Thembalabantu High School (South Africa)

HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL Brief background: The school was established in the 1950s in Zwelitsha. This school was situated in Zone 5 where the Magistrate Court is. At the time the name of the school was Zwelitsha Secondary School. The school was a vocation school where electricity was offered as a subject. The aim of offering electricity was to assist the Zwelitsha community with the installation of electricity. The buildings were erected out of planks with no ceiling and cement floors. These buildings were thus very cold in the winter and very hot in summer. It was at this stage that the Department of Educationdecided to build a new schoolwhere Hector Peterson High School is now. In 1964, a building construction of a new structure started. The structure was built in Zone 6 and it showed some signals of hope for the community of Zwelitsha so much that they renamed the school Thembalabantu Secondary school. Thembalabantu had toi Form 1 classes and the other classes were still operating at the old building(Hector Peterson High School) about four kilometers away. This created a lot of problems because teachers had to walk from one end to the other when changing periods. By the end of 1965, the whole school shifted to Zone 6. In 1968 the extension block (Junior block) and the Hostel section were built and they were completed in 1969. It was the same year that this school acquired the status of a High School because of the introduction of Form iv and was then called Thembalabantu High School. The school had only four educators at the time, that is, Mr Mcitheka, Mr Bam, Mr Matota and Mrs Peteni. The following year the staff was joined by Mr Mti and at a later stage by Mr Magodla. The school became very popular in Sport, Music and Academic results from 4 staff members in 1964 to 33 in 2010. LIST OF PRINCIPALS Mr. Mcitheka : Late 1950s - 1959 Mr S.G. Magodla : 1960 - 1975 Mr P. Khwatsha : 1976 - 1978 Mr W.X. Yako : 1978 - 1980 Mr W. Zantsi : 1981 - 1982 Mr M.W. Gaga : 1982 - 1983 Rev. D. Matebese : 1983 - 1984 Mr P.V. Maneli : 1985 - 1989 Mr T.M.A Malgas : 1989 - To date