Lowveld High’s Jane Wandrag retires after 33 years
"In the end, I had to make a decision - the most difficult one of my entire life."
MBOMBELA – After 33 years of building up the empire that is Lowveld High School, Jane Wandrag will enjoy a well-deserved retirement.
Wandrag started at Lowveld High when a substitute maths vacancy opened up in 1985. She relocated from the UK in 1970, when she was 13 years old, and went to school at Holy Cross College in Victory Park. After finishing her economic and geography BA degree, with a French major, at Wits University, she became a maths teacher at her alma mater for six years before moving to the Lowveld.
Her husband soon got a job as a civil engineer, and she started out educating people how to teach maths at the ripe age of 27 at Mgwenya College of Education.
A state of emergency was then declared in the country and student uprisings were rife. “The current deputy president, David Mabuza, was one of the students then,” she said.
“The conditions were outrageous and I was sympathetic, which got me into a lot of trouble. It didn’t go down well and I left the college under a dark cloud. The standard of education was shocking. A popular belief that black children weren’t as clever existed, and I just couldn’t allow it.”
Unemployed, she picked up a Lowvelder and saw the maths vacancy in 1985, and, not staying far from the school, she walked there with her CV. Mr David Grey decided to employ her.
She became the principal in May 2011. “It is a massive job, and at the age of 62, it has taken its toll.”
Since 2015, her health has not been what it should be. “In the end, I had to make a decision – the most difficult one of my entire life. I put my blood, sweat and tears into this school – in the corridors, on the sports fields, on the ground. My whole identity has been defined by the school,” she said.
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This week is her last week at Lowveld High. “I cannot even begin to visualise me leaving,” she said.
Despite the above reasons, her four grandchildren have been the big pull.
“What I will miss the most, is the children, the children, the children. I won’t, however, for one second miss the meetings and the paperwork,” she added.
Her highlight was in 1992 when black children were allowed to go to the school.
“It caused terrorists, real terrorists, to bomb the school. The foyer, the hall, the gym and the grandstand were destroyed in the bombing. In that year the damage was R2 million. They thought it would stop us, but it made us more determined. It made the white children more determined, and that was a huge turning point in the school.
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“Furthermore, the school’s achievements I will hold so dearly in my heart. I will never forget every moment my boys or girls ran onto the field, be it cricket, rugby or hockey. With every win we prove those people wrong,” she said.
If she could pick one more highlight besides the rest, it is the choir. She remembers how the “kids chose her” to be the conductor, and though she had no idea how to conduct, she marked the notes with highlighters.
“Pink would mean I pick my hands up, and green down,” she said.
Bongani Mavundla is now the conductor, and the choir is still a force to be reckoned with. “If I had a crown, the choir would be my jewel.”
