Crypto coins and pieces of eight

Crypto coins and pieces of eight

Will past and future money dance on the grave of the present?

Jerry Schuitema  |  24 June 2016 00:49

SWELLENDAM – My father was a gold miner. I spent some time underground as an onsetter; my younger brother worked at the Chamber of Mines, and my older brother, Berend, was a “shift-boss” for a number of years. Apart from sharing his mine-official internship with Roger Kebble, Berend in his blog, the Golden Threadhas captured some fascinating and valuable historical anecdotes of mining turbulence in the 60s and 70s. It was as if we were all drawn to gold exploration and mining; understanding and fascinated by its ancient allure in many things, but primarily in its then still unassailable position as the ultimate store of value and supremacy over paper money.

So it is with some bemusement that I have been following the mining of another unit of value – bitcoin. What? No headgear? No kilometres-deep shafts; no incline shafts, tunnels and ore-passes? No “ngolovans”, “hoppers”, “giraffes”, locos, skips and cages? No miners, rock-drillers, blasters, surveyors, riggers, and “skippies”? No man-made mountains of rock, slime dams and sinkholes? No surrounding towns, hostels, compounds and warrior-like camaraderie both underground and in dingy pubs and shebeens?

None of that stuff! You can create this unit of value by “simply” sitting at a computer and cracking a code. The inverted commas confirm the idiom that simple things are not always easy. It has become increasingly difficult, and demanding massive processing power. This is captured in an explanation on a leading crypto currency website, CoinDesk which says: “In traditional fiat money systems, governments simply print more money when they need to. But in bitcoin, money isn’t printed at all – it is discovered. Computers around the world ‘mine’ for coins by competing with each other”.

The term “mining for bitcoin” is therefore no co-incidence. Like gold, it has to be discovered and exploited through massive effort and resources: just in a very different form. In comparing the two as a unit of value and potential means of exchange, it invokes a computer game image of Blackbeard with a gold-plated sword doing battle with Darth Vader with a lightsaber.

So now we have three potential forms of money, each with their own element of fiction. If you strip gold of its ancient allure, its historic backing of paper currencies and its investment and adornment image, you could certainly posit the Keynes view that it is a “barbarous relic”. If you interrogate bitcoin’s mysterious and anonymous founding, creation structure and block chain security, you could equally have some qualms. But both do not come near the degree of fiction that permeates fiat currencies. Debt is a fiction. It is nothing more than a promise to pay sometime in an ever-delayed future – a very empty promise considering the increasing extent to which the gap between debt creation and the means to pay is beyond redemption.

As fellow columnist, Magnus Heystek has mooted, many believe it must perish. The only question is which will survive and will there indeed be a battle between Blackbeard and Vader over the corpse? Blackbeard seems to be stirring under tons of derivative froth, with some believing he may emerge as early as this year. And Vader’s saber light has grown brighter with mineable bitcoin reserves being halved.

Perhaps they won’t square off against each other. Perhaps they will join forces to replace the deceased. I understand Blackbeard pretty well, but I must confess that I am still a novice at understanding Vader.

I am of the generation that bridged the age of deprivation and the age of abundance. It was a bridge that by its very nature implied some fundamental shifts in socio-economic constructs. Few of those momentous shifts have been more profound than the rapid pace of technology. It’s a concern shared by many, albeit in no small number by those frustrated with the latest smart-phone – only to be disdainfully helped by a 12 year old. But there are many too who have deeper concerns – about losing their jobs to some machine; or having their academic achievements made redundant by apps and algorithms. It has even disturbed the vestiges of policy makers, economists and advisors, facing disruption of conventional metrics that either inform, or ill-inform their decisions.

In its most significant feature of all, we should not fear technology but rather the stifling of it. And that is in block-chain technology that is wielding a lightsaber into the parasitic fat which is smothering value-creation. The scalpel has three shapes:

• promising to restore integrity to the global means of exchange;
• spawning new companies with very different organisational structures than their typical equity-based counterparts and
• New methods of funding enterprise.

