NEWS ARTICLES: 2002

Old Boys lead at US 28/10/2002

Paul Roos Old Boys Ernst Hertzog and Jared Coetzer were recently elected as members of the Students' Council of the University of .

SEMPER: prizes in national competition 28/10/2002

The official Paul Roos school magazine, SEMPER, took part in the annual National Schoolnewspaper Competition organized by Die Burger/Nasionale Pers. Our photographer and journalists excelled and received numerous awards.

Leon du Toit (grade 12) was awarded a first prize for his caricatures and Pieter Oosthuisen (grade 11) won both first and second prize in the category Best Newsphoto. Jaco Louw (grade 12) was awarded third prize in the category Best Column.

SEMPER is extremely proud on the second prize for the category Best E-Newspaper. Congratulations to webmaster Ian van Niekerk (grade 12), who was responsible for the design and programming of SEMPER's digital version.

Paul Rooser in US Symphony Orchestra 24/1/2003

Sebastian Herzig, Grade 11, was invited to become a permanent member of the 's Symphony Orchestra. It is a very special achievement for this young harpist.

PRG Entrepeneur: one of five national winners 13/9/2002

Wilhelm Walser, a grade 8 pupil in Paul Roos, was judged one of 5 overall winners in a national entrepeneurial competition launched by the Afrikaanse Sakekamer. As a result of this extraordinary achievement, Wilhelm and his four co-winners will be travelling to Europe.

Old Boy gets silver at Commonwealth Games 13/9/2002

Paul Roos Old Boy Hendrik Odendaal was a member of the South African men's relay team that won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He completed the second leg of the relay race.

Winner: US Competition 13/9/2002

Andrè-Pierre du Plessis (Grade 12) was awarded first prize in a competition at the University of Stellenbosch. The adjudicators considered his creative piece to be the best entry in the Skryfkompetisie vir Afrikaanse Digkuns 2002.

FSA Exchange programme to Europe 13/9/2002

Tinus de Wet, German pupil in grade 11, had the unique opportunity to visit Germany for six unforgattable weeks as an exchange student during the June holidays.His host family lives in Fritzlar, a picturesque German town close to Kassel.

FSA, Friends of , organizes a whole range of exchange programmes to and from Germany. It is a Pretoria-based non-profitable organisation operating throughout South Africa.

The exchange is not only open to pupils who take German as a Foreign Language at school. Any pupil in Grade 10 - 12 could apply to take part in the 4/6 week long exchange programmes in June and December.

Those who would be interested in the 3 month programme - leaving in October, returning in January - should have German as a subject at school, though.

Information in this regard is available at the school.

Nelson Mandela opens new Paul Roos centre 26/4/2002

On 20 March 2002 Paul Roos had the privilege to be visited by Africa's biggest celebrity. Former president Nelson Mandela agreed to take part in the official opening ceremony of the new hall. Emile Roosenschoon reports.

What makes a man? Is it power, pride or accomplishment? Is it forgiveness, perhaps? In the case of Nelson Mandela, there is no doubt in my mind that it is his incredible forgiving presence that has touched the hearts of so many people.

The morning started quite early, and anyone who wanted to be at the new hall before 09:00 had to be there at 07:00 already for security reasons. The security measures were very strict, but after all, it is not easy to secure a hall with approximately 1500 people in it. From 08:30 Paul Roos boys slowly poured to their seats through the security checkpoints. Then the longest part of the day began: we had to wait for about an hour, and there is nothing that makes a crowd more excited than waiting.

After a while the guests of honour arrived. They consisted mainly of Old Boys, donators of exceptionally large amounts of money for the new hall and persons on the governing body of the school. The hall was buzzing with excitement. At around 09:30 Madiba walked in. His appearance immediately silenced the hall. The National Anthem was sung with pride (the practising finally paid off), and Mr Mandela applauded the school for it afterwards.

Mr FJ van der Merwe started the proceedings and graciously welcomed Mr Mandela. When he stood up, Madiba started his speech somewhat unexpectedly: in . "Baie dankie, dit is vir my 'n groot voorreg om hier te wees." Mr Mandela mentioned that South Africans were very easy to become negative about our national sport teams, referring to the latest cricket events. In his opinion, however, there was one man who would always remain positive, and that was Paul Roos himself.

"Nothing is more important to the future than education and learning. You, the youth, are our future!" Mr Mandela encouraged. He told us a tale of how he miserably failed each year while he was studying for his degree. But he persevered, and never let failure beat him down. He said that we should not be disappointed by failure, for in order to succeed, one has to fail first. Mr Mandela ended his speech by saying: "I have confidence in our youth, irrespective of colour. They are part of the miracle nation, a nation who has confounded prophecies of doom for South Africa. There can be no doubt that South Africa is united!"

