South African anecdote
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 2:18 pm
People often ask me to tell stories about South Africa, so here’s one I’ve not told before.
One time I spent a long weekend with relatives in the Overberg region. They had a nice piece of land with horses, cattle, cats, and 4 dogs. Staff were needed to help run everything and by law you, must employ non-Whites.
There were 2 Cape Coloured ladies who ran the household and 2 bantu men who ran everything outside: they tended the huge garden and the fields, looked after the animals and so on.
Many times the 2 men were too afraid to go home and would sleep in the stables with the horses. This was usually the case when they were being intimidated by other blacks who lived around them. They’d be threatened if they wanted to go to work when a riot or strike was planned. There was an older guy, Msibise, and a young guy aged around 20, Alison. I have no idea why he had a girl’s name. Both were HIV positive (I know! I’m just telling you the facts).
At one stage there was a 3rd bantu guy in his late 70’s who was virtually blind. He couldn’t read or write and had no ID documents so was unable to claim state assistance. Msibise had asked whether he could be accommodated, because he would surely die otherwise. His primary task consisted of searching for the hamster belonging to the family’s 5 year old. The kid would “let it play” in the garden and it would invariably go missing. The old guy could often be seen on his hands and knees doing a kind of blind fingertip search. It would take him all day to find it and that would be the end of another day’s work for him.
I arrived on the Friday and the staff were still there working. I heard raucous laughter coming from the kitchen so went to see what was going on. Johanna (one of the Coloured ladies) pointed out of the window at a curious site.
The 4 dogs were charging through the garden at breakneck speed and Alison was running behind them shouting fearfully as if he was being chased. You could see the whites (or yellows) of his eyes. His arms were outstretched in front of him, parallel with the ground. The way you expect zombies to run.
It was a strange site and we had no idea where they were running to or why. Johanna said she thought maybe they were being chased by a snake.
About 20 minutes later we saw Alison walking back cautiously. Johanna called him over “Hey boy! What were you running away from like a scaredy cat?” she enquired.
“Er, well. I saw the dogs running away from something and thought I’d better run too to be safe, just in case it wanted to get me too” he said. More raucous laughter from the ladies.
Alison died a couple of years later from Aids, aged 23.
One time I spent a long weekend with relatives in the Overberg region. They had a nice piece of land with horses, cattle, cats, and 4 dogs. Staff were needed to help run everything and by law you, must employ non-Whites.
There were 2 Cape Coloured ladies who ran the household and 2 bantu men who ran everything outside: they tended the huge garden and the fields, looked after the animals and so on.
Many times the 2 men were too afraid to go home and would sleep in the stables with the horses. This was usually the case when they were being intimidated by other blacks who lived around them. They’d be threatened if they wanted to go to work when a riot or strike was planned. There was an older guy, Msibise, and a young guy aged around 20, Alison. I have no idea why he had a girl’s name. Both were HIV positive (I know! I’m just telling you the facts).
At one stage there was a 3rd bantu guy in his late 70’s who was virtually blind. He couldn’t read or write and had no ID documents so was unable to claim state assistance. Msibise had asked whether he could be accommodated, because he would surely die otherwise. His primary task consisted of searching for the hamster belonging to the family’s 5 year old. The kid would “let it play” in the garden and it would invariably go missing. The old guy could often be seen on his hands and knees doing a kind of blind fingertip search. It would take him all day to find it and that would be the end of another day’s work for him.
I arrived on the Friday and the staff were still there working. I heard raucous laughter coming from the kitchen so went to see what was going on. Johanna (one of the Coloured ladies) pointed out of the window at a curious site.
The 4 dogs were charging through the garden at breakneck speed and Alison was running behind them shouting fearfully as if he was being chased. You could see the whites (or yellows) of his eyes. His arms were outstretched in front of him, parallel with the ground. The way you expect zombies to run.
It was a strange site and we had no idea where they were running to or why. Johanna said she thought maybe they were being chased by a snake.
About 20 minutes later we saw Alison walking back cautiously. Johanna called him over “Hey boy! What were you running away from like a scaredy cat?” she enquired.
“Er, well. I saw the dogs running away from something and thought I’d better run too to be safe, just in case it wanted to get me too” he said. More raucous laughter from the ladies.
Alison died a couple of years later from Aids, aged 23.
