{"id":843232,"date":"2025-11-22T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=843232"},"modified":"2025-11-21T15:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:55:28","slug":"the-177-year-old-private-school-in-south-africa-that-new-york-citys-new-mayor-attended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/843232\/the-177-year-old-private-school-in-south-africa-that-new-york-citys-new-mayor-attended\/","title":{"rendered":"The 177-year-old private school in South Africa that New York City’s new mayor attended"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spent years of his childhood in South Africa, attending\u00a0St George’s Grammar School in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamdani, a relative newcomer in the political space, recently won the New York mayoral race as a democratic nominee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite facing fierce competition from former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani won the latest election in a landslide, gaining more votes than all the other candidates combined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamdani is a socialist immigrant whose upbringing in parts of South Africa shaped his views.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1992, and is the only child of the acclaimed director Mira Nair and the renowned academic Mahmood Mamdani. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His parents met when Nair was conducting research on Indian-origin Ugandans who moved to America for her film Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamdani then moved to Cape Town in 1996 when his father took a role at the University of Cape Town as the director of the Centre for African Studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in South Africa, Mamdani attended St George’s Grammar School in Mowbray, one of the oldest schools in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he was only at the school for a couple of years, it clearly had a lasting impact on him, as evidenced by his recent interviews, in which he still mentions it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With two parents who were heavily involved in social justice, Mamdan said that his upbringing in post-apartheid South Africa heavily affected his own views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mamdani family then moved to New York City in the late 1990s as the father got a job at Columbia University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would graduate from the Bronx High School of Science and receive a bachelor\u2019s degree with a major in Africana studies from Bowdoin College in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then worked as a housing counsellor, a rapper and as a campaign manager for other political campaigns in the New York area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, he joined the New York State Assembly after defeating a five-term incumbent in the Democratic primaries – the first taste of his ability to defeat the politically established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He represented Astoria, Queens and was reelected without opposition in 2022 and 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He announced his plan to run for Mayor in 2024, running on a pro-poor campaign, which included rent freezes, a millionaire tax, universal childcare and free buses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He defeated Cuomo in both the democratic primary and the mayoral vote (Cuomo ran as an independent candidate). He will take office on 1 January 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His sudden rise has drawn international attention, with many hailing him as a success for rallying disenfranchised youth, while others have called him a radical communist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Zohran Mamdani (Source: Bloomberg)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Returning to his youth, Mamdani spent some of his formative years at St George’s Grammar School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school was founded by Bishop Robert Gray in April 1848 on the grounds of the current St George\u2019s Cathedral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes the school the oldest independent school in Southern Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school underwent significant changes, with the first children of colour only admitted in 1978.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, another significant change occurred with the addition of girls to this previously boys-only establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proximity of the Cathedral in the early days meant that pupils could not only worship at the Cathedral but also be part of its choir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lack of space led to the purchase of the main house on the Bloemendal Estate, which provided the school with its own sports fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school\u2019s move to its present campus was gradual, and, in 1979, the school ceased to function in the double-storey building situated adjacent to St George\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school, currently located at its Mowbray campus, offers schooling for pupils from Pre-R to Grade 12. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school is situated on a single campus, with separate buildings for the High School and Preparatory School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are shared facilities such as school halls, a library and sports fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school strives to create a safe environment for its students while providing a strong foundation for learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school\u2019s computer labs and library are spaces that help its pupils to learn beyond the confines of a classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school offers a large number of extracurricular activities, including drama, a acapella, debating, contemporary dance,  a green committee, coding, chess and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school also has a host of sports offerings, including cricket, soccer, table tennis, swimming, badminton, chess, netball, athletics, tennis and many other sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St Georges’ Images<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Source: Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani spent some of his early years in Cape Town, and attended St George’s Grammar School. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":843245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[24120,24122],"class_list":["post-843232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-mamdani","tag-st-georges-grammar-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843232","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843232"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844167,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843232\/revisions\/844167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}