Unfortunately Mr Mandela could not stay longer because of his busy schedule. The Rector, mr De Jager thanked him by saying: "Mr Mandela, you have given us the confidence and hope since 1990, that we are a winning nation." A few photos were taken while Mr Mandela chatted to a number of guests that he recognized sitting in the front seats. Amidst them were dr Anton Rupert and the daughter of Paul Roos. Then Mr Mandela had to leave. Still restless with excitement and joy we sat back in our seats and watched a documentary about the history of Paul Roos Gymnasium made by me C Lloyd and mr Nic de Jager. Afterwards all the donators, festival coordinators (with special reference to me A. Austin) were thanked for their great contribution to the new hall and the organisation of this special inaugural ceremony. As I walked out of the new Paul Roos Centre, embracing my three free periods with open arms, the words of Nelson Mandela rolled through my very being: What a great man, I thought, what a great inspiring man.

PRG's own magician! 26/4/2002

Aidan Knott won the coveted South African Junior Stage Magic Title held recently at Grand West Casino. He was awarded the gold medal and a trophy for his efforts.

In addition he was runner-up in the close-up magic category for which he received a bronze medal.

Country - wide Winner 29/4/2002

Jean-Pierre Roux (Grade 11) has recently been awarded the first prize in a national writers’ competition. Competitors in MWEB’s “Verskroeiende Aarde” competition had to use the Anglo-Boer War as a background. JP’s essay was rated as the best country - wide entry. The entry of Schoombee Erasmus, Grade 10, was also placed among the first four entries.

JSE Millennium Schools Challenge 25/2/2002

The Corporate Penguins, a Paul Roos team consisting of Neil Scholtz, team leader, Kyle Tyack, Ciaan Badenhorst and Thomas Shaw took part in the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) Millennium Schools Challenge. The competition spanned months, where the objective was to make as much money as possible by trading shares on the JSE with an imaginary starting capital of R150 000. Transactions were made either by telephone, fax or e-mail. After numerous transactions, the portfolio value totalled just over R906 000, and the team thus finished 3rd out of 639 teams. Neil Scholtz, accompanied by Mr Charl Burger, flew to Johannesburg to attend the prize giving ceremony. The team received a trophy, a framed certificate for the school and prize money of R5 000.

Brass bell rings in new tradition 12/2/2002

Mr Jan Coetzee, a PRG parent, together with deputy head boy 2002 Kobie Lochner, had the idea to install a brass bell in the new multi-functional hall. The bell will be rung at certain occasions. Mr Coetzee, an old boy of the school, donated the bell and as an appropriate gesture, was asked to ring it for the first time during assembly on 28 January. It was A-Day for 207 Grade 8 pupils, who joined the rest of Paul Roos for their very first assembly.

The suggestion is that the bell be sounded on A-Day, on Z-Day when the matrics leave school, at the inauguration of the SC and also on Remembrance Day to honour those who had sacrificed their lives for our country.

Growth since 1992 11/2/2002

Jaar / Year Getal / Number % Groei / % Growth 1992 680 - 1993 720 5,9 1994 820 13,9 1995 870 6,1 1996 960 10,3 1997 985 2,6 1998 998 1,7 1999 1007 0,9 2000 1024 1,7 2001 1029 0,5 2002 1019 -1,0

Matric Results 11/2/2002

Jaar / Year A's % A's % A's Vakke / Subjects Vrystel / Exempt Druip / Fail 1993 19 15 10% 77% 0 1994 23 15,4 9% 81% 1 1995 26 17,4 11% 83% 1 1996 27 16,9 13% 82% 1 1997 35 23,2 14% 88% 1 1998 38 20,3 15% 85% 2 1999 49 25,5 16% 86% 1 2000 45 24,6 16,6% 87,6% 0 2001 32 17 12% 83% 3

2001 Rhodes Scholarship Award 11/2/2002

Waldimar Pelser (matric 1996), past editor of SEMPER and currently a journalist at “Die Burger”, has recently been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for 2002. Next October he will embark on an M.Phil degree course in development studies at the University of Oxford.

The award of the Rhodes Scholarships is a provision in the will of Cecil John Rhodes. Since 1903 90 post-graduates world-wide have received this sought-after award. Apart from four open scholarships Rhodes endowed 3 schools with scholarships: Paul Roos Gymnasium, Bishops and SACS.

More Rugby Springboks! 11/2/2002

Ms Marina Kotze, PRG archivist, has traced two more rugby Springboks. They become numbers 41 and 42.

Hendrik Jakobus (Koot) Reyneke matriculated from the then Stellenbosch Boys' High |School. As an 18-year-old he was captured during the Anglo-Boer War and sent as prisoner-of–war to Ceylon. There he started playing rugby. After the war he studied at the Victoria College at Stellenbosch and represented South Africa in 1910 against Tommy Smythe’s British touring team.

Hendrik Alexander (Boy) de Villiers, a classmate of Koot Reyneke and cousin of Japie Krige, represented South Africa on the rugby field in 1906. He was one of 4 Stellenbosch people in the team, along with Loubser, Japie Krige and Anton Stegmann.