Zamile Piet, an unsung hero
It is often said that teaching as a profession is a mother to all other professions. The teaching profession is credited, correctly so, for producing all other professions.
In the same vein, teaching seems to be the most under-valued profession.
However, the impact and contribution of teachers to their school pupils is immense.
One teacher who has made such a positive impact and contributed immensely in moulding and instilling positive values to his pupils in Nelson Mandela Township (Nemato) is Mr Zamile Piet, affectionately known as “Zaza”.
The devastating news of his passing sent shockwaves among his former and current pupils and the broader Nemato community.
I, as a former student of Mr Piet, feel it is imperative to reflect on the positive impact he had on his students.
Piet first arrived in Port Alfred in 1994 from Alice, to teach at Nomzamo Senior Secondary School in Nemato.
At the time I was doing Std 9 (in today s language, Grade 11).
The most outstanding attribute that was easily recognisable in him was his enthusiastic attitude towards teaching. This, I argue, was to be expected since this was his first teaching job after obtaining his teaching qualifications from the University of Fort Hare.
When he started teaching at Nomzamo, he was fairly young and energetic. He was in his early 20s.
Mr Piet touched the lives of his pupils in various ways.
The fact that he was a young educator at the time made him more relatable and accessible and he understood the challenges facing teenagers at the time.
In 1994, when he arrived, it was at the height of the transformation of our country from apartheid to a democratic state. Nomzamo had no premises of its own, it was squatting at Mtyobo Public Primary School with awkward schooling hours from 12 midday to 4pm.
These schooling hours presented challenges for the educators and they required special teaching skills.
One of these challenges was the frequent tiredness and lack of focus of the students, particularly during the summer seasons when it’s extremely hot.
Nemato is generally a community characterised by high unemployment, high levels of poverty, substance and alcohol abuse; therefore any educator who teaches in this community must be cognisant of the psycho-social issues experienced by the pupils.
Mr Piet understood all these challenges because he quickly integrated into the community of Nemato.
His integration was made easy by joining the local soccer club, Young Ideas Football Club, where he played for the first team for a number of years.
His full integration in the community of Nemato made him understand all these challenges and he adequately responded to them through his teaching methods.
Most importantly, Mr Piet inculcated in his pupils a sense of self-belief.
He ensured that the inequalities in education between the “town” (former model C schools) and “township” schools did not deter us and should not cause us to believe that we were inferior.
Mr Piet taught us history. He had a special way of facilitating debates in class and he would sometimes veer off from the approved curriculum to conscientise us of what is needed for the democratic state to succeed.
He definitely influenced the career choices that some of us pursued after completing matric/Grade 12.
Mr Piet spent close to 30 years in pursuit of empowering and unleashing the full potential of young sons and daughters of Nemato. Surely, Nemato owes him some measure of gratitude.
To borrow from Cicero, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
Mr Piet was laid to rest on Saturday, May 21 at his ancestral village in Alice.