A Message to all Jeppe Boys, past and present
Good day Chaps
For those who don’t know who I am, my name is Colin Kruger and I was a 1974 matriculant. To those who do know me, howzit chinas”.
Before I proceed with the reason for the message, I think I need to give you a bit of a background of me. I studied up to Std 5 (I think you call that Grade 7 nowadays) and then was automatically sent to Jeppe High School for Boys for the remainder of my schooling which lasted for six years because I was chosen for the two year Standard Nine course.
The day of my first attendance at the school was a polite introduction to the Head Boy Tex van Beuge, Deputy Head Boy Clarkson, Stage Prefects, all the Prefects, Sub-Prefects and Junior Officers who basically carried the same rank as a Prefect. They firstly divided us up into our Standard 6 (Grade 8) homeroom classes, under the direction of Headmaster Haldane Hofmeyr, Deputy Headmaster Syd Thomas and all the vice heads. One of the prefects guided us to a classroom in the old prefab building which was ruled with an iron fist by Mrs Patricia Yeo. She greeted us to which we replied “Good Morning Miss” and then had our heads ripped off when she told us that all female teachers would be known as “Ma’am.”
Now, moving forward, we were moved to our first class, second class, and all the other classes systematically. I recall meeting a wide array of teachers. Some names I recall, some I don’t. Here are some names, see how many you can all remember: English – Mr Elias Blechmann, Afrikaans – Mrs Mocke, Maths – Mrs Yeo, Bookkeeping – Mr Billy Silburn, History – Mr Warren Boden, PT – Mr Nel (the only male teacher who didn’t wear a tie), Woodwork – Mr Esterhuizen, Metalwork – Mr Viv Richards, Art – Mr Dan Swart, etc, etc, etc. I think I must have gone through 100 teachers over the following six years.
There was one thing which stuck with me ever since I matriculated, the School never forgot about me. This was made clear to me, when in 2014, I received an invitation to my Matric 40th Anniversary reunion. Suddenly all the strength I had learnt as a Jeppe Scholar flowed back into my veins. My attendance at the reunion was an experience which brought back memories of 40 years long passed. Walking back into the school grounds brought another revelation to me: I felt completely at home, it was a place which emotionally belonged to me. This may have been strange because I had moved out of Kensington in 1979.
Now for the reason for this essay (well, it feels like it anyway). At the beginning of 2024 I received another invitation to attend my 50th Anniversary Celebrations on 26th and 27th of April 2024. There was no way on earth that I would have missed it.
I arrived at the school at about 8am (as any good schoolboy would have), walked onto the school grounds (once again feeling quite at home) and hung around on the basketball courts for a while. I decided to give myself a tour of the school while I was waiting for others to arrive. I strolled around to all the classrooms I had learnt in, strangely as the pupils moved to their 2nd class of the day. My first stunning moment was when every pupil I walked past greeted me with a “Good Morning Sir”. I noticed that everyone had his blazer fastened with two buttons, something which we had to do 50 years prior to that. Had anything changed since then? I think not. Subject content will have expanded, new subjects may have appeared on the books, but the boys had not changed in 50 years. Still looking good and being as polite as we were back in the day.
Continuing on my self-tour I went into the Old Hall which we as pupils were never allowed to do. I was walking around and looking at all the pictures and trophies when Mark Thomas (yes, the son of our former deputy Headmaster Mr Syd Thomas) arrived and we had a long chat before moving back to the basketball courts to meet up with other attendees. I made sure that I didn’t step on the School Badge outside the headmasters office. recognised many of them, didn’t recognise others but we all re-introduced ourselves.
It was wonderful chatting , reminiscing and updating each other on what we had done over the 50 years. It was great to see and chat with our former Head Boy Jannie Nel (I can’t work out why someone changed his name to “Johann”). We went down to Tsessebe for lunch and chatted with each other even more. On our return to the top field I met up with Mike Ellison, former 1st team and Springbok hockey goalkeeper. I would love to have spent more time with him but we were somehow time constrained. Mike, I trust we will be able to have that chat in the near future.
The most surprising and emotional moment happened when I met up with my former History teacher and hockey coach, a man I had grown to admire and almost base myself on, Mr Warren Boden. Again, we didn’t have enough time to chat, but it did open many of my “emotional ducts” again. Something which did get to me though was that quite a few of my fellow students were referring to him as “Warren”. To my mind he deserved a lot more respect than that.
At any rate, we then went into the New Hall for assembly at 13h30. Now if I may reflect for a moment, I have only encountered Mr Dale Jackson on a few occasions, but have never had the opportunity to sit and chat with him. He struck me as being a soft and very genteel person. Boy-oh-boy was I surprised. He is remarkably strong, steadfast in his duties, and holds the school in the palm of his hands. I never pictured him as being tough, but he has proven himself to be just that.
The fact that he will be leaving the school at the end of 2025 is going to be quite disturbing, but we cannot stand in the way of progress and can only hope that he will be replaced by another person who will be as strong and as loyal as he is.
“Throughout my adult life I have received some accolades for academic, singing and guitar work, and sport. The biggest form of recognition in my life though, was the march through the Guard of Honour formed by the schoolboys after the assembly. The honour actually brought tears to my eyes and a feeling of pride in knowing what I had achieved since matriculating”.
Colin Kruger (1974 Koodoo)
