There’s hope dealing happening in Joburg’s schools. A group of active citizens are fixing what has been allowed to fall apart.
Johannesburg, South Africa (09 September 2026) – Mandy Wiener’s latest stop on The Hope Dealers takes us back to school. At Sandringham High, EduSafe has been busy fixing what neglect left behind.
The swimming pool is working again. Classrooms have been refurbished, the grounds cleaned up and once dilapidated spaces brought back into use. It’s making an incredible difference at the school, and in the community!
EduSafe is a group of active citizens working to rejuvenate public schools across Joburg. Its roots go back to the early 2000s, when a group of Jeppe Boys alumni got involved in helping their old school through a period when the campus itself needed attention.
They saw what could happen when good leadership had people and resources behind it, and the work grew from there.
One of the schools keeping EduSafe busy currently is Sandringham High.
When the project started there, the swimming pool was out of action. Classrooms needed work. Weeds and rubbish had crept across the grounds, and there was no tuckshop. The school had a committed leader in Pascal Rekhoto, who has instilled an incredible culture of learning. Within one year of acting as principal, he had brought the school’s pass rate up from the 60s to the 90s.
Still, Sandringham High itself needed fixing, so EduSafe got involved.
Together with CAP Green, the environmental division of Community Active Protection and a key partner in the initiative, the campus was made safe, and then overgrowth and litter were cleared. Dilapidated spaces were slowly uplifted and revitalised.
Over the past year, seven classrooms have been refurbished, the swimming pool and tennis courts restored, and 52,000 litres of JoJo tank water storage installed. A R1.2-million project is upgrading its ablution facilities, and the school even has a new Hyrox gym!
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Sandringham has made a full 180. Vandalism has stopped, learners have started showing up for school, and parents have begun paying school fees again. While there is still a way to go before the project is fully complete, learners are already taking pride in their learning space again, and that is where the positive shift truly begins!
Co-founder Rob Katzen believes the children coming through these schools will be among those shaping South Africa in years to come, and the places in which they learn should reflect what is expected of them.
“Future leaders of South Africa will come out of the public school environment, not the private school environment. We need to build schools which create a narrative in these future leaders about success, accountability, responsibility, caring, and to do that, we have to fix our public school environment.” he says.
EduSafe is the fifth of ten inspiring stories featured in The Hope Dealers, each introducing South Africans who are making the city a better place.
You can follow Mandy’s journey via her social media. Check out her Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and X for more information.
The series will also be available on Primedia+, EWN and across Primedia and Mandy’s social media platforms. The audio interviews will also be released as podcasts and broadcast on The Midday Report.
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