Welkom

Hi, Mandy, and thanks for the invitation.

Severe thunderstorms are definitely expected over the northwest into the northern parts of the Northern Cape, as well may have cover the northwestern parts of the Free State just around Welkom.

But there is still a watch for severe thunderstorms for the central and the southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal.

But if you'll be over the southern parts of the Northern Cape into the northeastern parts of the Western Cape, just expect some damaging winds.

You, um, you had an ice box that you, um, put in the night before so it was frozen solid, and you had a battery on, and a belt, and a helmet, and a light.

And I was working in a g- in a mine called the President Stayn Gold Mine in Welkom.

And it's a gold mine, it's like one of the deepest gold mines.

So when you went down, you went down several different layers in the cage.

But we're gonna get to the footage and stuff like, uh, of that a little bit later.

But born in Welkom in the Free State.

Was it, uh, 15 September of-

1962

So your dad, like he worked on the mines, is that right?

My dad was electrician on the mines, yes.

And we were, we stayed in Welkom.

I can't remember because I was just born, but it's probably about two years that we stayed in Welkom b- before we moved.

There are also more violent groups moving into other types of organized crimes.

In the Free State, for instance, around Valcom, which is an old mining area, you would have illegal miners being implicated in stock theft, for instance.

and other types of crimes around there.

There's also, in some illegal mining, really major increases in sexual violence and in assaults, those sorts of crimes.

And it's an enormous challenge.

I don't know how we resolve something like the illegal mining challenge that we have.

I mean, this is a crisis that has been building up for 20 years, from as early illegal miners going into shafts in Valcom and then spreading out from there elsewhere in the country.

And it's a sign of the desperation in South Africa, but also more broadly in the region, the economic state of the region of South Africa, the levels of poverty, and the riches that are still to be found in some of those abandoned mines.

So they created a thing called the South African Housing Trust.

And we partnered with a big building contractor to become one of the major housing developers there, building houses in places as divergent as Kimberley or Valcom, Wetbank, Middleburg, Cecilburg, and so on.

So we had a, really great time then

yeah it's interesting you know with the apartheid government the whole narrative is that you know black lives didn't matter and and black people were not looked after which was the apartheid narrative but this is different african life homes i mean this initiative by you guys quite something it really is how was that received in the time though you you've you've kind of hinted that the government did support it but was it well received

I think a lot of builders had suddenly realized that that was where the work was, even if that's not where the profits were.

We found that we were building schools on 3% margins, which was a huge amount of work for very little return.

And then, because we were building in places as divergent as, as I said, Kimberley and Valcom, I was flying quite a lot in light aircraft to those places.

And then I had a very serious accident flying into Valcom.

I learned from a Business Day article from Dennis Dropper, who's the group motoring editor for the Times Business Group, or at least publishing group.

MotoGP was last year at a track in Valcom in 2004.

So it's a big moment.

There's also been mooted plans to make a street circuit in Cape Town, similar to what eSports, what is it called? Formula E, I don't know.