In the first, we may still be a long way from bitcoin or other crypto currencies becoming a real threat to fiat currencies, but even a casual follower of topical events will be aware that our debt-driven means of exchange is simply unsustainable. In that contest, crypto currencies have to firmly establish their integrity in facing an establishment onslaught. Despite the latest DAO hacking crisis, bitcoin itself is gradually overcoming suspicions around its mysterious formation and while it cannot be blamed for how villains use it, abuse will simply add weight to detractor arguments, especially from vested financial services.

The second – the growth of so-called “insurgent”, or “disruptor” company models holds even greater promise. They take us back to ancient principles of value creation which is that cell I spoke of in this Moneyweb article.

The third – that of crowd-funding is perhaps the most exciting of all. It is still very early days, but last year alone, it raised nearly $35 billion dollars, a near 6-fold increase in three years. It is challenging conventional equity markets and is certainly a threat to venture capital.

The three together are mutually supportive and represent a formidable force that give a whisper of a different, more equitable, more credible, and more values-driven tomorrow. Of course, they can fall (and have already fallen) prey to the same speculators, predators, mercenaries and villains that have savaged the global economy and whose actions encouraged the birth of these alternatives in the first place.

Their future depends on their integrity. That cannot be cemented and maintained by doing more of the same.

My Brother Jerry Schuitema

JERRY SCHUITEMA: Author, broadcaster, columnist, and designer of Contribution Accounting©.

Jerry Schuitema was born in Benoni on the 22nd of January, 1944 as Jurjen Antonius Franciscus Schuitema. He comes from gold mining stock with his father having spent most of his adult life underground in South African gold mines, and all of Jerry’s school years were lived in various mining camps, villages and towns. He worked for some months as an onsetter and two of his brothers worked in the industry. His elder brother, Berend Schuitema went into exile after a promising start to a gold mining career, to found the Anti-Apartheid movement in Holland.

Jerry matriculated at Milner High School, Klerksdorp in 1961. After his mining experience, he spent a year in Amsterdam to study, but limited funds forced him into a number of odd jobs before returning to South Africa in 1962. He completed his military call-up the following year. He studied Economics, Political Science and History at the University of South Africa dropping out in the final year to concentrate on his journalist career. He completed the Senior Management Development programme at the Oxford Centre for Management Studies in 1983. After a year of insurance underwriting, he joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation as a reporter in 1966. His reporting beats covered a wide field, but concentrated on Economic affairs. He went on to pioneer the establishment of the Economics Desk as a separate, specialist Reporting Unit within the SABC and became the SABC's first Economics Editor. In March 1990, he established South Africa's first Specialist Developmental Communications consultancy. Married to Kathleen Eveline in 1967. Widowed in 2004. Three children and seven grandchildren. Hobbies: Reading, and Do-it-yourself. Website:

http://www.jerryschuitema.co.za/ PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Designed and introduced most of the popular Economic slots on Radio and Television over two decades. These included:

 "Radio Today’s” Economics report.

 The lunch-time Radio Market Trends.

 "Indicator" reports on TV.

 The investment programme "Diagonal-Street" on TV1.

 The Employee Reporting Programmes: "Egoli\Gauteng" on TV 2 & 3.  The Business report on Breakfast TV.

 The economic Educational Programme: "Econovision”.

He has written on Economic subjects for popular and layman magazines and periodicals including: Reader's Digest; Rapport; Mining Sun; Retail World; Black Enterprise Magazine. Management Today; The Chartered Accountant; HR Management; Convergence; The Star (Workplace); People Dynamics; HRHighway.

He has authored 4 books. "Econosense” first published in 1990 simplified economic concepts for the layman but is now out of print. (Foreword by the former minister of Finance, the Hon Barend du Plessis reads: "The author needs little introduction .... as a polished communicator with a particular knack for simplifying complex economic issues.") “Value through Values” Published in 2007 examines values and ethics in business and economics and is more fully described below. “Empathy” and “Common Purpose; Common Fate” were published as e-books in 2015.

EXPERIENCE Mining (Onsetter); Insurance underwriter; Broadcasting and Economics journalism. Studied Management at Templeton College; Oxford University as part of the Rosholt Fellowship; and this included a fortnight sabbatical at Time Magazine, New York. Attended for coverage, many conferences including many annual conventions of leading Business and Labour representative organisations.

