My Facebook post – 2025/11/10
Eight years – from 1962 to 1970
Shocking, but that’s all the years I spent on a school bench – and to be honest, I was more often at home than in the classroom. Ask my classmates from back then; they will confirm it.
But I never failed a grade.
Those were golden years, filled with thousands of memories.
Am I sorry?
NEVER… and there’s a very, very good reason why!
Claud Cleo’s reaction to my post:
“But you must say why you were more at home than in class. We need to motivate the youth to attend school – tell us more so that we can understand.”
So, Claud… here is her answer.
I am the founder of my own online platform, www.capecoastnews.co.za something I’m proud of, and also of the organisation where this history now lives.
When Claud asked, “Why are you not sorry that you spent so little time in school?”, I knew it wasn’t only her question.
It’s a question many carry but never dare to ask, a question about life, survival, character… not just school.
1962–1970: Eight years of school, a lifetime of lessons
Yes, I barely completed eight years of schooling, and many days I was more at home than in the classroom.
But I never repeated a grade, and not once have I regretted it.
I believe my real education started outside, not inside a classroom.
- At 14, I was already on a construction site.
- At 19, I became a qualified tradesman, which, at that time, was an incredibly young age.
- No matric.
- Just a young boy who wanted to learn, to work, to understand.
I was shaped by men who themselves had very little school, but they had enormous hearts.
It was a different generation, honest workers, men with heartbeat, hands and quiet wisdom.
Many of them couldn’t even write their own names properly.
But look at the homes they built.
- Look at the neighbourhoods their hands shaped.
- Look at the properties they left behind.
- Look at the dignity with which they raised their families.
- Look at the respect they earned.
They built communities, literally and spiritually.
Many have since passed on, and some still walk among us… our elderly role models. Walk through our neighbourhood and you will see their legacy in every corner.
Names like:
- Witbooi
- Julies
- Papier
- Mostert
- Adams
- Louw
- Menas
- Lazerus
- Cleophas
- & Samuels… just to name a few.
There are far too many to list.
These were the people whose hands shaped me.
- They taught me to build, to think, to survive, to find solutions.
- They taught me the value of a handshake long before I ever switched on a computer.
How many of them ever went to high school?
Very few.
But they left houses that still stand today.
- They raised children who still carry their names with pride.
- They shaped character, and I was one of the blessed ones.
Then a second talent appeared – writing
In 1993, I wrote my first story about children we took on a Sunday outing along our Salt river.
I posted it, and soon after I received a letter, inviting me to the Media24 offices, 5th floor, Foreshore, Cape Town.
When Mercia Morkel, editor of Die Burger Ekstra, invited me to write stories for the newspaper, I was shocked.
“Ma’am, I can hardly write my own name,” I told her honestly.
Her reply changed my life:
“Then start reading, Mr April. Anything – crates, bottles, newspapers, books… whatever you can find….. Read.”
And I began reading, and my talent began to bloom.
In 2000 I received my first computer from Roy Potter, a Muizenberg employer for whom I had built the first of three houses.
And my writing journey continued:
- News editors started trusting me.
- My name appeared in several newspapers.
- And i became the first freelancer ever to have a desk at Weslander.
This later extended to two independent news platforms in Vredenburg.
I also wrote for Rapport and Die Son of Media24.
I always worked faster, harder, sharper – because I had never learned from a school desk.
- Life was my school.
- People were my books.
- Experience was my exam.
- And God was my teacher.
So Claud, and those who wonder, that is why I’m not sorry.
- My path was my education.
- My role models were my university.
I learned from people the world might underestimate, but who opened my world.
And today?
At 69, I am still learning.
- I help people.
- I mentor.
- I inspire.
I use Chat as a tool, but my heart, wisdom and instincts come from years spent among honest men and women who helped shape me.
- Times have changed.
- Technology has taken over.
And the sad part?
Our young people have many things today… but no role models.
And that, Claud, is perhaps the greatest loss of our time.
Please help us keep the project alive:
