Throwback Thursday: Tragedies, beserk bees and whirly-gigs

Of the eight pages of editorial space in the July 17, 1959 edition of The Impala newspaper, no less than five were dedicated to the passing of the late Daniel Johannes Malan Joubert “Danie”. The rest of the publication detailed ‘news’ which in today’s modern day seem trivial and of little concern.

The extent to which Danie Joubert’s passing was covered in the publication is testament to the impact that he had on the town and the loss the town suffered after his death.

The editorial piece was titled ‘Letaba’s Worst Tragedy’ and outlined how Joubert and his friend, Jack Duffus, met their untimely death on July 9, 1959. Thereafter, obituaries of the two late men filled the newspaper. A group from Tzaneen had been camping on Inhaca island when a party of four, consisting of Danie Joubert, Pat Albertyn, Hennie Schoeman and Jack Duffus decided to go fishing and took-off in a ski boat. Despite the sea being reportedly calm at the time, a freak incident caused the front end of the boat to lift and all four occupants were thrown into the water.

Joubert could not swim and so the others set to keep his head above water. Their attempts were in vain and they could not prevent his drowning.

Read: Throwback Thursday – Danie Joubert

In the mean time, Duffus, as a strong swimmer, had reportedly set our for a nearby island to seek help. He had reached a sand bank close to the island he was heading for but what happened to him after that, nobody knows. He had to cross another channel to get to the island and was either swept away by the current or died of exhaustion.

Albertyn and Schoeman were washed onto a sand bank and from there were able to shout out for help and were heard by people on the island.

The joint funeral held for Joubert and Duffus was one of the biggest funerals held in Tzaneen at that time. The NG Church Tzaneen was so full, mourners crammed into the church and even sat on the floor and on the church steps outside to pay their last respects.

Joubert was renowned as a brilliant criminal law and water rights attorney, and elected town mayor twice, from 1936 to 1940 and again from 1949 to 1950.

The rest of the newspaper publication followed with a much lighter note and included how a Mrs Maritz had killed a snake in her kitchen with a milk can after she found her Siamese cat playing with the venomous Rinkhals.

Read: Throwback Thursday: The Impala Newspaper 1968

Another article detailed the incident of a hive of bees belonging to a Mr Hodgkinson that went, “beserk and attacked a young sow and her piglet.” The newsflash of July 17, 1959 concluded that six of the piglets passed away in the ordeal and Mr Hodgkinson had to raise the other four piglets by hand as the sow had lost her milk following the trauma.

Another person wrote in to the newspaper to express their upset over the changing of the times, “Today one hears the wireless sets and Juke boxes roaring to the passers by. The strain of modern Jive music, so much so that one feels like going in and turning the set off. But time and progress heeds no man.”

The anonymous person who signed off their letter simply as ‘Dreamer’ looked back with nostalgia to a time when he/she was invited to listen to the first wireless set that was brought into Tzaneen.
Belonging to the station master, the set was temperamental to say the least and a small cough given by ‘Dreamer’, “chased the station off the air, and for nearly ten minutes my host battled with little whirly-gigs and wires.”