{"id":832955,"date":"2025-07-28T17:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=832955"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:47:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T09:47:47","slug":"the-man-behind-the-south-africas-top-performing-school-with-4-5-distinctions-per-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/832955\/the-man-behind-the-south-africas-top-performing-school-with-4-5-distinctions-per-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"The man behind South Africa’s top-performing school with 4.5 distinctions per candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Greek-South African human rights lawyer George Bizos is the man behind one of South Africa\u2019s top-performing private schools, SAHETI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizos was born on 14 November 1927 in the Greek village of Vasilitsi. His father, Antonios Bizos, was the local mayor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During World War II, at just 13 years old, Bizos and his father helped seven New Zealand soldiers escape from Nazi-occupied Greece to Crete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along their journey to Crete, they were picked up by a British destroyer, the HMS Kimberley, which later dropped them off in Alexandria, Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a refugee, Bizos was sent to South Africa, arriving in Durban before taking a train to Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once in Johannesburg, he and other refugees faced strong opposition from anti-immigrant groups like the Ossewabrandwag, which opposed their presence in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizos didn\u2019t go to school for his first two years, as he couldn\u2019t speak English or Afrikaans. Over time, he integrated into local society with the help of the Greek community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1949, Bizos enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he met Nelson Mandela. He studied for a Bachelor of Arts and then a law degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would later become part of Mandela\u2019s legal team during the Rivonia Trial and went on to represent families of murdered anti-apartheid activists during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1960s, the SAHETI Institute purchased a 72-acre farm in Senderwood, near Johannesburg, with the aim of building a Greek school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress was slow, and attempts to raise money for construction stalled. That changed in 1969 when Bizos became chairman. He took on the task of helping to get the school off the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAHETI School<\/a> officially opened in January 1974 with 114 students, 60 in nursery school and 54 in Grades 1 to 3. Fees ranged from R60 to R84 per term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing into one of the top private schools <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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George Bizos with late former president Nelson Mandela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The land was shared with the Greek Sporting Club, which encouraged families from nearby suburbs like Yeoville,  Berea, and Hillbrow to enrol their children. However, facilities were limited, with some classes were held outside under trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A notable effort was the auctioning of classroom naming rights, where donors\u2019 names were placed above classroom doors, where they remain today. A debutante ball in 1971 raised R10,000 for the building fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school did not immediately stand out academically or in sports, so it focused on cultural activities. National Greek holidays were major events, and drama played an important role in school life, often taking place in an outdoor amphitheatre because there was no school hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the beginning, Bizos insisted that the school not be restricted to Greek students only. He made it clear that the school should welcome all backgrounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one key moment, he asked the prospective headmaster if he would enrol his own children at the school. The answer was yes, which helped set the tone for SAHETI\u2019s inclusive approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1996, two years after South Africa\u2019s democratic elections, Nelson Mandela visited the school, which left a strong impression on the school community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, SAHETI continued to grow. While it maintained its Hellenic roots, it also became more diverse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, students from over 26 cultural backgrounds attend the school. It now has around 1,300 pupils and is widely recognised for academic achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, SAHETI School was named the top-performing private school in the country based on IEB Matric Examination results. The school achieved a 100% pass rate with a total of 286 distinctions, averaging 4.5 per student. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every matric student earned at least one distinction. Of these, 25 were A+ grades, and five subjects had 100% scores. Sixty-three of the distinctions were ranked in the top 1% nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizos died of natural causes at home on 9 September 2020 at the age of 92. He was given a special state funeral on 17 September and was buried at Westpark Cemetery next to his wife Rita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SAHETI School<\/h2>\n\n\n
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George Bizos addressing the students of SAHETI School. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Greek-South African human rights lawyer George Bizos is the man behind one of South Africa\u2019s top-performing private schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":833314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[21468,853],"class_list":["post-832955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-saheti-school","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832955"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833412,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832955\/revisions\/833412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}