2011 Magazine
47
Highlight Events
’S
An emergency meeting of the Board was convened, the green light was given and the tender was awarded to Construction Associates on the absolute and strict condition that the building would be complete and ready for occupation in just 23 weeks. From that momentous day on the 7th August 1985 when construction started there was a hive of activity. Ted Sharples appointed Allan Darwin as his deputy and by January the compliment of teachers had reached 11. At least the teachers could see progress as the foundations were dug and walls started appearing from nowhere. Furious activity could be seen on the main field with Fieldmarshall Toni Honey in her gumboots, marshalling her forces which were initially the founder students picking up rocks and then gardeners of Prep School parents coming under her control and planting the grass. 23 weeks later, bursting with pride and a tremendous sense of achievement at our great team effort we watched the first intake of 180 founder pupils arrive. What faith those first parents had enrolling their sons in a mealie patch, and that was literally what it was when they enrolled. I thought that the arrival should be captured on video for posterity but the intrepid gardener Toni Honey had other ideas. Every time she raised the camera to her eye she switched the video off and when lowering the camera switched it on. This resulted in 15 minutes of excited chatter from the students lots of footage of feet and pavements. Thankfully she returned to her gardening duties which she carried out until 1991 when she retired prompting the headmaster to record his thanks by saying. “These gardens are a tribute to the work of Toni Honey who has laboured long, hard and lovingly over the last five years to establish and maintain them. The Minister who so kindly agreed to our foundation officially opened the College on the 5th March 1986 in which he said “Today we are witnessing something unique in the provision of education in Harare. For the first time the public sector has cooperated significantly with the parents, the local community and government in building a school of the grandeur of St. John’s. These magnificent buildings
T.
the plans were put out to tender and the builders Construction Associates were appointed subject to approval from Government to open. In February of 1985 we were given an indication by Government that approval would be granted subject to certain conditions, but we had no idea how onerous those conditions would turn out to be. Nevertheless we had to proceed. A fundraising committee was set up chaired by Tony Knight. The total cost of establishing the College which included buildings, furniture, equipment including sports equipment was estimated at One Million Five Hundred Thousand Zimbabwe Dollars and at the rate of the day of 1 Zimbabwe Dollar equating to 65 US cents the total amount required was just short of One Million US Dollars. Phase one was relatively easy with local companies giving incredible support, much to the relief of the board who nervously watched as the funds they pledged were being spent at an alarming rate. Only one overseas Trust came up with a grant and that hardly paid the postage on sending out the appeal document. In May Ted Sharples was appointed the inaugural Headmaster for a school which did not exist and such was his faith in the project that he accepted the appointment whilst walking through a patch of mealies planted where the school was to be built. Such was the faith of the Board that they agreed to guarantee funding so that the project could proceed. In July the first students wrote their exams, again an incredible show of faith as we were still in fierce negotiations with government who refused to back down on their stringent conditions centering on level of fees and racial mix from day one. By the 1st August agreement had still not been reached and at a meeting with Ministry , the late David Zamchiya a fellow governor and I had the unpleasant task of informing the Ministry of Education that we could not accept their conditions and that we were regrettably going to abandon the project. This decision was taken at 11.30 and to our enormous relief and gratitude the then Minister of education Minister Mutumbuku telephoned me to say that he had granted permission for the establishment of St John’s College without any laid down pre conditions save that we work towards the goals of Government.
SCJOHN OLLEGE “to be the best that I can be”
Mr. Scot Honey