September 13
On Thursday, September 13, the Viljoenskroon club delivered us to Bothaville. The small towns we’ve seen remind us of towns in the Midwest in America thirty years ago. No mega-malls with sprawling parking lots here. Downtown areas, with small family owned shops still dominate. It’s as if the calendars read 1977, as businesses are white run and blacks walk for the most part or ride in kombis, or taxi vans. Blacks driving personal cars is still a novelty in this part of the country, although becoming less so.
We were met by Rotarians from the Flamingo-Welkom Club, Evyn Thorne, Marius Kemp and Dries Lotty. We stood by as they sorted they transferred the bags from bakkies to trailer. Here we hard the only negative comment from any Rotarian the entire trip. Evyn shot out that they were not our servants indicating that we should lend a hand in moving the luggage. This took us by surprise as up until now the packing and arranging of bags was usually a job reserved for the more spatially adept among our hosts who could pack the small trailer. The comment was lost on us at the time. We piled in the over-sized Toyota van while our luggage went into one of the small trailers commonplace here.
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We stopped at the Aandenk memorial, dedicated to the discovery of gold in this area and the sinking of the first bore (not Boer) hole by Allen Roberts. The memorial is now ignored by the local authorities and has fallen into disrepair. The governing ANC (African National Congress) party has no interest in maintaining a memorial to the white gold miners. Bit by bit, the new culture is making inroads into Afrikaner domination.
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Broken bottles litter the hard packed earth where grass may have been. A large metal base was once some form of commemorative object. There’s no graffiti, presumably because of the extreme poverty; money is not available to buy paint, much less waste it on this. There are not gangs of young people driving aimlessly looking for mischief, at least in this part of the country.
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While some farming and ranching exists here, gold mining forms the economic base. After the gold is exhausted in the next 30 years or so, the emphasis may switch to titanium. Huge deposits of that metal are here. We found it interesting to learn that law prohibits the mining of more than one metal at a time in the same mine.
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We drove past Thabong, the large black township outside of the city. As in Rammulotsi, the grim shacks are everywhere. We saw for ourselves the stark reality of the mass of humanity in South Africa living in corrugated metal and brick boxes, with outhouse and fencing, thousands of them, in neat dusty rows. We did see some newer houses built entirely of brick that would be an average size living room in a contemporary American home. This is government-assisted housing. Pride of ownership is taking root, but the sheer amount of extreme poverty was striking. A few houses had cars or trucks parked in front; dusty workhorses - no shiny chrome reverse rotating wheels here.
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During the Apartheid era, the National Party government passed a number of restrictive laws, two of which were the Separate Development Act and the Movement Act. These required all blacks to live on “homelands” or “Bantustans.” In theory, blacks living in the townships were not to be there as permanent residents The townships were to serve as bases for workers to support the whatever economic enterprise existed in the area. A concentrated effort was made to prevent the growth of these townships. This did not work in practice. The distance of the white cities from the homelands, the need for labor, the inability to control millions of people all fostered resentment rather than worked to control the populace. In the provinces of Northwest and the Free State, we saw again and again, the clear distinction between the cities and the townships. The economic disparity which has existed between the races for so many years virtually insures that blacks could not live in the smaller rural cities.
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The era of official Apartheid, which made South Africa an international pariah, is 14 years gone. The repressive laws have been repealed. Blacks are no longer required to live in townships, there is no formal homelands. Many people migrate to the townships looking for work. The townships have become havens for illegal immigrants. As political and economic difficulties continue in the northern African countries, especially Zimbabwe, many are drawn to the economic giant that is South Africa. As one can easily imagine, the townships’ meager infrastructure meager resources are overtaxed.
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We were told the incidence of reclaiming the land by descendents of the black tribes (Besotho, Xhosa and Zulu in this area of the Free State) was not as extensive as in other parts of South Africa. This rolling empty land was inhabited by pasturing people, primarily Besotho, who tended cattle and sheep. Zulu raiding parties (“Impies”) during the mid 1800’s invaded, killing the men and capturing the women and cattle. As a result, there is not much land that can be claimed to have been inhabited by ones ancestors and subject to a claim.
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While there are time limits for bringing an application to reclaim land, we were told both that that it is not uncommon for “the government” to extend the deadlines, and that the deadlines have passed and thus claims are barred. This lack of definitive knowledge by our hosts makes sense. The people we met were focused on making a living for their families and doing what they could for the communities through church and Rotary. The antics of the government, either National Party of apartheid or the now empowered ANC is ever changing, maddening to follow, and beyond any individuals ability to control. We did learn that remuneration of land-owners affected by the reclamation is “surprisingly” at near market values.
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Thursday evening Emil’s host and Welkom-Flamingo club president Christo van Eeeden took Mark and Emil to the meeting of the Rotary Club of Odendaalrus. The weekly meetings of this small and extremely boisterous and friendly club are held in the MOTH club (Men Of Tin Hats). The club is a veterans club similar to our VFW. The tin hats make reference to the helmets worn by South African troops during various wars. Samples of these helmets, as well as vintage rifles and pistols, adorn the high walls of this bar. We are reminded that the military was once white only. All white men were required to serve a minimum of two years. Now the military is primarily a black force. We learned that whites who chose the military as a career option, for money or adventure travel to England and join the British army.
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As in other Rotary clubs we’ve visited, the bar does a brisk business before the meetings and soon dinner is served.
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The Odendaalrus club’s president, Rosh Turchino, is of Italian descent. His grandfather was a prisoner of war at the Zonder Water Prison, a camp in this part of the Free State. The impishness of this short, swarthy man soon manifested itself and before long Mark was being lectured by a towering gray haired man swearing finger-wagging allegiance to both U.S. Presidents Bush. Rosh took great delight in this intimidating display. 
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I was surprised how many Rotary meetings alcoholic beverages lubricate. Of the five club meetings I attended the rate was 100%. At Potch, a hangover and liver remedy was an infusion of vitamins, freely supplied by Lisa. In Harrismith, Wessel Hammer turned us on to “Grandpa’s”, a bitter white powder packed in a paper bindle which he swore prevented hang-over, although it didn’t work for me.
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The Welkom-Flamingo Rotary is proud of their work here. Dries Lotter, a stocky man, gray mustached and dressed in the khaki clothing so common in the Free State, touts the wonders of matching grants to all. Their latest investment, two large kombies, for the Dumamis School. $20,000 has become $65,000 through matching grants from Rotary International.
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Other Rotary projects include:
-a generator to insure a constant supply of power at the old age home;
-food and repairs for the local SPCA;
-organizing and donating food and clothing to Morningstar, the orphanage, which cares for children whose parents most likely died of AIDS related diseases;
-the World Wide Wheelchair Project – in 2008 the local club will be instrumental in receiving and distributing via clubs throughout Africa, 5,600 wheelchairs.
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Welkom –Flamingo Rotary is yet another example of fulfilling aspirations through fellowship and goodwill. No dwelling of the past or shunning the future here.
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Here we did run across some overt racism. While all of the Rotarians we encountered in South Africa are dedicated to God, family, club and country, the vast majority were also keenly aware that in reference to the black population of this country, “but for the grace of God go I.” We suspect the mindset of Apartheid is alive and well outside the Rotary organizatio
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