Witbank

Okay, let me tell...

Let's start about Witbank, Mpumalanga.

Mpumalanga, it was work.

So I've worked 15 years of, of my life in mining industry before starting my own mining company.

Uh, with Shield.

So I, let me tell you from how it started.

So I went to Witbank.

I worked there for 15 years.

It's, those, those situations are there to equip you with the tools you need when you ha- when you have that same kind of thing happen to you again.

Um, so I had an engine failure, um, in a, in a, in an aircraft on my way to Witbank.

Um, and I, um, managed to, uh, land the airplane and, and, and managed to get myself and my brother out of the airplane eventually.

Um- Which, which was a great success.

Mm, yeah

... okay, look, this is important enough for me to drive to Witbank.

I've actually thought of one for myself that I've once done in my life.

Mm.

As a runner, we will-

Mm

... drive to the N4 to Witbank to go run 10 kilometers or 21 or 42-

[laughs]

Hallelujah.

So firstly, I want to say to you as a church and as a family here in Witbank, that God has indeed put his favor upon us.

Yes.

And he has indeed favored us and prospered us to, to bring us to this place of rebuilding.

And where did you grow up in South Africa?

Uh, in Witbank.

Okay.

And, and then lastly in Rustenburg, and that's where we met.

And it all had to come from somewhere.

And as soon as South Africa discovered enough coal for its needs, the source of coal was, of course, mainly Witbank and places like that.

And initially, that coal was railed to Cape Town and to Old Port Elizabeth and so on.

But there was a shortage of coal at the Cape, and they had an inquiry, and they not quite like the Madlanga Commission today, but it was an inquiry into why is it that there's this coal shortage at the Cape? And they determined, and it probably didn't need rocket science to determine it, but they determined that it was because of a clogged railway system.

And so the commission recommended that coal be brought from Lorenzo Marks, or Maputo as it's now called, to Cape Ports in ships.

And it was railed down from Witbank to Lorenzo Marks and loaded onto the ships that brought the coal down to Cape Town and to Port Elizabeth and East London.

And some coal even went to Welfers Bay.

And this was done by the so-called SAR ships that were the railway-owned ships.