Margot Long was appointed as the inaugural Executive Director of OISESA from 1 May 2022. An educator of global standing, Margot held the position Deputy Head – Academics & Staff Learning at St John’s Preparatory School for 17 years. In addition to leading the academic and staff professional learning programmes at St John’s, Margot headed up the Teacher-Intern Development Programme.
From 2007 until 2020, Margot also worked as a Research Advisor and then the Programme Co-Ordinator for the International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) Global Action Research Programme. This international schools’ coalition, comprised of approximately 300 schools in 28 countries, bestowed on Margot one of its highest recognitions for her service – the Hawley Jarvis Award. Due to her excellent stewardship of this programme, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) turned to her to help establish their Global Action Research Programme (GARC).
Margot has taught in both primary and high schools, as well as at the tertiary level. She headed up the English Department at The Hill High School and at Queens High School, Johannesburg and then taught English and Social Sciences at St Katherine’s School, Johannesburg. She has also worked as an author and editor at Macmillan South Africa and at Wits University Press. An English, French, German, and Italian graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Languages, amongst other qualifications, Margot obtained her Higher Diploma in Education from the University of South Africa. She has also participated in courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Education – Making Thinking Visible and The Future of Learning. More recently, she completed a course in Mentorship at Northwest University.
Confidence Dikgole has worked extensively in the education sector for 34 years. She began her career as a teacher in Mafikeng, North West province. She then worked at UMALUSI for 14 years where her role entailed quality assurance of the matric examinations and assessments.
Confidence joined ISASA (Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa) in 2015 where she held the position of Director: Policy & Government Relations. Her focus at ISASA entailed advocacy and mediation on all education-related policy issues with various government departments and other relevant stakeholders such as the ETDP SETA, the South African Council of Educators (SACE), UMALUSI, and the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT). She was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) in January 2023.
Confidence holds an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction – Leadership, (Concordia University, Portland – Oregon USA); a BEd (Hons) in Assessment & Quality Assurance (University of Pretoria); an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) in Assessment and Quality Assurance (University of Pretoria) and a Diploma in Education (Arts) – DipEd (A) (University of North West – Mafikeng).
Confidence has presented papers at local, national, and international conferences. She currently serves on various Boards and Committees across South Africa.
Helen was born in Zambia, raised in Johannesburg, attended high school at St Mary’s DSG in Pretoria and obtained a BA degree in Psychology and English at UCT in 1976. She studied a post graduate programme in Human Resource Management and has focused her long-standing interest in labour law by attending ongoing training with specialist labour law firms.
She has run her own HR consultancy for more than thirty years, with the majority of her clients being in the non-profit and development sectors as well as in the independent schools’ arena. In addition to the broad ambit of labour law, she has worked extensively in performance management in schools. She has occupied various roles in school governance and continues to consult to independent schools.
She has been married to Alban for 37 years and has two wonderful sons, one of whom is an educator and the other who works in the fourth-generation family business.
Lebogang Montjane grew up in Johannesburg but completed his schooling in New York. He read for a BA in Government and History at Connecticut College and was then awarded an MA in Comparative Education from Teachers College, Colombia University.
On his return to South Africa, Lebogang read for a law degree at Wits University and was admitted as an attorney by the High Court of South Africa. Following articles at Bowman Gilfillan Inc, Lebogang was retained as an Associate at the firm. He has also worked as a Director of Business Leadership South Africa.
Tshepo Motsepe is Director of Legal, Policy and Government Relations at ISASA. Prior to that he worked at the Zenex Foundation as a Programme Manager responsible for Initial Teacher Education.
Tshepo was also National Head of Equal Education from July 2015 – April 2018. Before taking over at the helm of Equal Education, he led and established the organisation in Gauteng between 2013 – 2015. Since its founding, Equal Education has become renowned for its advocacy for quality and equality in South African education.
Tshepo qualified at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he obtained a BEd (Hons) and an MEd. Once he obtained his teaching qualification, Tshepo also taught at Highlands North Boys’ High School and Ferndale High School.
