The Opening of the St David's Marist Inanda Alexandra Campus

We have spoken about the vision for a St David’s Marist Inanda Alexandra Campus for a number of years following an appeal to the Marist Brothers in 2014 to reintroduce Catholic education into the township of ‘Alex’ in the original Holy Cross School which moved to Soweto in the 1960’s after the land on which the school was located was expropriated by the Apartheid government.

There were a number of prerequisites to us being able to commit to this project fully, including extensive community engagement and ultimately transferring the title deeds into the name of the Catholic Church, which was finally completed just as we went into Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. However, Covid highlighted the dire need in our country for access to quality education and our call as Marists of Champagnat to respond to this need led the Board and Executive to put a stake in the ground and commit to starting, however small, a Grade 8 class in January 2023. Despite very tight deadlines to find seed funding, to renovate phase 1 of the existing campus (which stands on the grounds of St Hubert’s Catholic Parish) and to find the boys to fill this space, a team got to work on bringing this ambitious plan to fruition. We knew that whilst there needed to be a plan and a strategy, this would also be a leap of faith – as all of the Marist projects around the world over the past more than 200 years have been. And with lots of hard work and much prayer, we were delighted to open the doors of our Alexandra Campus to a small (and growing) group of grade 8 boys at the start of the school year.

The boys on our Alex Campus have spent quite a lot of time on the Inanda Campus under the direction of the Alex Campus Liaison, Mr Sidrick Moore, as they become immersed in the Marist culture and meet their fellow classmates and leaders. They will continue to come to the Inanda Campus for various sporting, cultural and academic activities, to a greater or lesser extent over time. The beautiful signage sends a strong message that we have proudly put our name to this campus and that these boys and families are ours.

It was an incredibly proud and emotional moment to see our Alex Campus pioneer Grade 8 boys arrive on their first day dressed smartly in the St David’s uniform, looking a little anxious but smiles growing each time another boy arrived at campus. Our own pride was only surpassed by that of their parents! The Matric mentors, a number of whom also live in Alex, met the boys on arrival and were excited to see this campus and by the promise of what it holds for the community.