Prosecutor who meets more targets than most
● By day advocate Vic de Bruyn prosecutes fraudsters, the corrupt and other members of the commercial criminal classes. But when the black robes come off, the handheld slingshot comes out.
De Bruyn, a senior prosecutor at the Free State office of the director of public prosecutions, is one of 25 hopefuls who took part in the inaugural Free State Slingshot Open Championships in Bloemfontein last weekend. He received a silver overall medal and also came second in the senior men division.
“The local paper carried a picture of me shooting and my colleagues at court have not allowed me to hear the end of it,” De Bruyn laughs. “When I enter the courtroom they make ketties with their hands and pretend to shoot at me.
“I almost regret taking part. Almost …” Like many South Africans, De Bruyn played with ketties, or catapults, as a youngster. “I started up again about two or three years ago after Covid. Kobus Barnard, the mechanic who services my car — we call it the Kalahari Ferrari — is an enthusiast and he got me into slingshots again,” he said.
De Bruyn uses slingshots as a way of relaxing and taking his mind off work.
“When you pull that elastic back and you aim at the target, everything else leaves your mind. You focus completely on the target. I enjoy that emptying of the mind away from work,” he said.
It is also an economical way to enjoy competitive target practice.
“Emptying one pistol magazine will set you back R150.
“If you fire a rifle that one shot is more than R30. With a slingshot that little ball costs about 80c.”
Niel Pretorius, president of the South African Slingshot Federation, told the Sunday Times this “relatively new” sport is here to stay.
“We want more people to experience this joy, whether they are using hand-crafted slingshots or custom-made and 3D-printed units,” Pretorius said. “We are an NPO driven by community members. At the moment we have about 350 registered members countrywide.”
The tournament last weekend was the first of its kind in South Africa.
“We worked hard for three years to get everything in place so we could sign in our constitution last year. The sport is starting to gain in popularity,” Pretorius said.
“While you can hunt with a slingshot, our focus is on the target competitions. Many of us remember the slingshot from our youth, but the development of latex and other tech has moved the narrative away from hunting in the garden and, by adding a more mechanical aspect, closer towards formal shooting competitions.”
Gone are the days of making your own kettie from random objects.
“The elastic is made from differing widths of latex and most new forks are made of thermoplastic. Some are still made of wood and other materials like steel.”
Enthusiasts use small steel balls as ammunition and the target, at varying distances away, is the size of a saucer.
“A single ball has a circumference of 8mm and travels at between 300 and 400 feet per second,” Pretorius said.
Which can be dangerous.
“That is why we are very strict when it comes to safety. You have to wear safety goggles and no-one is allowed on the range when somebody is shooting.”
The next open championship will be held in Mpumalanga next month, with others to follow in the Northern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape.