Retired principal Wandile James Makhubu has published his first book, Vagabond Principal: Dodging Bullets, to highlight his journey on how he accidentally became a school head.
The 62-year-old said his colleagues and friends have inundated him to write about his story, but he couldn’t understand the reason for that.
“I could not imagine myself putting pen to paper on my escapades, as I’m timid to talk about myself. But I had to,” said Makhubu.
“I have always known I wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up. I was fascinated by and admired my teachers, who seemed to have a wealth of knowledge. They inspired me to emulate them later on in life.
“I never thought or dreamed I would be responsible for running a school as a principal, not even in my wildest dreams.”
Makhubu founded Unity Secondary School in Daveyton in 1992 and has been the principal for the past 29 years.
The school is known as one of the best-performing high schools in Gauteng.
The Crystal Park resident explained the title of the book relates to both figurative and real bullets and one of the narrative’s subjects notoriously known as “Bullet”.
“Vagabond because we struggled for a while to receive recognition as a community school,” he said.
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He said he wrote most of the chapters during lockdown.
“I had to type most of the manuscripts after thinking about the book when I was considering retirement.
“I scripted the chapter Humans are not Inherently Violent when I was visiting Hong Kong, China, during the riots in 2019. This reminded me of many of my experiences, including my activism as a student and as a teacher.
“I was reminiscing about my survival of live gunshots from the apartheid police. The reader may find the initial chapters are a continuation of the story and other chapters are self-contained.”
The book will be officially launched in October.
He added that the support he has received from people who have already purchased the book has been overwhelming.
“We have sold over 300 copies, which were preordered while I was still writing the book.
“One of the people said the book is well written, while others said it is easy to read and there is lot of humour, which I wasn’t aware off,” he said.
Makhubu is now sharing his knowledge with schools in Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Mamelodi and Soweto by mentoring staff members.
The book is available at Exclusive Books, Protea Books, Bargain Books and as an e-book, or you can order the book from Makhubu by calling 083 391 7493.
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