Attended 10 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Broadcasting career has ensured intense exposure to a wide variety of Economic and associated affairs, including financial, company, macro-economic, and labour issues. AWARDS:

 1979. Sanlam Financial Reporting prize in the TV category.

 1981. Sanlam Financial Reporting prize in the TV category;

 1982. First winner of the Rosholt Fellowship in Executive Journalism;

 1984. Sanlam Financial Reporting prize in the TV and Radio category;

 1988. F A K Prestige Prize for his contribution to Afrikaans Economic reporting;

 1988. SABC Management Artes Award for his contribution to enhancing Economic Awareness and promoting the concept of management accountability to employees in the public Media.

 1990. Consumer Council Certificate for contribution to consumer awareness. CITATIONS AND NOMINATIONS

 1976. Artes nomination: Coverage of the Swaziland Mineral Resource conference.

 1979. Artes nomination: South Africa and the IMF.

 1981. Artes nomination: 12 Months after the Carlton conference.

 1982. Artes nomination: Gold: its role as money.

 1987. Development Bank: Contribution to the enhancement of understanding of development issues.

 1988. Artes Nomination: The Labour Communication crisis.

 1990. Vanderbijlpark Afrikaanse Sakekamer. Contribution to Economic coverage in Afrikaans and coverage of AHI affairs.

 1990. Minister of finance, Mr Barend du Plessis. "My association with him in more than a decade as Economics broadcaster, has convinced me of his indefatigable missionary zeal in enhancing economic awareness." (Foreword: "Econosense”.) COMPANY MODELLING AND CONTRIBUTION ACCOUNTING©. The conviction that the narrow profit driven company model is self-destructing and still covertly expresses labour as an exploitable commodity led to the development of the Market driven, Contribution Accounting© model, based on the powerful CARE AND GROWTH principles which have become the hall-mark of Schuitema Associates of which he was the principal founder after a business rescue of his brother Etsko's fledgling leadership consultancy. Etsko, and a partner were the cofounders.

Together with the leadership work, and under Jerry Schuitema’s direction, Schuitema Associates was able to offer a comprehensive turnaround intervention based on growth as opposed to containment implied in conventional re-engineering. This work has been given much greater clarity and comprehensiveness under the new company Value through Values (Pty) Ltd and now in retirement as an independent counsellor.

EMPLOYEE REPORTING Jerry Schuitema has done extensive research into the concept of employee communication and contextual economic communication as a natural extension of his commitment to the enhancement of Economic awareness. He first became interested in the subject with the realisation some years ago, that public broadcasting had a limited role to play in improving understanding of economic issues, and that far more could be achieved with a structured, educational approach on the work floor. His l2-week study period at the then Oxford Centre for Management Studies (now named "Templeton College"), gave him the opportunity to examine techniques of Employee Reporting and their achievement in Britain and Europe. He worked closely with the Unisa "Project Free Enterprise" team, and his concept of Employee Reporting has received special mention in their 1989 report on employee misconceptions. He has also worked with the accounting profession, on content and presentation of relevant financial information for employee Accounting practices.

He has also had four articles on the subject published in "Accountancy SA”. He established the Employee Reporting programmes: Egoli\Gauteng on TV2\3 as a commitment to management’s public accountability to the employee, and these programmes were considered to be the first of their kind in a world where public accountability is assumed to be the sole domain of the shareholder. This pioneering effort has had highly favourable labour response and received a Special SABC Management Artes award. The core of the employee communications work has crystallised into a single, powerful focus on Wealth Creation and value driven market principles. This theme has gained momentum and is rapidly being adopted by other actors in the field.

His public appearances in this regard include numerous writings; seminars and speeches, including those under the auspices of the Free Market Foundation, The National Productivity Institute and the Public Relations Institute of South Africa. In 2003 he left Schuitema Associates to form the Value through Values group. In 2006 VtV (Pty) Ltd was taken over by Soul Circle (Pty) Ltd. His work has been applied at many South African companies such as South African Airways, Pick ‘n Pay, A.E.L., Tredcor, Sentrachem, Sasol, S.A.B., Momentum Life, Firstrand Group, Absa, NCP and small enterprises such as Empire Dairies and Midrand Panelbeaters.

