Throwback Thursday: Letaba Show – Where it all began
The first Letaba Show was held in 1952 after a group of young farmers from the Letsitele Valley had attended the Nelspruit show and believed that Tzaneen could have its own version.
Over 2000 people attended the inaugural event. The following year, in 1953, the organisation had improved somewhat and each section split into a number of classes.
There were 63 classes for cattle and 20 for horses. Over the next couple of years, the show went from strength to strength but the cattle contingent was not enough to support the show and so it went into decline. However, the Letaba District Farmers Union came to the rescue in 1960 and from then onward, the show was organised by this union.
Read: Throwback Thursday: Tragedies, beserk bees and whirly-gigs
On the 11th of March 1960, the Letaba District Farmers Union made 100 pounds available to help with the problems that the showgrounds were facing.
The success of the show thereon in was a communal effort between the Women’s Farmers Union and the Letaba District Farmers Union. In 1960, the financial situation that the show was in was so bad that they could not afford chairs.
An invite in that year requested that all show attendees brought their own chairs and further to this, a 10 pound donation was asked of individuals and companies.
The show was properly reinstated in 1965/66. In 1969, the show saw a net profit of R 2504. 00 and in 1973 a portion of the grounds was bought for R 6000 in order for the new road to Phalaborwa to be built. At this time, Gary Player was a regular exhibitor with his Quarter Horses. In 1989 the show had just 63 exhibitors but by 1993, this had grown to 241 exhibitors.
Read: Throwback Thursday – Danie Joubert
The cattle kraals were built in 1968 and Amanda Vorster (then Theunissen) was made a permanent employee as the caretaker and grounds manager in 1988.
She was integral in spearheading many building projects, including the building of Hall B in 1990 at a cost of R 250,000 and upgrading the power supply in 1993 as well as building the reception area.
