Induction of Mr Sanele Majola as Head of School, Boys' Preparatory

Induction of Mr Sanele Majola as Head of School, St Stithians Boys’ Preparatory

Monday 10 October saw the Induction Service of Mr Sanele Majola as Head of the Boys’ Preparatory at St Stithians College, take place. The service was officiated over by Bishop Faith Whitby, the Central District Bishop of the Methodist Church of South Africa, and the College Chaplains.

The service was attended by the Rector, our Heads of School and Departments, the CEO of ISASA, representatives of Council and the PTA, and Heads of St John’s Prep and Vuleka St Joseph’s, but most importantly by Mr Majola’s family, his staff, and students. Mrs Celeste Gilardi formally welcomed the Majola family to the Saints Family and wished them all a long and happy association with the school.

Mr Majola joined us in July from Vuleka Schools where he held the position of Executive Head. He was born in KwaMashu Township in Durban, and attended the University of KZN, Edgewood Campus where he received excellent teacher training between 1995 and 1998. He started his teaching career in 1999 at North-Crest Primary School as a teacher and became Head of Department at the young age of 24. He then moved to Gauteng in 2004, where he taught at Sharonlea Primary School and served on the school Executive team for a year and a half before joining Crawford Prep, Sandton in 2006. Sanele was Economics teacher and Deputy Principal of Sport at Crawford Prep, from 2006 to 2017. Most recently he held the Executive Head position at Vuleka School, overseeing all 8 Vuleka campuses located in Johannesburg. Prior to that, Sanele was the Headmaster of Vuleka St Mark’s Primary School in Northriding. He completed the Leadership Development Programme through Wits Business School in 2019. Sanele loves reading, sports, politics and spending time with his wife and kids. He is a people’s person, and an exceptional communicator who believes in creating space for others to develop and thrive. He is a servant leader who believes in the power of good quality education and has been fortunate to be a panellist in various educational forums.

In his response on the day, Sanele thanked his wife Lihle and children Wandile, Nokukhanye, Sizwe and Mangaliso for their love and support and parents Sibongile and Raymond Ntanzi and his older brother Xolani who he recognised for ‘making me a better human being’. He went on to quote the words of the song, The Prayer, that Mr Michael Dingaan and Liam Naidoo sang during the service:

Pray He’ll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

In times when we don’t know.

Let this be our prayer

When we lose our way

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we’ll be safe

Lead us to a place

Guide us with you grace

Give us faith so we’ll be safe 

He went on to say: “This morning, I do promise to guide and lead St Stithians Boys’ Prep to a better and safer place where our boys, staff, parents, groundsmen, coaches, cleaning staff and security guards would feel a sense of community and belonging and be inspired to make a world of difference in other people’s lives. I also wish to remind all of us that we are called on to serve the school community. One of my favourite quotes is by Dr Martin Luther King Jnr:

‘If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep the streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare composed poetry. He should sweep the streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who did his job well’.

As we embark on this new journey, I would like to read you some of the words from John Maxwell:

‘The ultimate goal of any movement is to create a better future.

It starts with good values

Good values create growth.

Growth creates transformation

Transformation creates movement.

Movement creates change.

And change helps us to cross over into a better future.

Each one of these stages, together, forms a bridge from here to there.

Crossing that bridge and taking that journey from here to there becomes a great story, one worth telling’.

As I end off, I would like to read John Wesley prayer:

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m ready to serve, lead and be led, teach and learn, speak and listen, and collaborate with all schools on campus to offer a distinctive educational experience that would transform the country and the rest of the world.”

Welcome Sir.

#PurposeInspired #PassionDriven #InspiringExcellence #MakingAWorldOfDifference #StrongerOneAndAll