THE PHILOSOPHY The book, “Value through Values” examines the impact of value driven economic behaviour over a very broad front from individual success and contentment to country and company performance. The treatise shows the extent to which a change in behaviour could effect virtually all aspects of a collective, casting a new light on key issues such as ethics, governance, transparency, employee commitment, fortune sharing, accounting practices, investment, and sustainability. In his foreword to the work, Pick ‘n Pay chairman Raymond Ackerman says: “It really is a treatise on ‘Corporate Governance’, but Corporate Governance voluntarily implemented by Business Leaders to create a successful Company, a successful Economy and a vibrant country. It is a practical formula which just needs to have passion, clarity, and the heart to pursue it to the ultimate, thereby fulfilling the aims and objectives of the Company and its employees. “I commend Jerry for putting this book together in such a meticulous and meaningful way. He has played a leading role in Business, and I think this pioneering work of his is not only timely, but deserves to be read and studied by Business Leaders and students in the years ahead”.

Other endorsements said: "The one thing which stands out above all others during the couple decades I've known Jerry is the way he has inspired many of us to think deeply about ethics and values. And how we can use them to make a contribution in business and our daily lives. This manuscript will help his carefully considered ideas reach a wider audience. Jerry is usually ahead of the game. With this book, though, his timing is impeccable. Bravo." Alec Hogg. Founder and Editor in Chief: Moneyweb Business News. "It is a well written testament to Jerry’s humanity. I was moved beyond words by the introduction. People constitute Society and interact with each other in many different ways. Some interactions are positive and add to the common good and some are negative and diminish society. But it is always within the gift of the individual as to how he will interact. So much of life is dominated by commercial interaction. The concepts of the smart deal, profit and value are absorbed at an early age and then acted upon for the rest of our lives especially in our dealings with others. Business is constituted by these very people - us - and it is we who choose its character and determine its predilection to add to the common good. It is this value in a Business Endeavour that will secure its legacy in Society and contribute mightily to a sustainable and coherent proposition for value creation for shareholders, employees, communities - for society as a whole. This book makes the case for this in a simple but powerful way." Mick Davis. Former CEO Xtrata Mining and Resource Group. “I have read this book with great interest, as it confirms what I believe good managers have always instinctively practiced. This is the insistence that moral values, such as honesty and integrity, rank equally with technical excellence in staff and client relationships to secure long-term sustainability. Jerry Schuitema gives us methods of evaluating these values. It should help senior executives to select potential leadership candidates on their ability to foster common purpose and common fate in their companies. It should be good reading for such candidates." Frank Aab (the late). Former Chairman, Concor Civil Engineering. "I have always been impressed by Jerry Schuitema's writings. He has exhibited a deep understanding of the need to strike a proper balance between man as homo economicus, and the person who draws his or her inspiration and motivation in social and economic dealings from appropriate ethical values.” Ali Allawi. Economist, Investment Banker, former Minister of Finance and Defence in the Iraqi Transitional Government, Author: The Occupation of Iraq. Winning the War, losing the peace. As part of his employee communications and awareness campaigns, Jerry Schuitema collaborated with some of South Africa's leading employee training departments to develop in house training on business and company figures. This led to the design of his two flagship programmes, People and Wealth, and Inspired Service. The former had great influence on South African Entrepreneur, Ian Fuhr in his founding of the beauty franchise chain, Sorbet. In his book “Get that Feeling” he writes: “Through Jerry Schuitema’s People and Wealth programme, I learnt that business was nothing more than people serving people. Everything else flowed from that.” Jerry mostly received more than 90% good to excellent ratings on his talks and workshops. Feedback from these workshops bear testimony to the power of the message, his passion and the lasting impact he has on his audiences. "I definitely have been inspired and have learnt something new about me. THANK YOU JERRY!" "It is fantastic to get information from someone who has had so many experiences and to share it with us." "Learned a lot and it has opened my eyes." "This course is highly recommended to anybody and I think if our country can be run in this way of thinking we’ll be a lot better off!" "Very good for me. Thank you very much!" "There are a lot of unhappy people who need this workshop to put things into perspective." "Jerry made me realise that there is nothing wrong with giving." "Jerry made me see things in a different light." "Jerry is excellent!"

PUBLICATIONS:

 Author of “Econosense” Southern Books. 1st Edition 1990. 2nd Edition 1998. Oxford University Press. (Econosense was prescribed reading at some Tertiary institutions, and recommended reading at others.)

