The Old Diocesan Issue 10 - Magazine - Page 36
on the work front, they are, of
course, competitors. Gareth’s
first job within the Pick n Pay
group was at Blue Ribbon, which
was Pick n Pay’s meat division.
“At some stage, I ended up in
seafood commodity broking,”
says Mike. “So the joke among
our group of friends was that
Gareth was the butcher and
I was the fishmonger.”
When I ask Mike about the
relationship between the SPAR
Group and Bishops, he says,
tongue-in-cheek, “We would quite
like to run the tuck shop.” For all
his flippancy, it’s obvious he has
a deep interest in education and,
apart from his seven-year
stint as the chair of the
Bishops College Council,
he’s served on the board
and trust of Bridge House
School for more than two
decades, and on the board of
the Oprah Winfrey Leadership
Academy Foundation.
Asked about the future of
education and their old hunting
grounds in South Africa, both Mike
and Gareth reflect an unusual
mixture of enthusiasm, caution
and concern. Both support the
private school movement on
the basis that, according to
Mike, “every bit helps” – but
they recognise the problem
of “two streams emerging”.
Even within the private
school system, the process
of ensuring that schools
reflect the demographics of
the country is proving difficult.
One unanticipated challenge is
the way that scholarship kids from
underprivileged backgrounds risk
getting caught in the alienation
effect between the two completely
different environments of school
and home, with the result that
they feel they don’t fit into either.
In his later years, as Patron of the
OD Union, Raymond Ackerman
32 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
Laurie Chiappini (inset), co-founder of Mr Price, was a direct
influence on Kevin Lennett. Kevin is MD of The Crazy Store,
a “discount retail variety” store that opened in 1999, with
nearly 500 outlets in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.
was keenly aware of this problem,
and sought ways to help these boys
bridge the gap between school,
university and the workplace. The
IIOFF is an example of a bursary
programme intended to alleviate
this sort of problem. (See p87.)
Meanwhile, Gareth believes the
problem should ease over time as
black parents join the middle class
and start embracing the school, as
appears to be happening already.
Both Gareth and Mike are
thrilled that the relationship
between scholars and their
schools is becoming stronger,
with many students willingly
and enthusiastically staying
at school after formal school
hours. Ultimately, schools and
society reflect one another. Mike,
who has spent much of his career
in the advertising business, also
speaks enthusiastically about the
way in which technology could
help education – and already is,
in many ways. It’s not just that the
span of information is increasingly
coming within reach; it’s also
how technology can assist in
the teaching process, and help
teachers help each other.
Pick n Pay and SPAR are not
the only two major retail brands
with Bishops connections. Fashion
value retailer Mr Price, which has
“Leaving Bishops, I had no inkling that
I’d be involved in retail. I stumbled into
the field by accident, and never left it.”
–Kevin Lennett, MD of The Crazy Store