School celebrates 21 sets of twins
AS YOU walk into Nqobane Primary School in Mamdekazi, near Pinetown, you feel like you’re seeing double – the school has 21 sets of twins.
Of this number, one pair is a triplet.
Every Grade has a set twins.
The school – which was launched in 1976 – hosted an event dubbed “Celebrating a Rare Movement Twin Project” on Friday.
The school’s principal, Nkosinathi Zondo, said since its inception it was the first time the school had twins from Grade R all the way to Grade 7.
“When we realised earlier this year that we have 21 sets of twins we thought we should celebrate this great and rare occurrence that has never happened in the history of our school.
“We decided to celebrate this historic event in women’s month because there is no one else who can do this except of women. And so we decided to call the mothers of these twins to celebrate this historic moment.” he said.
Zondo said it was a blessing to lead a school which had so many twins.
“In archaic Zulu culture, if a woman gave birth to twins, one would be killed because they were deemed to be a bad omen. But today we are glad that despicable culture has been done away with and now we can celebrate this great gift of life,” he said.
But the “gift” also came with confusion.
Zondo said he would often assign a task to a pupil, and later he would bump into a pupil’s twin and ask them why they had not done the task, unaware that he was speaking to the wrong pupil.
“Sometimes the twins are so identical that they even have the same teeth,” said Zondo.
Simphizwe and Phiwokuhle Vilakazi, 13, Silindokuhle and Lindokuhle Gumede, 11, Anele and Ayanda Hlongwane, 12, are the most difficult to identify, Nkosinathi Zondo, the principal of Nqobane Primary School, with 20 sets of twins and one set of triplets when the school was celebrating a Rare Movement Twin Project on Friday their said.
However, she does not have challenges identifying them any more because she has been teaching the pairs since Grade R.
“They are not children that give us any problems, they are teacher Zodwa Hadebe just like any children – mischievous at times but they do not give us any problems that are difficult to manage,” said Hadebe.
Hadebe said the twins are connected in such a way that when one was not feeling well, you can sense the distress and pain in the other twin.
One set of twins, Anele and Ayanda Vilakazi, both want to become fashion designers.
“I am the most fashionable and Anele copies my style, she copies everything I do, even the idea to become fashion designers came from me,” claimed Ayanda.
Ayanda wished that one day she and her sister can own a fashion house where they design and make clothes for twins.
“We want to make clothes for twins, but not clothes that look the same – clothes that show that even though we are alike and identical but our fashion senses and styles are totally different,” said Ayanda.
The mother of the only triplets at the school, Nomthandazo Madlala, 43, said she did not think her children – Neliswa, Siyamthanda and Simphiwe – would live this long.
“It is amazing to see them grown so much, they are good children who protect each other at all times,” she said.