Browse through our brand new index’s of The St. Olav Lutheran Church in Durban. 1066 names and year of event for baptisms, 462 confirmations, 818 deaths and 435 marriages.

Not many Scandinavians settled in Southern Africa before the 19th century, and only after the arrival of missionaries from their countries were settlers attracted from these Nordic peoples. In Durban some seamen had settled as artisans and craftsmen, many with the intention of assisting the missionaries. In 1879 a group of immigrants came from Norway on board the schooner Debora and made their homes in Durban, where the first Scandinavian congregation was founded in 1880. The members were predominantly Norwegians and this congregation later became the Norwegian Lutheran Church in Durban. In 1882 a group of 230 settlers from Norway arrived at Umzimkulu and made their new homes at Marburg. They started to build a church which was dedicated the following year, when also the Marburg Norwegian Lutheran congregation was constituted. The congregation opened a school in 1884. Scandinavians on the Witwatersrand founded a Lutheran congregation in Johannesburg in 1898. Most of the members were Norwegians or Swedes. A church site had been granted by the Transvaal Republic, but the war brought changes that made progress difficult. In 1911 the Swedish congregation in Johannesburg was constituted and this has since served as a spiritual centre for Scandinavians in the area.

Regular services have also been held in Pretoria and Cape Town, but no Scandinavian congregation has been organised in these places. Norwegian missionaries conducted regular services at Eshowe, where an English-speaking Lutheran congregation was founded in 1960.

Church council image from left to right: standing S. Gubrandsen, PEP Rorvik, OS Loken, OJ Hillestad, seated: Consul AE Larsen, Pastor E. Hallen.

The Chinese in South Africa are caught up between two worlds -the civilised Western world which has adopted this community unofficially and (although tardily) even socially, and the world of its Asiatic origin, which has led to the Chinese being officially classified non-white and subject to certain restrictive legislative measures. Chinese are admitted to White theatres, restaurants and residential sections, and the attitude of most White South Africans toward them is one of sympathetic aloofness. Little contact is made with the Chinese; points of contact are mostly the little corner shop, the laundry or a Chinese restaurant for diversion.

The present Chinese community in South Africa did not originate in the labour force which was recruited in North China in 1904 for the Witwatersrand gold-mines. All those labourers were repatriated four years later by the Transvaal government. The present community has developed from sporadic immigration, which began in 1891 with the arrival from Madagascar and Mauritius of Chinese traders who had originally come from Canton. According to the 1965 returns they number about 7,200 and are distributed as follows: Johannesburg 3,000; the perimeter of the Witwatersrand 450; Pretoria 650; Port Elizabeth 1,800; East London 350; Cape Town 325; Kimberley 275; Durban 175; other centres in South Africa 250. In 1950 a total prohibition was imposed on the immigration of Chinese to South Africa.

The Chinese are mainly traders, and in both wholesale and retail trade they have built up a reputation for honesty and reliability. Bankruptcy seldom occurs. A few practise as doctors, attorneys, architects, engineers or accountants; many are employed in offices of Whites as clerks, typists, computer operators, dispatch clerks or travellers. They mainly belong to the middle income group and their standard of living is far above that prevailing in their country of origin. Very few South African Chinese are in needy circumstances, and one-third may be reckoned among the group of affluent businessmen. Both culturally and socially they are much nearer to the Whites than to the non-Whites, and very few of these Chinese have any connection with other non-White groups with whom they are legally classified. The South African Chinese have even lost contact with Buddhism and have in many cases adopted the Christian faith. In politics they are strongly anti-Communist, and 99 % of them support the Nationalist China of Chiang Kai-shek. Taiwan (Formosa) has full diplomatic representation in South Africa.

The legislation which affects and inconveniences them most is the Group Areas Act. Whenever an area is proclaimed as belonging to some particular racial group, whenever slums are cleared and the residents are required to move, the Chinese fall between two stools. They are neither White nor Indian, nor do they belong among the black or Coloured to whose way of life the area is to be adapted. Although they are mainly a race of traders, their community is too small to support trade among themselves, and they are now seeking an outlet in a greater diversity of occupations. Uncertainty is their greatest problem, but fear of discrimination or humiliation has not been experienced to any appreciable extent.

