“My wife always thought that he was a beautiful and smart young man, but we never knew that he would be what he is today.”
Those were the words of a Jeffreys Bay farmer whose kindness had a profound effect on anti-apartheid activist Mkhuseli “Khusta” Jack at a time when South Africa’s polarised society was fraught with racial distrust and cruelty.
That kindness, dating back to the 1960s, saw Jack meet farmer Nortje Scheltema, 86, and his 84-year-old wife Jessie, a couple mentioned in Jack’s newly released book.
En route to Jeffreys Bay this week, Jack was ebullient, happily pointing out landmarks and earmarking the place he lived as a boy.
He also talked about how, as an expression of gratitude, he would present the elderly couple with a copy of his book.
He explained that the couple had allowed his family to live on their farm after they had the misfortune of being harshly moved off their home on another farm near the Gamtoos River during the apartheid era.
Jack said the couple had done so with no strings attached, allowing the family to set up a vegetable garden and live as freely as it was possible at the time.
Being forced out of his home at the tender age of six was a devastating and confusing experience for Jack, who described it as “the beginning and the end of my world”.
It was after that traumatic experience that Jack met Scheltema, a man he said was the stark opposite of the apartheid system.
Driving up to Beringsee Retirement Village, Jack said: “A lot of people assume that all the farmers are brutal and cruel to black people. In reality I know more farmers that have humanity in spite of the system allowing them to be bad.
“They continued to be human beings.
“Nortje [Scheltema] is the epitome of those farmers. It just so happened that he helped me.” Jack said he believed that had Scheltema not allowed the family to build a home on his farm and if he had demanded slave labour in return he would never have had the opportunity to become educated and broaden his horizons.
“If I had to work on his farm and look after his cattle by force, I would never have been to university and ultimately be who I am today,” he added.
On arrival at the retirement village where the couple now live, Jack and Scheltema could not hide the mutual adoration, something which was evident in their genuine smiles, long embraces and compliments of good health.
As he reminisced about his days spent on the farm, Jack read an excerpt from his book where he mentioned the couple, prompting Scheltema to retell the story of how he had allowed the Jack family to stay on the farm.
“Look, this is what happened. There was a worker named George who lived on the farm when I bought it.
“One day George said to me that he had a cousin whose husband had died and asked if we could allow the family to stay on our farm and build a house.
“I said yes [he] can build a house for [the family] and I asked what he was going to use [to build the house].
“He said he would gather things, there were some poles and wood and corrugated iron sheets that the previous owner left behind.
“The next thing I saw the house was almost finished.”
Although Scheltema did not live on the farm, he would visit during the hunting season and he would take Jack along on hunts.
“I did not live on the farm so I did not interfere in what they did on the farm. I allowed them to live there freely and sometimes I would bring them vegetables from my other farm,” he said.
Asked how he felt being mentioned in the book, Scheltema said: “For me this is a wonderful experience because I’ve known him since he was a little boy. We are very proud of him – to become what he is today.
“My wife always thought that he was a beautiful and smart young man, but we never knew that he would be what he is today,” he said.
Jack’s book will be officially launched in partnership with The Herald and Weekend Post at the Boardwalk International Convention Centre next week on Wednesday at 5.30 for 6pm. RSVP essential.