MultiChoice Group chairperson Imtiaz Patel handed over a brand new SuperSport Let’s Play multi-purpose sports field to William Pescod High School in Kimberley.
MULTICHOICE Group chairperson Imtiaz Patel handed over a brand new SuperSport Let’s Play multi-purpose sports field to William Pescod High School in Kimberley.
The handover ceremony on June 22 was steered by former football ace Jimmy Tau and was graced by the presence of the Northern Cape Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture, Desery Finies, the MEC for Education, Bentley Vass, and the MEC for Youth, Women, People Living with Disability, e-Government and Communication, Lorato Venus Blennies.
Also in attendance were executive managers from MultiChoice and the provincial government, school principal Jomo Jonkers, teachers, the school governing body, and learners.
Patel, who is originally from Schweizer-Reneke, boasted about being an alumni of William Pescod High.
He enrolled at William Pescod upon completion of his primary schooling in Schweizer-Reneke.
Patel explained that donating the facility to the school was a token of giving back to the community.
He said a similar facility was erected at Hoërskool Schweizer-Reneke, which was named after ailing Struggle Icon Essop Pahad.
In Kimberley, Patel nominated William Pescod High due to his deep connection to the school.
The facility is named after his father, Ahmed Patel and the late Ebrahim Jeenah.
He highlighted that William Pescod High produces a disproportionate representation of people who are high-achievers in life.
“William Pescod has truly lived up to its motto which says ‘We strive for the best’. There are not many schools that can boast of having produced a Constitutional Court judge, a High Court judge, a renowned professor in anthropology and the list is endless.
“It is quite remarkable that a school like this, which is 135 years old, from rural South Africa can produce the kind of great people it has produced.
“Thus we take our hats off to the leadership of the school through many generations, and to the community for having lived up to keeping the school alive in a way that it could produce leaders” said Patel.
He shared sad childhood memories of where he grew up in a sporting family, but could not fit into the community in which he grew up among.
He said his father played cricket for non-white South Africa and was a member of the Griqua rugby team.
“In Schweizer-Reneke we grew up in a sporting family, thinking and dreaming about cricket. My grandfather played in the 1930s, travelling by train to go and play for a team in Johannesburg. They would send him a train ticket.
“I was desperate to play sport, but what could you do in Schweizer-Reneke?
“At best you could find three or four other Indian fellows whom you could put together and say ‘let’s play tennis’, but half the time they were not available.”
He said he could also not approach their white customers in town.
“At 3pm they went to play at the tennis courts. I would drive around in my father’s car and go and sit in the car to watch them and wish they could call me to come and play tennis with them.
“On Saturdays, we sometimes went to watch the local Schweizer-Reneke team play rugby with my father. We would sit on top of the bakkie to see them playing from over the fence.
“At primary school, we played one game of cricket against our neighbouring town, Bloemhof.
“It drove me nuts. That feeling still lingers.
“But you can take that lingering and turn it into bitterness or turn it into something positive.
“And I would like to think that this little facility is some positivity that we can do. And we will obviously build a much better society.”
Patel motivated the learners to find a situation where they can fit in and flourish, and never to allow themselves to get trapped in situations.
“If you don’t fit in, find a place where you will flourish, and find someone that believes in you and will give you an opportunity.
“I have a strong belief that life is about having the right attitude, the right hunger, and somebody believing in you.”
Premier Saul also acknowledged the rich history of the school.
He highlighted that William Pescod High produced extraordinary leaders like the late Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who was apparently in the same class with Patel.
Joemat-Pettersson was lauded for being the MEC for Education who steered the education ship to greater heights during her term.
“She was an extraordinary woman. She was among the youngest MECs when she became the MEC of Education in 1994. That’s the legacy that she left us with,” said Saul.
“It is an honour to sit with the same room with the executive chair of MultiChoice, the biggest company in the country, through an ordinary public school like this,” added Saul.
“We want you back more and more because we need to see the private sector playing an active role in order for our education system to reach its optimal capacity.
“We highly appreciate what MultiChoice is doing in putting up these sports infrastructure at public schools. Because sports is critical to the well-being of children.
“They say a healthy mind is housed by a healthy body. So we need to do much more investments in order to ensure that we build more sporting codes in order for our children to participate.”
Saul emphasised the importance of teaching today’s learners resilience due to the challenges that they face, of coming from previously disadvantaged communities and being faced with social ills.
“We must teach our children the capacity for them to strive to do the best that they can do. If you don’t teach your child that, we will all witness our children being failures and becoming part and parcel of the lost generation.
“Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and setbacks. The capacity for them to do the best that they can do, and to sustain that under very difficult circumstances.”