Smallpox

The first recorded epidemic of smallpox in the Cape was in 1713 and later 1735 and 1767. However many people seem to forget the outbreak in 1755 which hit the small settlement very hard – a quarter of the White inhabitants died in the first epidemic, and nearly half the slaves. Further smallpox epidemics occurred at the Cape in 1767, 1807, 1812, 1839, 1858 and 1881. That of 1881 was the most virulent.

Typhus

In 1867 a Typhus epidemic broke out. Typhoid is a disease of unsanitation, spread by contaminated human excrement. During this time it was not unusual for people to throw sanitary waste into the streets as well as carcass remains and other unsavory remnants of human and animal waste. The only serious epidemic of this disease occurred in South Africa at the beginning of the century as a result of the disorganisation brought about by the Second Anglo-Boer War. The mortality among civilians and military personnel was severe. Fairly high incidence continues in primitive, unsanitated communities.

A Cholera epidemic broke out in 1869 not long after the Typhus one a few years prior. These epidemics still occur in Southern Africa every few years.

Poliomyeltis epidemics occur periodically in South Africa. The public tends to be gravely frightened of this disease because of the pitiful crippling of children that so often results. The total number of cases occurring has, however, been relatively small compared with the other diseases that occur in epidemic form. There were epidemics in 1918, 1948 and (the worst one) the summer of 1956-57. `Epidemics’ of some hundreds of cases occurred in 1960 and 1966. In epidemic years vast numbers of children became infected without showing any sign of the disease. Such children are naturally immunised, but this is a very risky method of acquiring immunity, as the paralytic form may so easily be triggered off; e.g. by violent exercise or trauma of any kind. Subsequent crops of babies will not acquire such immunity and will provide material for the next epidemic unless submitted to vaccination.

Influenza

Some of the entries for one day (15 Oct. 1918) at the Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town, when the influenza epidemic was at its peak.

Epidemics of influenza or grippe occur at intervals. In South Africa extensive pandemics were experienced in 1918 and in 1957, which swept through the country within two months. The 1918 epidemic caused nearly 140 000 deaths in the Union of South Africa, mostly among the Bantu and Coloured sections of the population, although the death-rate among Europeans was also unusually high. The 1957 pandemic was not nearly so severe: most patients had a relatively minor illness and there were very few deaths. Epidemic outbreaks occur frequently in Southern Africa, but do not present unusual features as compared with epidemics elsewhere, although the illness tends to be more severe in the Bantu than in persons of European descent, and complications involving the lungs tend to be more frequent.

South Africa experienced outbreaks of influenza in not only in 1918 but also 1836, 1854, 1862, 1871, 1890 and 1895. The 1918 epidemic first manifested itself in Europe, where so many German and Austrian soldiers fell ill that a German offensive was delayed until March. It spread to Spain, where 8m people were affected. The death-roll in Europe was comparatively light however, and in Spain only 700 people died. The disease was spread by carriers, and it was soon contracted by British, French and American troops in France. Outbreaks were reported as far afield as Norway, Switzerland, Hawaii, China and Sierra Leone. There is little doubt that ships brought the epidemic to South Africa. At first it affected the ports and principal towns. It was reported in Durban on 14 Sept., in Kimberley on the 23rd, and in Cape Town and Johannesburg on the 25th.

Like the earlier epidemics, the 1918 `flu’ attacked men rather than women, and all races alike. There the similarity ended, for whereas previously the very young and the old were more prone to contract influenza, now adolescence and old age seemed immune, and the special incidence fell on the group between 25 and 45 years of age. The epidemic spread rapidly, following the lines of communication: the railways and roads. Hundreds of thousands of people fell ill, and the economy of the country, including the mines, was nearly brought to a standstill. Coal was no longer being produced, and factories closed their doors. Commerce almost ceased, only food-shops remained open, and transport was more precious than gold. The railways operated a skeleton service, trams ran spasmodically, and motor-cars were short of petrol. In the towns essential foodstuffs were scarce – no bread, since the bakers were ill; no milk, since the farmers were unable to bring it to town. The greatest shortage, however, was of people – hands to nurse the sick, feet to bring essentials of life when whole families lay ill.

At first the death-rate was low – then suddenly it began to rise. Doctors, many of them ill themselves, could not cope with the flood of patients, emergency hospitals overflowed, the supply of coffins gave out, and people were sometimes buried in mass graves. Nor was there safety in the country, for refugees spread the epidemic far and wide. The Transkei, with practically no medical assistance available, was particularly hard hit. The authorities did their best to cope with the situation, but thousands died without ever seeing a doctor. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the epidemic ceased.