 Author of “Value through Values”. Thomas Griffel 2007.  Author of “Empathy; the power within” and

 “Common Purpose; Common Fate: making business sense of Empathy” in 2015.

 Writer for five years of the Reader’s Digest annual Personal Finance feature.

 “Accounting Statements and Unemployment”. People Dynamics 1999.

 “Going for Growth.” Productivity S.A. 1999. (Published under the name W. Lambourne.)

 “The Care and Growth Business model”: Series of 4 articles for the Star: Workplace: 2001.

 “Organisational Transformation Is Missing The Point!” Business Day 2000.

 “The Value Added Statement: The case for its wider use and a sensible standard.” Series of 2 Articles. Accountancy S.A. 2001

 “Tackling Unemployment through an African Economic Model”: Black Leadership 2000.

 “The care and Growth Business Model”: Series of 10 Articles: Management Today 2001/2002.

 “The Worker: Cost or Noble Contributor?” Labour Bulletin: 2001.

 “Sustainability and Governance: To be Feared or Revered?” Convergence 2007.

 “Ethics: Who is to Blame?” DE Kat 2007.  “Labour Unrest: A new Understanding of Business needed.” HRHighway 2007.

 “Flexible Pay: Threat or Opportunity?” HRHighway 2007.

 “The Fallacy of Figures”. HRHighway 2007.

 Fortnightly Column for Moneyweb 2013-

Berend Schuitema

Verkykerskop car chase

Verkykerskop car chase

My late grandfather was once the Postmaster of the Turfontein Post office.  He told this story.

Just four years after the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when South Africa finally became an independent country, although still a member of the British Commonwealth, the Country found itself embroiled in what became known as the “Great War”. Britain and Germany went to war in what was to be the biggest conflict in human history. It was the first war ever to involve every continent in the World, and in the end millions of lives were lost.

South Africa was a vitally important part of the British war effort, and as part of the Empire it was automatically on England’s side. The value to Britain was the enormous resources of raw material South Africa could supply to feed the ever increasing demands of the war effort.

However, this country’s support for Britain was not unanimously popular with South African’s.  By far the largest section of the white population were Afrikaners, and many of them had been part of the Boer forces facing Britain during the awful Anglo Boer War. Memories of concentration camps where four times more South African women and children died than soldiers in the field, and the shocking “scorched earth tactics” used by the British to force the Boer fighters into submission were still fresh. It is no surprise that there were many South African and other dissidents active in the country at the time. It was extremely difficult to find these underground activists, because many of the secret police and other agencies charged with finding them were actually also sympathetic to Britain’s enemies. It was an incredibly complicated situation.

Back to my grandfathers’ part in this tale. A team of investigators unearthed a trio of secret agents, or spy’s, who had been engaged in sending information to Germany, through contacts  in South West Africa, concerning the shipment of men, arms, ammunition, gold bullion and the movements of Britons. For instance British pilots were being trained in South Africa.  For a while it seemed that nothing could be kept secret. Every move was monitored and reported.  Ships carrying vital supplies were attacked soon after leaving Cape Town, often by vessels based in South West Africa. To counter this South African forces entered South West Africa, drove out the German forces based there and took over running that country. Despite this there was still the problem of undercover agents in South Africa. During the South West African operation the names of many agents and their methods were seized, and thus three South African citizens were identified as ringleaders. Two of them, both of German decent, were caught, tried and executed in Pretoria as traitors. The third, Johannes Oosthuisen, a 30 year old Afrikaner living at Aasvoelkop on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg (now Northcliff), was identified as the head of a sophisticated spy-ring. Oosthuisen was a young boy growing up on his family farm in Broederstroom, near what is now Hartbeespoort Dam, when British soldiers arrived and ordered his mother, himself and two sisters to take what they could carry out of their farmhouse and burned it to the ground. After driving off their cattle and other livestock the soldiers rode away laughing, leaving them sitting in their smouldering farmyard. Little wonder Johannes Oosthuisen took sides against them.

It was by chance he had evaded capture when his fellow agents had been arrested. He had stopped at the Aasvoelkop Dutch Reformed church on his way to Johannesburg to tell his wife, who put new flowers in the church every day, that he would be home late that night. Little did he know that he would never return home, or see her again.

