On the 23rd of March, we were afforded the opportunity to give a short talk on debt counselling at Zeekoevlei High School.

The school is situated in a severely poverty-stricken area, in which a large percentage of the residents are unemployed. The school serves seven informal settlements and accommodates most of the learners from the Philippi farms.  It is surrounded by two informal settlements, one of which was previously illegal. They are so closely situated that if you could extend your arm through the 2.4m high fence you’d be able to touch the dwellings. The fence is tough, made of special material which is near impossible to cut through.

The principal, Mr Prinsloo, is a tall imposing figure and is about as tough as that fence. He has a policy whereby he does not turn away any applicant seeking to attend, and does not discriminate based on prior academic performance at all. Voted best Principal in the Western Cape in 2009, he guides and directs with a steely resolve. He is determined that no learner will be lost in the system. Together with his staff, they impress upon their learners not to focus on where they’re from, but on what they can achieve. And achieve they do, beating all other schools in the district, including Norman Henshilwood, Wynberg and South Peninsula at year-end results as well as athletics.

Zeekoevlei boasted a 98.33% pass rate at the end of 2016.

Spending time with Mr Prinsloo and listening to him can only be described as an uplifting experience. More than a few times he punched the air with his fist, to emphasise one of his (and the school’s) favourite new sayings: “We beat them”. The respect he commands in his school as well as in the wider community is admirable and seems impossible to achieve in an age where authority does not matter much. This is a man who has even negotiated with gangs in the area that the school is its own turf. Learners and staff can feel safe in the knowledge that no gang warfare will be fought beyond that fence. He also promotes an urgent sense of pride and belonging where learners ascribe to the motto that “ONCE a Zeekoevleinian ALWAYS a Zeekoevleinian”

It was our aim to educate and inform on matters of debt counselling and consumer rights under the National Credit Act, but we both felt that we had received an education in return. Seeing what the staff and students are achieving through hard work, sacrifice and belief, in the midst of cirumstances which are far from ideal, is both humbling and a beacon of inspiration.