July 22, 2004
By Bontle Moeng
MORRIS ISAACSON High School - known for the role it played in the uprising against apartheid education in 1976 - is holding its first gathering of former students and teachers.
The school has invited all former students to be part of the launch of the alumni association and the Friends of Morris Isaacson Fund.
The event will take place at the school at 2pm on Saturday 24 July.
The ceremony will honour the school's founders, teachers, former students and governors for their personal achievements and their contributions to the school.
Elias Mashile, the principal, says: "The purpose of the event is to form an association of former students. They, in turn, will invest in the school."
He says the school is desperately short of resources; any funds raised would "benefit the young learners currently studying at the school".
Luminaries who attended the school include: Tsietsi Mashinini, a student leader in 1976; Murphy Morobe, a student leader and now the chairperson of the Johannesburg Housing Company; Susan Shabangu, the deputy minister for safety and security; and Thamsanqa Ntenteni, an executive editor of Channel Africa Radio.
One of the tasks of the alumni association is to draw together the threads of the school's rich history, which began in the 1950s.
When the Fred Clarke Secondary School closed its doors in 1957 the pupils were transferred to the Mohloding Secondary School in Jabavu. This school later became Morris Isaacson.
Initially the Mohloding Secondary School operated from the Salvation Army on the Old Potchefstroom Road.
"But," says the school's former science teacher, Fanyana Mazibuko, "the classrooms were too small to accommodate all the students."
The principal and the teachers asked several people to help extend the school.
The principal, Derrick Kobe, approached several businessmen and asked them to lend a hand. Morris Isaacson donated six classrooms and a laboratory to Mohloding Secondary - on condition the school be named after him.
The school was renamed Morris Isaacson High School in 1961.
The Isaacson family expanded on the pledge by building other important institutions, including the Isaacson Primary School in Rockville, the Mavis Isaacson Hall in White City, the Donaldson Community Hall in Orlando East and the Donaldson Primary School in White City.
In 1963, the first group of students matriculated from the high school. The class of 1963 included Archibald Mrara, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Zululand.
Gordon Sibiya, South Africa's leading nuclear physicist, matriculated in 1965. Sibiya and Benjamin Mgulwa, now a medical doctor, were the only two students to obtain first-class passes.
"During my matric year, we had four classrooms with close on 50 students in each class," Sibiya recalls.
Sibiya's favourite subjects were mathematics, physical science and English. He was also part of the school's drama group and performed in plays such as 'Macbeth' and 'Umaqanda', a Zulu play. Performances took place at the Uncle Tom's Hall in Orlando and at schools around Soweto.
"Shakespeare was very popular in those days," says Sibiya.
Morris Isaacson High School came to international attention when its pupils helped organise a march against Afrikaans on 16 June 1976. It became the spark that lit the uprising.
This set the stage for the decade of defiance that followed.
As a result of the uprising, Morris Isaacson High School was closed for a year-and-a-half, from late 1976 to January 1978.
Lekgau Mathabathe, who became the school's principal in 1965, witnessed the 1976 riots.
He was detained without trial on 19 October 1977, together with other activists, and held at Modder Bee Prison on the East Rand. Mathabathe passed away earlier this year.
Norman Malebane, who was then the deputy principal, was given the task of reopening the school while Mathabathe was in prison.
"I was asked to reopen the school on the basis that I had been teaching at the school from 1961 until 1974, when I became its vice-principal," Malebane says.
"The former authorities believed the school was a hot-bed of riots and disturbance," he remembers.
Malebane recalls the morning assembly of 16 June.
"Morris Isaacson had a system of study periods prior to assembly. Students would arrive at school at 7am and study until the assembly at 8:45am.
"On that morning I was in charge of assembly. I did the morning prayers and when I was about to give the daily announcements, I was confronted by a sea of about 1 500 placards, all with messages regarding the students' frustration with using Afrikaans as a medium of instruction."
He adds: "I quickly realised I had lost control of the assembly. Mashinini, an SRC member at the school, climbed on stage and announced that a rally had been organised and all pupils would protest against the use of Afrikaans."
In 1977, while the school was closed, Malebane used the time to set up adult-education centres around Soweto; the first was the Molapo Technical College.
Other prominent South Africans who were once students at Morris Isaacson include: Irvin Khoza, the Orlando Pirates boss; Dan Moyane, the executive chairperson of Primedia; Curtis Nkondo, South Africa's ambassador to Namibia; Solomon Rataemane, a psychiatrist; and Casalis Matima, a chemist.
Organisers hope that these and many less-known names will attend the inaugural reunion.
Morris Isaacson is at 1349 Mputhi Street, in Central Western Jabavu, Soweto.
For more information contact Elias Mashile on 011 930 2389 or Mpumi Ngwenya on 011 339 3747.
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