In 1889 the Marist Brothers opened their first school in Johannesburg. ‘Three Brothers came by horse-coach from Kimberley, which at the time was the nearest railhead to the city. They were Brothers Frederick, Dominic and Euphrase who had come north from Port Elizabeth to found a school.They interviewed the landdrost and were allowed to take over a stretch of ground lying to the north of the mining area at the foot of the low range of hills that bounded the camp to the north, now in the centre of the modern city which has replaced the camp.

For three weeks they lived in a small bell-tent until a rough cottage was built and later a little school house, and then they were ready to open what was the first boys’ high school to be established in Johannesburg.
A story is told that one day a small boy was sent by his father to look for a good school, and as he passed the new school building, a bearded man wearing a black habit stopped him, and asked him where he was going. The boy replied that he was looking for a school. “This is a school” he was told.
“Yes, but a good school.”
“This is good school”, said Br. Frederick, the principal familiarly known to the boys as “Boots”, conducting him inside, and so another pupil was enrolled in the school.
Within a short time after the opening of the school it had to be enlarged and within a few years the enrolment had increased to over 300, resulting in pupils having to be accommodated in a marquee.

As there was no matriculation centre in the South African Republic at the time, the first matric class in 1894 comprising but three pupils had to be sent to Bloemfontein accompanied by Br. Frederick to write the examination, and all three passed.

At the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War in 1899, the enrolment dropped to 150, because many English families had left Johannesburg during this period. Part of the school was requisitioned for a military hospital under the care of the French Red Cross Society. The school was placed under the protection of the French Government, and the Brothers assisted in the care of the wounded after school hours. Permission was granted in 1900 during hostilities for the matriculation examination to be held in the school.

On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the College in 1939, messages of congratulation were received from the Governor General Sir Patrick Duncan, from the Prime Minister General Smuts, from the Administrator of the Transvaal and many others. The school’s first principal Br. Frederick, who was then 93. attended the celebrations. He lived to be 100.

In its later years Koch Street became a junior school to the newer Marist Brothers Schools in Observatory and lnanda. In the grounds when the school was closed in 1965 still stood the school house in which the first pupils were taught with the little cottage in which the three Brothers lived. All the school buildings were finally demolished to make room for the present Mariston Hotel.

Cato Williamson

Cato “Dinky” Williamson (maiden name Ladan) was one of the first South African female pilots. The tiny woman used to ride around on a Harley Davidson and even in her 80s she would ride from Cape Town to Johannesburg and back, alone on her Packard motorcycle. Her brother, Eduard, said that she was so small that she had to sit on pillows when flying or motorcycling. She passed away in Kalk Bay in August 1989. Her funeral was held at the St James church in Kalk Bay. Cato was born in the Netherlands in 1893. At the age of 18, she married Bill Williamson, a pilot. By 1929, Cato and Bill were flying around South Africa. During WWII, Bill flew planes to Crete but was injured during a flight and was made Adjutant at Wingfield. He passed away in 1942.

Ann White

Ann White learnt to fly at Virginia Airport in 1964 with her husband. Both served on the flying and executive committees of the Durban Wings Club for many years. Ann went on to do a commercial pilot’s licence and Instructor’s and Instrument Ratings. She was a member of the Aero Club power flying committee in 1972-3 and served on the executive committee of the Aero Club in 1973. The same year she was awarded Aero Club Gold Wings for her services to flying, especially in Natal. While a private pilot, she participated in flying competitions and won a number of trophies in the Women’s Aviation Association competitions. In 1971 Ann was awarded the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship by the International Organisation of Women Pilots – the Ninety-Nines. This enabled her to get an open rating on singles and a conversion to Cessna 310/320 series. In 1984 she was awarded the Paul Tissandier Diploma.

Goosen sisters

Jean Goosen and her sister Agnes were the first women in South Africa to earn their private pilot’s licence after WWII.

Valerie Wiggett

In 1988 Valerie Harriot Wiggett, then a public relations officer in Cape Town, and Monique Masson of Pretoria, were selected to be the first women to undergo pilot training in the SAAF. Later that year, the Air Force changed their decision.

