Puneet Varma (Editor)

Naledi High School

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Type
  
Government

Principal
  
Kenneth Mavathulana

Phone
  
+27 11 934 0841

Established
  
8 June 1963

Founded
  
8 June 1963

Naledi High School

Address
  
Nyakale St, Soweto, Johannesburg, 1868, South Africa

Similar
  
Jabulani Technical School, Altmont Technical High Sch, Forte Secondary School, Moletsane Secondary School, Mapetla High School

Naledi High School is a government secondary school at 892 Nape Street in Soweto. The school took an important role at the start of the Soweto Uprising in 1976.

Contents

History

The school was founded in 1963.

On 1 July 1974 there was a bus accident that involved a number of pupils from the school and ten were killed. Today there is a plaque recording the Lourenco Marques Bus disaster and its victims in the school grounds. The plaque was unveiled thirty years after the accident.2009

On 8 June 1976 the South African Police attempted to arrest Enos Ngutshane who was the local leader of the South African Students Movement. He had written a letter of protest to the Minister for Education to protest that subjects like history, geography and mathematics would be taught through the medium of Afrikaans. The police failed to apprehend him and the police were stoned and a Volkswagen Beetle was set on fire by the students. Ngutshane was not arrested until a week later and he was in court when the Soweto Uprising started. Students had gathered at Naledi High School to walk to Morris Isaacson High School in Jabavu. The plan was to gather at Orlando Stadium but before that the Police arrived and school children were shot.

The school achieved a pass rate of 8% but they were able to increase that to 61% in 2000.

Alumni

Notable alumni include:

  • Enos Ngutshane – activist, now a manager
  • Zanele Mthemb – Gauteng department of education's chief director
  • Frank Chikane – former presidency director-general
  • Popo Molefe – North West premier
  • Dan Molefe – diplomat
  • Mike Siluma – South African Broadcasting Corporation acting chief operations officer
  • Today

    The head reports a pass rate around 70% in 2013.

    A plaque was unveiled in 2013 by the Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo to mark Naledi's contribution to Johannesburg Heritage. Also returning that day was Enos Ngutshane who had an assembly point named in his honour.

    The school hopes to build a museum at the school that would feature the car burnt by pupils in 1976.

    References

    Naledi High School Wikipedia