From Northcliff he drove past the farm Emmarentia on his way to the Drill Hall in Johannesburg, where he had a source who kept him up to date with the movements of British Officers and their allies in the South African army. His car was his pride and joy which he kept in perfect condition. On his way he stopped near Johannesburg station to fill it, preparing for any eventuality. As he approached the Drill Hall, on the eastern side of the city he was instantly alerted when both the guards on duty looked his way, and one of them turned and ran across the parade ground towards the main building. Instinctively he drove on, noting the concentrated attention the remaining guard gave him as he drove past. His usual habit was to drive past the army base and on to Doornfontein, the next suburb. Here he would normally park and have lunch at the Doornforntein Hotel,  for all the world like a regular businessman meeting a few friends to discuss the progress of the war, as did everyone in Johannesburg. What he was actually doing was collecting information gleaned through a network of soldiers, policemen, workers, servants and other talkative people. Despite the seriousness of the situation, in reality South Africa seemed far from any action. Once he had analysed this information he would set the system of reporting it into motion. Mostly it was passed on through a complicated network of coded phone calls, letters and verbal messages carried by regular South Africans who had no love for their English allies. The past was still too recent to forget, and Afrikaans South Africans in particular were only a generation or two away from their European forebears, many of them Austrian and German.

Ever vigilant, Oosthuisen parked and went to his usual table in the hotel, thinking it strange for his two closest aides not to be there already. They both lived in nearby Bez Valley, and were generally there before him. As he sat down Marie, the pretty young Afrikaans day receptionist walked casually past his table, and seeming to stop for a brief greeting said in Afrikaans, “Johannes, only twenty minutes ago four policemen took Piet and Gerhardt (his fellow agents) away after asking if you would be here today. They told them no, you had church business at Aasvoelkop, and would not be here until tomorrow…and in fact here they are now..” with that she walked on back to the entrance hall. Quick as a flash Oosthuisen fled out through the kitchen, through a hedge and into his car. He knew the game was up, and he needed to get as far as he could from Johannesburg. They had prepared for this emergency, and later the police revealed they knew about the planned escape route from Durban by coastal steamer to South West Africa. At the beginning of the war this was German occupied territory, and a safe haven for agents like Oosthuisen and his colleagues.

As he drove away the secret police and an army officer watched him leave. He was now one of the most wanted men in the country. They knew he had an extensive network of informants, and an effective system to get information out of the country.  A team had already raided his house, and another the church where his wife worked. It was time to put out the 1914 version of an all points bulletin to track him down and catch him.  The fastest method of communication at the time was the telephone and the telegraph, both operated by the post office.  Every police station and army base in the country was connected by a telephone linked to the nearest post office telephone exchange. So the message was immediately sent out  and Johannes Oosthuisen became every policeman’s number one priority. In addition to this, the network of post offices and the telegraph system was even more extensive than police stations, and it wasn’t unusual for the police to enlist the aid of every post master around the country, and so a telegraph went to every post master to look out for him. A description of his car was included as well.

The escape route though Durban and other ports was well known to the authorities, and extra vigilance was urged from all post offices and police stations on the routes to the coast. The shortest was via Nelspruit to the port of Lourenco Marques, (now Maputo), or Durban. To get to LM meant he would have to go through the border post, so Durban seemed much safer. A special watch was placed on all trains on those routes as well.

Oosthuisen decided to escape though Durban. Everything was set up for this eventuality. All he had to do was get there. He knew he had no time to waste, and planned to drive straight to Durban as soon as he got into his car. He knew  if he was caught he could expect no mercy from the British authorities, so time was of the essence. He also knew that the road out of Johannesburg to Durban would be watched, so he headed straight for Benoni on the east of the city. From there he headed south through Springs to Greylingstad, hoping to avoid the patrols on the obvious route.

My Grandfather, being a postmaster, had a grandstand view of all the activity. As no one knew where Oosthuisen was headed, telegraphic messages flew fast and furiously around the country. Every post master got the same messages. Then messages started coming back from all parts of the country, Oosthuisen was sighted all over the place. A very positive trail seemed to be towards the Western Transvaal, a strong farming area, and the theory was that he was heading into the Platteland where German sympathisers would hide him. Other theories were that he would hide out in the older suburbs of Johannesburg, where my Grandfather was stationed. There was lots of excitement everywhere. In army headquarters in Johannesburg a special task team tried to co-ordinate the hunt, and make sense of all the incoming information.