A disappointed Valerie then enrolled for a BA arts degree. She eventually managed to get a bank loan to pay for lying lessons and obtained her private pilot’s licence. Her father is retired SAAF Brig.-Gen. Barry A.A. Wiggett, a fighter pilot in the Korean War and was awarded the American Distinguished Flying Cross. During his career he was commanding officer of Langebaanweg, Dunnottar and Air Force College. He was one of the SAAF’s first helicopter pilots. Valerie has nine siblings and was born in Langebaan in 1966. One of Valerie’s cousins was an Impala pilot and her brother-in-law was a Puma pilot. There are seven pilots in the Wiggett family. Valerie matriculated from Hoërskool Vredenburg where she was the first English-speaking head girl. Afterwards she spent a year in St Paul, Minnesota, USA, as a Rotary exchange student. She has taught English in Japan and is currently working for Media City in Dubai.

Monique’s father is Bob Masson who was a test pilot for Atlas.

Sue Beatty

Sue Beatty is a helicopter pilot. To get her licence she offered secretarial work in exchange for flying lessons. She’d offer to move the helicopter from the grass to the cement pad, logging five minutes. Eventually she applied for and won a national grant to do her commercial license, passing the exams at first attempt. Sue joined Court helicopters. Later on she went to the USA where she saw a S-61 helicopter logging in Oregon. She is now a support pilot in Oregon, with her sights set on flying the logging helicopters. She purchased a trailer (caravan) and takes it wherever her job takes her, along with her cat. Sue married Peter Dinkerlacker in November 1999.

Nadia Gous and Shelley Gould

In May 2006, Base 4 Flight Academy in Cape Town was training 18 female helicopter pilots. Nadia Gous and Shelley Gould are flight instructors at the company. Nadia has been flying for five years, taking her first helicopter flight at the age of 16. Her father was a SAAF Colonel and her mother is an administration manager at a flying club.

Shelley is an outdoors person who enjoys mountain biking and hiking. After obtaining a B.Sc. she worked for an investment bank overseas. Her brother Michael is a pilot and she became interested in flying. In June 2006, Shelley was seriously injured when the Grand Caravan she was co-piloting crashed in southern Mozambique. The other co-pilot died in the crash.

Brenda Howett

In 2001, Brenda Howett became the first female captain at SAA, after joining SAA in May 1988. By then she had been flying for 11 years. Brenda started working for SAA as an instructor on the flight simulator in December 1983. She was also the first female to fly a Boeing for SAA and the first female Instructor Training Captain. In 1999 she was one of 10 women honoured in the Rapport/Rentmeester Prestige Women’s Day Gala. Brenda retired from SAA on 30th April 2003 at the age of 52. Her last SAA flight was on a Boeing 737-800 from Cape Town to Johannesburg. She married Dev, a Springbok aerobatic pilot and company director. They have two daughters, Kerry and Tracy. The family own a private game farm in the Waterberg. 

Jane Trembath

Jane Trembath

Captain Jane Trembath is currently SAA’s only female captain. She commands a Boeing 737-800 on domestic and African routes. Jane started flying in 1982 and joined the airline in July 1988 at the age of 23, being the youngest Boeing pilot. Jane was the second female pilot at SAA when she joined along with Jenny Berger. In 1993 she was the first woman in SAA to qualify on the Boeing 747-400. She became a captain in 2001. Jane was the developer and chairperson of the SAA Pilot’s Association Mentorship Programme from 2002 to 2005.

On the 4th September 2001, six women made up the all-female crew that operated a Boeing 737-200 from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth and back. This was a first in SAA’s history. Flight SAA 401 was under Jane’s command. Merel VAN DER MERWE, who started flying in 1988, was the First Officer. The rest of the crew were Bessie NKWE (senior cabin officer) and cabin attendants Emma NEL, Ntombekhaya HEWU and Jolyn VISSER.

Originally from Ladismith, Jane decided to become a pilot in her Matric year when she flew from East London to the Wilderness with her parents in a light aircraft and landed on a golf course. After matriculating she started flying lessons and two years later earned her commercial pilot’s licence. In 1985 she was appointed Namib Air’s first female pilot and spent three years as a First Officer. Jane is also an inspirational speaker. Her other interests include doing mosaics, using Linux, playing the piano and saxophone, and designing and making clothing. Her parents are Tim, an engineer, and Vivienne.

