He 'still cared for us and thought about us'

WHEN school principal Mzingisi Douw took a call from South Africa's deputy chief justice, he knew it had to be something special.

Judge Dikgang Moseneke told the headmaster of Healdtown Comprehensive that his school was one of three that would receive R100000 in Nelson Mandela's will.

The other schools to benefit are Clarkebury Senior Secondary School and Qunu Junior Secondary School. Mandela attended Clarkebury and matriculated in 1938 at Healdtown, a Methodist school in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape.

Douw at first ignored the call from Moseneke, one of the three executors of Mandela's estate, because he was in a meeting. "But then my phone rang again and I thought it might be important because it was from an 011 number. I excused myself and answered ... and spoke to [Moseneke] directly," said Douw, who was invited to the reading of the will on Monday.

"Sometimes, we feel that maybe we are forgotten as a school, but this goes to show that Madiba still cared for us and thought about us," he said.

At Qunu Junior Secondary School, just 2km from Mandela's home in the village, teacher Felix Mbulala said: "We had no idea that the old man was going to leave us any money. It was very confidential, so [the principal] wasn't allowed to tell anyone - not even the teachers knew."

In his will, Mandela said he was "particularly concerned about the education needs of the children in Qunu".

Mbulala said Mandela visited the school whenever he was in Qunu. His last visit was just before his birthday in 2005.

"We knew he loved us and he cared about this school and its pupils," Mbulala said.

"The governing body hasn't met yet to discuss what to do with the money, but there is a lot it can be used for, especially teaching resources. We would love to get interactive boards and data projectors. We don't have a fully functioning library or laboratory," he said.

Orlando West High School, which is close to Mandela's house in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, also received R100000 for bursaries. Last year, the school had an 87% matric pass rate.- Additional reporting by Khanyi Ndabeni