Mike Thiel has committed his teaching career of over thirty years to finding innovative solutions to the education inequalities that are at the core of South Africa’s economic challenges.
Preferring to stay at the ‘chalk board’ and test methods that can be scaled in time, he graduated from the University of Cape Town, has taught in four provinces (Western Cape, Northern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng) and been Headmaster of four independent schools since 1997 – St Patrick’s CBC Kimberley, Clifton College Durban, Dominican Convent School and St David’s Marist Inanda in Johannesburg. Each has offered different opportunities with CBC being co-educational, Clifton being a new high school starting with just grade 8, Dominican an inner-city school of 900 children with 300 orphans and vulnerable children and most recently the opening of the Alexandra Campus as a satellite of St David’s to provide greater access to excellence across two campuses.
In this work, Mike has found greatest satisfaction in building relationships and supporting the growth of so many talented teachers he has had the honour of working with and mentoring. It is this belief that we have the most exceptional pool of hard-working educationalists to develop a generation of young people eager to bring the richness of their diversity to building their country that keeps Mike motivated. The opportunity to bring his experiences to the work of OISESA is an exciting one, knowing how important it is to constantly ensure that our schools are doing the best we can for our richest resource – the children of Southern Africa. Mike is the SAHISA representative on the board.
Mike is married with four children, and in rare free moments loves visits to the bush and the beach and is an avid reader across a range of topics.
Juliana Dreyer completed her schooling in the Cape. She initially worked in the accounts department of two different companies before joining Western Province Preparatory School. While working, she pursued further education and graduated from the University of the Western Cape in 2014 with an Advanced Diploma in Management. She also completed additional courses, including the Leadership Development Program (LDP) at WITS.
In 2001, Juliana began her tenure at Western Province Preparatory School as an assistant to the Business Manager. She was promoted to Business Manager in 2011, a position she has held since then.
Juliana has been actively involved with the Southern African Bursars of Independent Schools Association (SABISA). She served as the chairperson for the SABISA South-West Region from 2019 to 2021 and as the SABISA National Chairperson from 2022 to 2024.
She is married to Reverend Aleric Dreyer and has three adult sons and a grandson.
Daniel Pretorius is a partner at Bowmans, practising in the public law and regulatory areas, with a special focus on education. He has served on the governing bodies of St John’s College, Holy Family College, and St Martin de Porres School.
From 2013 until 2018, he took a sabbatical from law to teach History and Latin at St John’s College.
He is a member of the boards of St Augustine College of South Africa, the Alexandra Education Committee, and the Realema Teacher Internship Trust.
William Bester has dedicated the past 30 years to the field of education. His passion for educating children through the principles of Waldorf Education was cultivated during his formative years as a student at Michael Mount Waldorf School. Following his tenure as a Waldorf class teacher, William was appointed Headmaster of Michael Mount Waldorf School, a position he has held for the past 23 years.
In 2002, William was appointed as a Council Member of the Southern African Federation of Waldorf Schools and was later appointed as a Director. In 2023, he assumed the dual role of Headmaster of Michael Mount Waldorf School and National Coordinator of the Southern African Federation of Waldorf Schools. His responsibilities include advocacy, government liaison work within the broader education sector, and support to 16 Waldorf Schools.
William’s passion for education led him to establish a post-matric graduate programme, Adventure Leadership (2017-2019), which focused on life’s adventures, finding purpose, expressing interests, and developing innovative and entrepreneurial skills.
The Waldorf International Forum, also known as The Hague Circle, invited William to join as a representative of Southern Africa. He joined a group of 45 representatives from around the world, attending two international meetings annually to review trends and pertinent issues facing education worldwide.
William is a long-standing member of the National Alliance of Independent Schools Associations (NAISA) and currently holds the position of Chair of NAISA. He has also served as a Councillor on the South African Council of Educators for the past 13 years.
