Rusten Mogane Returns to Education BOB KANDETU Thursday, May 22, 2014 - 08:00 Off the Desk He is one of the school teachers who served as the bridge that brought us over during the years of upheaval. He taught at the Katutura Senior Secondary School alongside the likes of Clara Bohitile, Immanuel Nambahu, Hertha Nashenda, Leonie Hoveka, Marco Hausiku, Magreth Ndjoze and on goes the list. In time, Katutura’s natural justice baptised the school Immanuel Shifidi Senior Secondary School and the name stayed against all odds. That was back in time when children were children and learners by and large behaved like students, with discipline and a sense of purpose, when schoolteachers played a dual role; that of teacher and parent to every child in the school. When a parent would drop a child at the gate and say, “sê vir Meester ek het nie geld nie, I shall pay at the end of the month”, the teacher would advance money out of pocket for school fees in anticipation for good results and for parental commitment. The years of upheaval produced teachers with long-term commitment to the liberation struggle and to the future of the child, of every child in their school. These were the times that produced Rusten Mogane among other good schoolteachers. When independence came many moved on to ply their skills and talent all over the place and Rusten was a good football coach as well as sports administrator. The more he excelled, the more he got sucked into things. He took the Brave Warriors to Burkina Faso as coach and reached the semi-finals of the African Cup Of Nations, to be eliminated by Bafana Bafana, the latter mentored by that South African soccer legend, Jomo Sono. Rusten moved on to mentor a number of premier league clubs, the likes of his soccer alma mater Black Africa, African Stars, Orlando Pirates and others. On a humorous note, once I went to South Africa with an athletics contingent from TISAN and when we stopped at the Ramatlabama border post between Botswana and South Africa, some of the immigration officials teased the students, it was in the aftermath of Namibia’s defeat by South Africa in Burkina Faso. Prior to this, Namibia was riding high because the Brave Warriors had a track record of edging out Bafana Bafana when the latter came to play in Namibia. Now Rusten’s boys had crashed out and the South Africans had a ball. One of the immigration officers had a hot tongue. He said: “Bafana have re-established the culture of teaching and learning in Burkina Faso… now the schoolteacher has disappeared to a school in rural Namibia…” This was a symbolic reference to the Warriors coach and little did we know then that one day he would return to the classroom, all the same for a good reason. Rusten is a well-trained and effective school teacher. He always expressed concern about education and the need to support the education system in its quest to lift itself. It is not coincidental that he decided after years of absence, to return to education, this time as school principal at the A. Shipena Secondary School. When I heard the good news I te-lephoned Rusten to wish him well and we took a trip down memory lane for a number of minutes, recalling our experience at the Döbra High School with the struggle for education before independence, with Black Africa and with sports in general. When he became emotional we concluded the conversation and I lay reflecting. I wished that I could persuade all the good teachers of those years to join Rusten in the classroom. I telephoned Clara Bohitile and her phone was off, typical of plaas lyne. Congratulations Meester, I wish you only the best!
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 09:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015