When I meet old boys in various places, which I am sure you must realise happens often, the topic of conversation always turns to the staff members at the school and whether so-and-so is still on the staff.

 

The most often asked questions have always been firstly about the late Taffy Jones and then secondly about Martin Ledwaba.

 

Mr Martin Ledwaba joined the staff in 1971 as the laboratory assistant. He subsequently also took on the responsibility of being the custodian of the school’s keys and security codes, a duty which he has discharged with utmost good faith.

 

Martin had the severe disadvantage of growing up in apartheid South Africa but he did not let this deficit hold him back. While he was at Jeppe he completed his matric part-time and then commenced on his life long and still unfulfilled ambition to qualify as a science teacher.

 

Having set up science experiments for many years, Martin has an in depth knowledge of the basics of physics and chemistry and generations of schoolboys have benefited from his assistance.

 

As far as the school is concerned, Martin puts in more hours than any single other member of staff. He is up early in the morning to unlock, put on urns and heaters and make the school as welcoming as possible. He is at everyone’s beck and call for venues to be unlocked, for lights to be switched on for furniture and extension cords to be found, for cups to put out and to be washed up and anything else the less organised can throw at him. He is then the last to leave at night locking up and putting on the alarms. This is done faithfully, willingly and without complaint.

 

Martin is a great personal encouragement to me; I truly do not know what the school would do without him. When he is away or on leave Jeppe does not feel the same.

 

We are indeed privileged as a school to have someone of Martin Ledwaba’s calibre on the staff.

 

When I think of Martin and the important role he plays at Jeppe I always picture him as standing or sitting above the stairs at the entrance to the Payne Hall. It is for this reason that we decided to name them after him.

 

It therefore gives me great pleasure to name the main stairs to the school the LEDWABA STAIRS.