Remembering Sandy Grant

He had two points of contact with Maru-a-Pula (MaP): his son, Alex, did A levels here in 2009 and in 1969 Sandy Grant waged a vigorous and principled battle to stop MaP from being set up. Maybe those two actions appear contradictory: the fact is that Grant mellowed towards MaP over the years. He was much impressed with the part that Maitisong played in opening MaP to the community and this may have made him happy to send Alex here.

Grant’s objection to MaP in the late 1960s came from his distaste for the idea of an exclusive school in one of the world’s 10 poorest countries that would cater for the privileged few who could afford the fees. He was a typical member of the powerful socialist or communist movement of those times and hoped that the new country, Botswana, would, after independence, not entrench the elitist system of Britain or neighbouring apartheid South Africa but work for a more equal, socialist society.