IN LOVING MEMORY

Monday this week marked two years to the day that popular farmer and much loved father and husband JJ van de Velde was killed in a car accident on the R103 near the Petrus Stroom turnoff: ironically, the accident happened right outside the farm Blackwood, where he had first started his farming career in South Africa.

A beautiful cross marks the spot where this family man lost his life unnecessarily after an apparent drunk driver slammed headlong into him in 2018.

Petros Stroom farmer John Fowler, who was at the scene of the accident on Monday to lay flowers, along with his son David, David’s wife Liesel, and JJ’s parentsin-law Cindy and John Oldfield, said Holland-born Van de Velde was like a son to him.

“While studying in Holland as a youngster he applied to come over and do some practical training on our farm here. We farm potatoes, maize, cattle and sugar. Afterwards, he returned to Holland but on completion of his degree contacted us to say he wanted to come back. We had no vacancies so we found him a job at the Simba factory in PMB where he worked for a year until we had a vacancy and he came to work for us. He was with us for eight years, and we were all extremely fond of him.”

The 4.5ha farm in Australia that Van de velde had bought for his family and to which they were due to move shortly after his death, was now being very ably run by 21-year-old Jan-Peter, Van de Velde’s oldest son, said the Oldfields. “He’s doing an incredible job: they farm oats and barley on 1.6ha of it, and luckily he has the help of Aby Bestbier, who was JJ’s mechanic and who moved over with them,” said Cindy.

Also attending the brief memorial was Abdul Moola, owner of the landmark

Ismail Wholesale House and fuel station (Everything Shop) up the road, and of whom JJ was exceptionally fond.