Elsje Becker is a strong, gutsy woman. How could she be anything else after raising a troop of four lively lads, each one an even bigger (self-confessed) petrolhead than the next? This grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of one is a woman who perserveres, endures, holds her own and, above all, holds everything together (but she rarely holds her tongue...) It's no wonder that today, on the eve of her 90th birthday, she is still capable of doing a hundred squats every day.
Her husband, Joop, also a proud and upright man who spent many years working as an electrical engineer for the former Iscor, today reads aloud his memories of the 1957 Fiat Nuova 500 in their garage in detail and with great gusto. Joop turns 90 in October.
The Beckers are two remarkable, with-it people who celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on 28 March 2024.
One photo hanging on their living room wall shows Mom and Dad with three boys sporting impish dimples. Today, they are all successful in their own right. Hennie, the eldest, is an electrical engineer who retired to Nuwerus and lends support to his minister wife; Gert, a mechanical engineer, is the founder and CEO of Saspine, a Pretoria-based company that manufactures implants for spinal surgery; and Jopie is an architect who also works in property development. The youngest and a latecomer to the family, Johan, also an architect, hadn't yet been born when the photo was taken.
THE BOYS CERTAINLY WERE a handful. Joop explains: "As a young married couple, we lived at 24 Park Avenue (today Emily Hobhouse Avenue) in Pretoria North, directly opposite Pretoria North High School, from 1964 to 1970. Hennie was six years old in 1967 and Gert was five."
Joop was eager to build a go-cart for his sons, for which he acquired an old JAP 2-horsepower engine from his brother. The go-cart had to be pushed to get it started, and when he was at work, Elsje was the one who had to do all the pushing.
Denne historien er fra Winter 2024-utgaven av go! Platteland.
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Denne historien er fra Winter 2024-utgaven av go! Platteland.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...
Make magic with winter's abundance
This winter menu is our invitation to look beyond the bewildered herb garden, move out of your comfort zone and bake a loaf of bread, appreciate the beauty of a head of cabbage, and invite the rain gods to the table to feast with you on venison pie, pudding and cake.
It takes a family
Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.
For the love of birds...
They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an \"avian tourist\" with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.
To the babbling brooks of Sabie
Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.
Creativity & community in Dinokeng
The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it's all about and came away impressed.
Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.
To die for
How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.
1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!
When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn't handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles - all without leaving the plot.
SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts
Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn't always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.
