A Tribute to Ntate Mogapi

An Immortalized Champion of the Moremogolo Green School Project

Those who mingled with him for the last time on the special Heritage Day on Friday 23 September 2022 on the school grounds of Moremogolo Primary School, still swear by their ancestors that there was nothing premonitive from his usual, unassuming and modest demeanour – that prepared them for the looming grief.

When news of his untimely death trickled to reach the school community through various sources over the Heritage Day weekend, others recalled with sad fondness that there was indeed an act of premonition that was played out in the last act of kindness on his account. When the strips of a sandal of one of the teachers were dislodged – in his last act of random kindness – Ntate Mogapi dashed off-campus to buy a tube of glue at his own cost to repair the sandal of his supervisor Dimakatso Sefora whom he fondly called “Mong Wame” (My Master) in his colloquial Sesotho language.

For him, this moment of Act of Random Kindness (ARK), was a way of bidding farewell to this community. This community was a home away from his native home in the rural villages of the Mountain Kingdom in Lesotho. The Moremogolo community that he adored deeply with pure admiration. A community that acknowledged him compassionately and validated his simple sense of community and belonging.

But through the dastardly deed of a car accident that stifled out his last ounce of life, far from the native land of his birth – Ntate Mr Mogapi has been immortalized by his selfless passion as a quiet master who championed the green initiative project at Moremogolo Primary School in the picturesque village of Phokeng in Rustenburg – North West Province.

It was during the grip of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020, that Deputy Principal Dimakatso Sefora recruited Ntate Mogapi (and his colleague Ntate Sydney) to start from scratch, the greening of the school through the establishment of the vegetable garden and an orchard of 100 Avocado trees that were donated to the school by a local community member, Maphuki Tsatsane.

An inspirational and visionary leader in her own right, Dimakatso Sefora herself hated with a passion the desolate and unkept part of the backyard which looked barren and uninspiring to the learners and the outside world.

Out of the bleakness of the unprecedented misery and forlornness brought by the COVID-19 high death toll, the Deputy Principal together with Ntate Mogapi put all their energy towards the transformation of the barren and dull school landscape, to become an oasis of pride for the school and the local community.

Through a series of posts on Facebook and other social media postings, the Moremogolo Green Project caught the attention of the North West MEC of Education Ms Wendy Matsemela who soon endorsed the project as an innovation not only as a commendable extramural activity that involved learners in an Outside the Classroom Curriculum (OCC) but also as an activity that contributed to food security and sustainability of the school nutrition program.

In 2021 and 2022, the North West Department of Agriculture through the recommendation and insistence of MEC Wendy Matsemela, contributed seeds, a borehole and nettings for the installation of greenhouses to expand the agricultural potential of the project. The Green School Project soon became another sight of learning for the learners, who enthusiastically enjoyed working on the gardens guided by Ntate Mogapi as their chief educator in agricultural and horticultural science. It was out of his selfless tutelage that the ever-curious learners learnt how to plant and grow all sorts of agricultural products, including vegetables, herbs and strawberries.

Although as children, they don’t fully comprehend the concept of death, today it is clear from their innocent faces – that their green fields would never be the same again without their green hero who taught them everything they know about the science of plant production.

But with time and beyond their deep and silent grief – they will eventually begin to appreciate that in fact, these gardens and orchards have become a living memory and lasting monumental legacy of Ntate Mogapi as an unassuming simple man of God – who touched their innocent lives as an educator of note (even in death).

May your soul rest in eternal peace, Ntate Mogapi. These gardens – your gardens, our gardens – will forever be a living memory of your amazing and passionate journey that touched our lives beyond measure.