The sacred symbol of the Mpofu clan, their totem, is the sheep. Guided by this, his people were taught to emulate the animal’s qualities, to practise being meek and modest, to become humble like a sheep in everything they did, especially in their interactions with others
in his district, and a year later Excellence in Secondary School Leadership in the National Teachers’ Awards. To fully understand the man who is the captain of this ship, one needs to look back into his heritage and history. Mpofu is the last-born son in a large family with 13 children. He took his first breath in 1961 on a farm in Broederstroom, in the foothills of the Magaliesberg. Education began before any of the children went to school, his parents grooming them just as they had been, transferring the teachings that had shaped their lives. Growing up in rural Zimbabwe, Mpofu’s father had learnt about life from the stories told by his elders. It was in story, song and praise poems that he learnt about who he was, and how a person should behave in life. These stories taught pride and the values of respect, discipline and hard work, which were reinforced in practice.
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“He conveyed things to us through stories,” Mpofu recalling his father, “which were stories that he was told by his elders back home. This storytelling helped him to learn about the ways of his people and when he told them to us, we came to know the culture that we are part of.” The sacred symbol of the Mpofu clan, their totem, is the sheep. Guided by this, his people were taught to emulate the animal’s qualities, to practise being meek and modest, to become humble like a sheep in everything they did, especially in their interactions with others. Rather than imitate the brute strength of the lion, hippo or elephant, the Mpofus were taught to harness a more gentle power. “The lesson was to make friends rather than enemies, and you do this by the way you handle yourself. This kind of influence moulded my personality and, ultimately, my leadership style. Today it influences the way I run the school, how I try influence my educators, my learners, my parents.”