In those days there was no tarred highway down to Durban. The road was unpaved, and wandered through farmland and open bush on its’ way down to the coast. Fuel was usually only available at petrol stations in the larger towns, and stored in cans in smaller ones. Also it was July, midwinter, and the countryside along the edge of the Drakensberg mountains gets bitterly cold. Snow falls in the area are common.

Toward late afternoon a call came in from the town of Balfour. The postmaster reported a car driven by a lone driver had stopped for fuel at the local farm co-op, and had driven on. The timing was right for someone having left Johannesburg just before lunch time. The driver was wearing a city suit, also unusual for the weather conditions where he had to stop often and open farm gates on the road. The hunters began to concentrate on the area. The next town could be Standerton, or perhaps Vrede, both routes to Newcastle, on the main road to Durban. Police and army units in both towns were ordered out to intercept him.

Oosthuisen must have passed though Standerton just as these pursuers were getting organised, and drove through without stopping. He must have guessed that they would be lying in wait for him on the road outside Newcastle or Ladysmith (ironically the site of one of the worst British military defeats ever at Spionkop during the Boer war) He decided to take an alternative, and more difficult route through the town of Vrede. As he got to there once again he couldn’t stop as the police were arriving at the only petrol store as he got there. They were just too late to stop him, but they did get onto the telegraph to confirm a positive sighting. Telegraphs clattered throughout the country, and excitement built in every town in the area. Policemen and volunteers donned warm clothing and formed up on the dirt main streets. The last action any of them had seen was during the Boer war fourteen years earlier.

Oosthuisen now had to change his plans. His biggest problem was fuel. Cars of the day were not really made for long distance touring, and he hadn’t been able to stop in either Balfour or Vrede. The next stop on the road to Durban was Newcastle. He knew that would be a problem. It was a larger and more organised town with an efficient police force and a nearby army base. He decided to head for Verkykerskop.  This little outpost was nothing more than a trading store, a few houses and the post office. He knew the local farmers would have fuel, and probably no policemen. Perhaps he hoped to hole up with a sympathetic farmer, we’ll never know.  He drove on through the winter night. It had been raining earlier, and the road was a mud bath, reducing his speed sometimes to a walking pace. Then it started to snow, as it often does in the area. The white mantle may have helped him find his way, reflecting some light form his modest headlights. Not long before midnight he was only a few hundred meters from the little town when he ran out of fuel. He didn’t even bother to pull onto the side of the road…what traffic would possibly come this way? The post master and one policeman heard the approaching car, and as the policeman got up from the fire, un-holstering his pistol, the postmaster sent out a simple message…he’s here!

The two men warily stepped out into the night. Looking down the road they could see the car…the moon had peeped out from behind the cloud, the snow had stopped and the countryside was lit with a strange brightness.  In the time it had taken them to send their message and prepare to go outside Oosthuisen had broken into the store and had carried two twenty liter jerry cans of fuel  to the car, and was pouring one of them into the tank.

“Hey”, shouted the policeman nervously, as he pointed his pistol waveringly at the most wanted man in the country, “Oosthuisen, put your hands up and come here!”  Oosthuisen kept on pouring. Afterwards the postmaster said he looked terrified or frozen with cold, maybe both.

Later the policeman said he had no recollection of pulling the trigger, but he fired a single shot at the fugitive. It missed by far, but glanced off the steel body of the car, making a spark which instantly ignited the pouring fuel. Instinctively Oosthuisen jumped back, spilling burning petrol over himself. Arms outstretched, mouth open in a silent scream, the human torch turned towards his captors……as he started to crumble into human ash he fell into the open door of the car…leaning against the rubber bulb of the gleaming brass horn. Johannes Oosthuisen breathed his last in time to the plaintive hoot of his treasured cars’  horn.

Just after midnight my grandfather read the same telegraph which flashed around the country….Oosthuisen is dead!

To this day, every time it snows in mid July in vicinity of Verkykerskop the locals swear they hear the sound of that old hooter just after midnight….

(Story written by Clive as narrated to him by his grandfather, Charles Strugnall.)