By Cllr Andre Beetge
Born on 7 March 1940 in the Harrismith district as the youngest of five children to an English father, who arrived in Harrismith from the Cape in his ox wagon as a direct descendant of the 1820 British Settlers, and an Afrikaans mother, Johannes Jacobus Pretorius Brunsdon was affectionately called ‘Sonny’, a name that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
The young Sonny became his father’s shadow, not only learning to speak isiSotho fluently, but also receiving his first pipe at age three. Come school-going age and irrespective of an application to the primary school principal, he was refused smoking privileges and forced to cast the pipe aside.
He met and married Ina Whiteman from the Dundee district on 25 May 1963 and fathered two sons, Alfred Richard (named after Sonny’s father) in 1964, followed 18 months later by James Stephen.
During his time in Dundee he met lifelong friend and young state veterinarian by the name of Brendan Lloyd, who upon recommendation from Sonny and following his return from Belgium, settled in Toti where he remains practicing to date.
Following the death of his father, Sonny and family relocated back to Harrismith where he farmed sheep alongside his brother for nine years, during which time he also qualifying and received accolade as a wool classer.
But two Brunsdons on one farm was one to many, so a decision was made which led Sonny and family to the shores of the South Coast in August 1978.
Sonny’s first intention was to buy a bottle store in Southbroom, but following on Ina’s sound advice, they settled in Toti where he bought the Doonside butchery in Main Road.
Alfred and Stephen attended Kuswag Skool where they were respectively selected as deputy head boy and head boy. They fondly recall Sonny making a point of attending all their sporting events always armed with his trademark cooler box, lest he be subjected to dehydration.
The business soon expanded to four butcheries with outlets at Illovo, Scottburgh and Westville with the boys eagerly pitching in during the weekends and school holidays – all of which were sold in 1984, whereafter he ventured into the building trade and opened Warner Beach Builders Supplies on the corner of Almond Road and Kingsway. He continued to trade until he became sick and sold the business in 1989.
Following employment at operations such as Castle Distributors and having sufficiently recovered from an inherited lung disease, he opened All Plumb in Winklespruit opposite the Kingsburgh Centre which he operated until ‘retirement’.
It was, however in 1981 that the ratepayers association approached Sonny to stand as an independent candidate in the then-Kingsburgh Municipality and although he lost his first election by a mere one vote, he was soon elected during a by-election which signalled the start of a 30-year political career serving the larger Toti community as councillor.
During this period he was also elected deputy mayor for the 1993/4 term, following which he occupied a seat in the South Operational Entity prior to its incorporation into eThekwini.
He founded the local Democratic Alliance branch in 1997 and held office as a Democratic Alliance councillor for two consecutive terms until his retirement from politics in 2011.
Not one to wait for things to happen, but rather making it happen, Sonny was one of the founding members of Hospice and the Branderkruin Sakekamer (Durban South Business Forum), and an associate member of the Transvaal Scottish. He served on the Mooi Hawens committee, Kingsburgh Lions, Kuswag governing body, Kajuitraad, Winklespruit Bowling Club – to name but a few – and was actively involved in the development of the Impala Park retirement village where he continued to reside for 21 years.
His great passion was undoubtedly bowling where he not only served as president of Winklespruit Bowling Club, but played a leading role in the relocation and re-branding of the club to its current location in Gus Brown Road, Warner Beach. His contributions towards erecting the buildings and taking ownership was acknowledged in 2012, when the green was named after him in a ceremony led by eThekwini Speaker, Cllr Logie Naidoo.
But there was also a very private side to Sonny and while life to the outside world appeared to go on as normal after his retirement from politics, an inner circle was aware that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, resulting in first the removal of a kidney in 2011, followed by various operations and treatment until the battle was eventually lost on the evening of Thursday, 4 June in Kingsway Hospital. Sonny is survived by his wife of 52 years, Ina, sons Alfie and Stephen, their wives and six grandchildren.
