General Meetings are normally scheduled for the third Wednesday of
every odd-numbered month, excluding January. The dates for 2025 are:
19 March (AGM), 21 May, 23 July*, 17 September, 19 November.
* The third Wednesday of July, the 16th, falls during school holidays. The July meeting has therefore been scheduled for the following week.
We are very grateful to Howick High School for making their
facilities available to us as the regular venue for our General
Meetings. Please note that our General Meetings start promptly at
15:00 (3:00 PM) and you should arrive as soon after
14:30 as possible (not before) for registration / checking in.
Members, please remember to wear your name tags.
The next General Meeting of U3A Howick will be the
This meeting will be held in the usual venue, the Team Teaching Room at Howick High School.*
The Guest Speaker will be
In this talk, Yvonne will highlight pivotal incidents that prompted
her actions against apartheid before 1994, and then as a children's
rights and HIV/AIDS activist in democratic South Africa.
Yvonne's recently self-published memoir The Time of My Life
uses the timelines in Shakespeare's soliloquy on The Seven Ages of
Man [sic] to bring chronological order to her writing,
and she will relate interesting accounts from each of the seven "Acts"
of her own life-story.
Philippe Denis, Professor Emeritus in History of Christianity at UKZN,
commented on her book: "What I found most interesting is your memories
of apartheid. I found striking the sudden shift from the relatively
ordinary life of a young white South African woman in the commercial
world to the life of an activist."
Yvonne Spain has had a varied life and career, starting as a PA,
followed by positions in retail groups, then with social and political
organisations in Pietermaritzburg. She served as an Independent on the
Pietermaritzburg City Council for five years, and spent ten years with
the Children in Distress network (CINDI, an HIV/AIDS NPO), the last
four as Director. In her “retirement” Yvonne is still involved in
part-time administrative work with various charitable organisations.
(Photo: The Witness)
* DIRECTIONS: Turn into Amber Avenue from Main Street at the traffic lights near Greendale Spar. Pass the main entrance gate to Howick High School on the right. Drive into the school grounds through the Jubilee Gate entrance (by the tennis courts, further down Amber Avenue). You can park in the available parking areas or on the open ground under the trees immediately on the right. Walk up the ramp on the side of the main school building and enter an open corridor on your left. The Team Teaching Room is on the right a few metres along. Look out for the “U3A” signs.
The Guest Speakers at our previous General Meeting in 2025 were:
19 March (AGM): Jon Rash - Antarctica, a Window into Space
21 May: Elwyn Jenkins - Changing Place Names in South Africa
The Guest Speakers at our future General Meetings in 2025 will be:
17 September: Robin Davis (topic to be announced)
19 November: Shannon Hoffman on Bearded Vultures
Watch this space...
