ST ANNE’S CELEBRATES TRANSFORMATION
Not only does 2022 celebrate the 145th birthday of St Anne’s Diocesan College in Hilton, but it will also now be remembered as the pinnacle of an incredible transformative journey.
On Wednesday last week, a lifesized bronze statue, titled ‘Mandisa’, was unveiled, honouring the first black girl who began in Grade 8 at the school in 1981 and matriculated in 1985.
College head Debbie Martin paid tribute to St Anne’s journey since then, highlighting the “more intentional embracing, nurturing and relevant” focus of the school board and its entire community.
“The exquisite statue, sculpted by established Balgowan artist, Sarah Richards, portrays a young St Anne’s girl venturing tentatively forward as she acknowledges another student, perhaps, or a passer-by,” the school said in a statement.
The name ‘Mandisa’ was considered fitting as it means “one who, by her presence, brings happiness” in isiXhosa.The guest of honour at the unveiling was the history-maker Mandisa herself, now Mandisa Ntloko-Petersen. A parent of a Grade 9 pupil at the school, she said she was overwhelmed by the privilege.
With a BA in industrial relations from Wits, and an MBA from Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom, and a leading marketing specialist with experience both here and abroad, she said the statue epitomised the transformative journey of St Anne’s. “We should shift the focus to the future recipients of the Mandisa Bursary fund, and be cognisant of their backgrounds,” she said. “There have always been huge disparities between public and private schools, and yes, improvements have been made over the past 28 years, but many inequalities still exist.”
Ntloko-Petersen appealed to the young women in blue to consider and embrace bursary recipients and others, who “could be from a rural background, foreign to this privileged lifestyle, who don’t talk like you, dress like you, who may not arrive in a German sedan”, and to provide them with guidance and friendship.
“You can help change their lives,” she added. “When you invest in girls’ education, you transform communities the world over … education is the passport to the future, tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Dr Judy Dlamini, another guest of honour, chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, medical doctor, author and philanthropist, said it was one thing to talk about diversity, but it was deeds which mattered, not words.
“It is easy to talk about how transformed you are, but this unveiling says to a black child, ‘I actually belong here’,” she added.
“If you don’t embrace people, you will never get the best from them, and it is an honour being here today — at a school that truly embraces everyone by doing that … and feeling part of this family.”
St Anne’s said the late Karabo Che Mokoape, Hilton College’s 2001 head of school and a leader of that school’s journey of transformation, had inspired the Mandisa project.
The initiative was spearheaded by the Ngikhona transformation committee, made up of both staff and pupils, and was funded by a very generous donation.