Mario at the end of 1974 as there was a new grade 0 position
available and Brother Anthony (who was headmaster at the time), was on leave. In fact Br
Anthony had gone to see the Brother Provincial as he wanted to work in a less privileged
environment. Carol was John Jamieson’s sister, John had matriculated from St David’s, and she
was immediately appointed and told to start the following year – 1975 with no indication of
where she would be located. Carol recalls that she asked if she could see her classroom and if
she could please have a key. Carol and her family lived in the same road in Parkwood as Mrs
Kempster who had alerted her to the fact that this new position was available. Carol had initially
wanted to teach at Keps, which was her father’s old school and she was offered a job there but
decided to go to St David’s.
Mr Manolios was head of the prep school and Br Timothy was appointed head of the high
school in 1975.Carol’s classroom was next to the old swimming pool which had been filled in to
make a playground for the new grade 0 class. She was given free reign with the grade 0 class
with Br Timothy visiting her on a couple of occasions. Some of the boys were intrigued with him
and one asked him why he was so hairy and another, whether he was a boy or a girl as he was
perceived to be wearing a dress!
There was a large sandpit in the playground, which Carol used for some of her outside
activities. Sadly it had to be covered up as some cats began to use it as a cat box! She recalls
that the school, was very contained and she likens it to a village which has now grown into a
city. Carol had no supervision at all, everything was based on trust. She was only twenty years
old and in charge of 25 young boys. Carol visited other nursery schools and spoke to the
teachers to gain a further understanding of 4/5 year olds; she was also greatly assisted by Jack
Friedman of “Play and Schoolroom” who helped her a lot. It was quite lonely but the parents
were fantastic and supportive. There were two cousins in the class Brian De Decker and
Michael Luyckx whose parents took her under their wing and helped her. Michael Luyckx now
lives in Australia and Carol is still friendly with the mothers. Parents in those days didn’t
challenge teachers at all and tended to have a huge respect for them.
At the end of 1975, the grade 0 class was declared a tremendous success and the school
decided to open another class. Mrs Carolyn Hughes joined her and became the other grade 0
teacher. They had a good relationship with each other and could feed off each other’s ideas and
support.
One of the parents pointed out to Carol that one of her pupils (eye) was larger than the other
and suggested she have it checked. It was discovered that she had a tumour on the pituitary
gland, which was operated on and she subsequently had to have three months leave. A feisty
boy, Fabio Morettino had told his mother that Carol had died; so on Carol’s return the poor
mother saw Carol and thought she was seeing a ghost. Marilyn Middlewick decided that she
would like to swop from grade 1 and Mr Manolious was fully in agreement so Carol moved from
grade 0 to grade1.
Carol, had a good relationship with Darryl Boswell, Heather Joseph, Trudy Elliot, Prue Johnson
and many others. Another headmaster she worked with, Mr Freilich was a good man. As for Mr
Murphy, Carol didn’t get off to a good start with him as, at his welcoming cocktail party, Carol
was laughing together with some colleagues and for some reason Mr Murphy thought they were
laughing at him. The next day she was called into his office where he reprimanded her. Murphy
was eventually found out to be a professional wrestler and vacated his position as headmaster
of the College.
Carol was married to John Ansell in her fourth year at the school. Some years later she was
sadly diagnosed with a second tumour and left as a full time teacher, although she stood in for
teachers on long leave etc, filling in for Sue Harwood, the remedial teacher, in 1985. When Sue
returned from leave she resigned and being concerned about having 3 different teachers in a
remedial class Carol was asked to return. Carol was pregnant with her son Nick and returned
when Nick was 6 weeks old. Andrew Castle was born in the April and Nick in the June and the
two maids looking after the boys would get together and have fun with the boys. The boys were
often seen in the back of Julius’ trailer behind the tractor. A space was made in a corner of an
office for Nick whilst Carol was busy and Nick grew up at St David’s going on to a play school
for two years then to Limber Lost in Rosebank.
Carol eventually came back full-time although she had in the meantime franchised the
“Bookworm Bookshop” in 1985 when Nick was born. She recalls Cynthia Hildyard advising her
to move her classroom to the warmer one where she remains now.
Carol remembers brothers such as Br Bernard who was very artistic, a photographer and
woodcarver and together with Carol and Heather Joseph had pottery classes with one of the
mothers, Mrs Heather MacLeroth every Friday afternoon. By the end of the class it was late
and Carol and Heather were very hungry. Br Aidan was in charge of the stores and had a
wonderful, dry sense of humour and would tempt Carol and Heather with a packet of marie
biscuits, trying to satisfy their hunger, giving them one biscuit at a time. Carol remembers Br
Aidan embarrassing Heather with the story that he was present at Port Alfred beach when
Heather lost her green crocheted bikini top at Kelly’s beach. Carol and John had been invited
there and Heather was also holidaying there at the same time. Br Aidan had in fact overheard
Heather recounting the story to Carol whilst they were in earshot of his office. Br Aidan also
nicknamed Heather “Queen of the Visigoths”.
There were good memories of Jackson the cook who cooked for the brother’s community. One
day a divine smell was circulating around the brothers kitchen and Carol asked what he was
cooking and managed to get Jackson to write his recipe for ox-tail stew out for her. Carol
forwarded this recipe many years later to Br Aidan. She still has the recipe today. The
groundsman Barney Erdis had a wife who used to cook/bake a variety of muffins or scones with
cream and jam at first break and then make mock crayfish and avocado or pumpkin fitters or
fish and chips for the staff to enjoy at second break.
JLE May 2013

Interview with Pam Groenewald – Staff 1998
Pam came to St David’s in 1998 to work as the prep school headmaster, Rick Wilson’s PA. She found Rick
to be an unbelievably, kind and well organised boss and really enjoyed working for him. He was incredibly
supportive and was amazing when Pam went through her battle with cancer five months after joining the
staff.
Pam is a very focused, well organised individual who believes in doing everything correctly and has been
involved with schools for some time. Her parents were part of the struggle, a strong Methodist family and
they often had black ministers and ANC members stay with them which has given her a great insight and
empathy with people. This is essential as part of Pam’s job has always been to calm parents down when
necessary.
She remembers her first day very well and couldn’t believe her office, which was originally the brothers’
toilet and wondered if she would cope. To gain access she had to walk through Rick’s office and on one
occasion when he had a number of visitors and she urgently needed to get out of her office, Cheryl helped
her squeeze though a tiny window in order not to disturb Rick. Pam got on very well with Rick, Cheryl King
and Robbie Orr, they all had a good sense of humour and to this day Rick will still mischievously hide the
mouse to Pam’s PC.
Pam did all the admissions to the prep school which was a heavy load but she coped. Unfortunately Pam
needed to earn more money and left after 5 years only to return again after 3 months in 2003 to work as PA
for Malcolm Williams, the headmaster of the high school. Pam coped well with Malcolm and his flamboyant
style of leadership and found him to be a very private person. She found him to be highly intelligent with a
very good brain and good heart and has a lot of respect for him.
Pam’s children have also been associated with St David’s, Craig has been involved as swimming coach for
the past 15 years and Cathy worked in the pre-primary for 10 years until last year.
JE September 2003

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