Today we held the eleventh annual Passing of the Drum Ceremony on our campus, a formality first introduced in 2012, to celebrate the appointment of the school’s pupil leadership for the next year. These include our head and deputy head prefects, prefects, shouting captains, and house leaders.
To be appointed as a College Prefect is one of the highest honours that the school can bestow upon a pupil, and along with this honour, comes accountability and responsibility. These boys have endured a rigorous process to achieve this honour and they would not have been appointed without the wider College’s pupil and staff support. College appoints five senior prefects to lead this team; and we extend sincere congratulations to our Head Prefect for 2023, Sasha Kadira, our Senior Deputy Head Prefect, Luc du Toit and our Deputy Head Prefects; Judah Conolly, Thaseen Ganie and Sikuwe Msibi.
We also announced the three shouting captains for 2023 – congratulations to Sandiso Dlamini, Luhle Sithole and Salathiso Zulu. These young men have a unique role at a school like Maritzburg College, with its emphasis on spirit and camaraderie. Voted for by their peers, each year it is the job of our Shouting Captains to inspire and cajole the troops on Basher Ridge, on Pape’s and elsewhere, to get behind our College men.
Today we named our house leaders, house captains and vice captains for the 10 day houses – our “homes within a home” at College. These young men are given various portfolios and assist the housemaster and staff in running the houses on a daily basis.
The five Boarder prefects who lead each of the boarding houses at College provide support to the boarder masters and boarder staff necessary for what is the largest Public School boarding establishment in the country, with its own particular culture and traditions. It is their job to ensure a happy, efficient and disciplined home for our 475 boarders. Today, we congratulate Luc du Toit (Head of Boarding and Head of Hudson House), Judah Conolly (Head of Nathan House), Michael van Selm (Head of Clark House), Sikuwe Msibi (Head of Shepstone House) and Sean Meter (Head of Elliott House).
A very special part of this assembly at College is the passing of the drum from our outgoing Head Prefect to the new incumbent, symbolising the passing of authority from the outgoing leadership of 2022 to the incoming leaders of 2023. For many years it is the tradition that an outgoing College head prefect places a written message of support to his successor in the old drum. While this long-established tradition continues, the original old Thrash Drum that was used is now housed in a permanent case on display in the Victoria Hall, and a side-drum from the old school cadet band is used to symbolise the passing of authority from the prefects of 2022 to the prefects of 2023. At the 2022 ceremony, Senior Boarder Prefect, Sphephelo Mbonambi placed a personal message of support in the old drum, and handed the custodianship of the drum to Sasha Kadira, the 2023 Head Prefect, as a symbol of the passing of this authority.
We wish all our leaders well for 2023 and know that, as a school, we place our support, our trust and our confidence in you as we move into the new year.
College’s Leadership Team for 2023
Senior Prefects
Head Prefect: Sasha Kadira (St George’s, Harare)
Senior Deputy Head Prefect: Luc du Toit (Winston Park Primary)
Deputy Head Prefects: Judah Conolly (Cordwalles Preparatory), Thaseen Ganie (Nizamia Islamic), Sikuwe Msibi (Cordwalles Preparatory)
Prefects
| Travis Ambler | Harriston | Lamond |
| Liam Armstrong | Underberg Primary | Snow |
| Bryn Brokensha | Merchiston Preparatory | Fuller |
| Nhlakanipho Buthelezi | Pelham Primary | Barns |
| Mufarowashe Chirengende | Rydings (Zimbabwe) | Commons |
| Ross Froise | Cowan House Preparatory | Pape |
| Bryce Haigh | Kokstad Junior Primary | Nicholson |
| Kuhle Mthimkhulu | Cordwalles Prepratory | Lamond |
| Ayabukwa Nkubungu | Arboretum Primary | Commons |
| Ross Paine | Merchiston Preparatory | Lamond |
| Tayughe Ramdhass | St Charles Preparatory | Calder |
| Luke Schultz | Pelham Primary | Snow |
| Landiswa Seshemane | Darnall Primary | Snow |
| Keegan Steele | Scottburgh Primary | Barns |
| Xolani-Junior Thabethe | Clarendon Primary | Fuller |
| Ayrton van der Linde | Ashton College | Forder |
| Matthew van Rooyen | Merchiston Preparatory | Forder |
| Michael van Selm | Cordwalles Preparatory | Commons |
| Travis Walton | Curro Hillcrest Primary | Lamond |
| James Wiggill | Merchiston Preparatory | Commons |
| Dalton Wright | Merchiston Preparatory | Barns |
| Salathiso Zulu | Lynford | Snow |
Head of Boarding Houses
Boarder Prefects: JL Sweetnam [Clark House], S Sithembu [Clark House], L Sithole [Hudson House]
The Head of Nathan House: Judah Conolly
The Head of Shepstone House: Sikuwe Msibi
The Head of Clark House: Michael van Selm
The Head of Hudson House, and the Head of Boarding: Luc du Toit
The Head of Elliott House: Sean Meter
Shouting Captains
- Sandiso Dlamini [Forder]
- Luhle Sithole [Forder]
- Salathiso Zulu [Snow]
House Captains, House Vice-captains and House Leaders for the 10 school Day houses:
| HOUSE | CAPTAIN | VICE-CAPTAIN | HOUSE LEADERS |
| Barns | L du Toit | TM Crawford | AO Mdladla, SK Mdutyana, JWE Pope, LR Upton, MB Madlala |
| Calder | T Ramdhass | ND Swift | KR Ayliffe, AM Madlala, LMN Sibetha, L Swanepoel, T Madzimure |
| Commons | MI Chirengende | KH Dobeyn | JE Kauffman, EC Lolliot, MC Mason, TH Nuttall, PC Schutte |
| Forder | MR van Rooyen | M Roy | JT Barrett, TI Davies, JO Killick, T Sewpersad, L Sithole |
| Fuller | X-JS Thabethe | KB Naidu | AK Duma, L Jackson, KC King, SA Mchunu, MG Zuma |
| Lamond | K Mthimkhulu | KJ Marais | CR Adam, SE Ender, SA Ndlovu, HC Prinsloo, S Sithembu |
| Nicholson | SR Kadira | SJ Meter | JR Bradford, AP Coulthard, LN Gumbi, E Kock, CM Raw |
| Pape | RJ Froise | IJ Kayembe | BM Emberton, JL Kufal, CM Newman, RW Quin, HR Wells |
| Snow | LD Armstrong | KNJ Peter | JP Clark, A Khan, KM Nyawo, G Roux, FS Simelane |
| Strachan | JL Sweetnam | Y Sha | B Chambler, AO Mjaja, R Pitout, MBJ Thomson, RT Warr |