A life dedicated to the church, education and social upliftment
Leslie Peters lives a humble life enriched by service and he shares some of his history with us
AT 89, LESLIE (Les) Peters has a string of awards and certificates. Among them is one from the National Council for Child Welfare, praising him for 60 years of faithful service.
Rotary has paid tribute to his “Service above Self
– for the Community” and the Diocese of Natal has acknowledge his social work.
A beautifully worded certificate in 1999 from the children of Lakehaven speaks of his “sparkling personality and always-open door – no matter what the time or reason”.
He also had an impact on the halls of education, and the church – at the age of 55, he became a priest.
Peters studied at Fort Hare University in the Eastern
Cape at around the same time as others who were to play a leading role in the future of South Africa and Zimbabwe: Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Frank Mdlalose, Joe Matthews and Robert Mugabe.
He progressed through the ranks from science teacher to rector of Springfield College of Education and chairman of its senate. He was the first person of Indian origin to be appointed deputy director at the college.
After retiring, he was invited to chair the council for another nine years, until the from 1949-1952 he attended Fort Hare, a hot-bed of transformation.
“I did not attend the same classes as Buthelezi, Mdlalose and Matthews.
They were doing the arts.
I was studying science, but we did meet regularly in the residences. Politics was rife, as were student boycotts. Lovedale Hospital was next to the university and a senior nurse there was suspended for fighting for the cause of nurses in general.”
Peters said at one stage there was talk of closing the university and the ringleaders of boycotts were expelled.
“One of them was Buthelezi,” says Peters.
His first appointment was to Dundee Secondary School as a science teacher.
In the mid-1950s, Peters was transferred to Clairwood Indian High School in
Durban. At the time he joined the local committee of the Durban Indian Child Welfare Society.
He tell of the early days of the Lakehaven home for children from dysfunctional homes, mentioning that
Albert Christopher suggested they build separate cottages rather than one dormitory.
“The administration block was built from a donation by the ML Sultan family, so it was named after them. B J Vorster, then at Social Welfare, laid the foundation stone,” he says.