Jenny Berger

Jenny Berger was still in school when she applied for pilot training with SAA. She was turned down but did not give up her dream. She persuaded her parents to use the costs of a university degree for flying lessons. She earned her licence straight after Matric. After obtaining a commercial licence and flying for a mining company she again applied to SAA when they advertised for pilots.

Chantal Reniers

Chantal Reniers was always interested in aviation. She was born in Johannesburg and was working at a hunting lodge in Nelspruit when she met a pilot. She persuaded him to let her take control during one of his flights. Shortly afterwards she asked her boss to sponsor her flying lessons in exchange for free flights later. Five weeks later, Chantal had 40 flying hours and a licence. In 1988, after working at various careers and spending time overseas, she decided to concentrate on flying. After attending theory classes and more exams, she started working as a part-time pilot at Lanseria. In September 1990, she joined SAA.

Chris Malherbe

In 1994, Chris Malherbe, from Pretoria, changed careers going from being a cabin attendant to the fourth female pilot at SAA. She had already amassed 3 100 flying hours. Chris became a flight attendant at SAA in 1975. Shortly after meeting her husband, Mike Malherbe, a training captain with SAA, in 1980, she started flying lessons from him. She obtained a private pilot’s licence, followed by a commercial licence and an instructor’s rating. She freelanced as an instructor when not on duty as a cabin attendant. In 1990, she resigned from SAA and obtained her senior commercial pilot’s licence in 1992. Chris flew for two smaller airlines before returning to SAA as a cabin attendant again in 1993, where she applied for a pilot position. She has a daughter, Michelle.

Asnath Mahape

Asnath Mahape

Asnath Mahape was SAA’s first black female pilot trainee after she successfully completed her multi-engine and instrument rating training in 2003. Asnath already held two pilot’s licences obtained through Progress Flight Academy in Port Elizabeth, when she entered SAA’s cadet pilot training programme.

She is originally from Rosenkrans, near Polokwane (Pietersburg) in Limpopo. She used to visit an aunt in Midrand, whose neighbour was an airline pilot. Asnath was fascinated by his job and after he lent her his aviation books and magazines, she was hooked. After matriculating in 1996 from Motse Maria Secondary School, a Catholic school near Polokwane, she went to the University of the Western Cape to study engineering while working part-time to earn money for flying lessons. She obtained her private pilot’s licence in 1998. In 1999, she was the first black woman to obtain her commercial pilot’s licence through Progress Flight Academy, after she inherited some money. A year later, with 200 flying hours, she joined the SAAF where she spent two years in ground school. Finally she was accepted as a student by SAA. Asnath obtained her Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence in 2003. She was nominated for the 2003 Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year Award. She suffered a setback when Ross Air, which was giving her training, ran into financial difficulties in 2005. Another airline had to be found to continue her training.

In March 1997, four female cadet pilots received their wings as part of the second group of SAA cadets to be trained in Adelaide, Australia. After graduation they joined SA Express for further training.

Mrs. M. KONDILE, of Boksburg, near Johannesburg, was born in the Cape Province. She is one of the foundation members of the Women’s Section of the African National Congress. She was a prominent member of the Women’s League and is one of the best women organisers in the Transvaal. At one time she was in charge of a grocery store and news agency. A real lover of her people, and is highly respected by the residents of Boksburg.

A perfect example of the enigmatic genetic whirlpool at the tip of the African continent and the forces that have shaped the country, the birth of Walter Sisulu is one of the most tantalising events of his time.

Born on May 18, 1912 to Alice Mase Sisulu, a relative of Nelson Mandela's first wife, Evelyn Mase, this revered statesmen and symbol of the apartheid struggle, who served 26 years behind bars and on Robben Island for his commitment to freedom, was the product of what was seen as a scandalous union at the time.

Paternal Ancestry.

His mother, who refused to give credence to the unspoken colour and gender barriers before apartheid became official in 1948, left her rural home in Qutubeni, Transkei, to work in white homes and entered into a long-term relationship with a white man, Albert Victor Dickinson. Though no reason is given in the Sisulus' biography ‘In Our Lifetime', Walter's daughter-in-law Elinor says the couple chose not to marry when Walter was born. Four years later the couple had another child, Rosabella.

The boy child was christened Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu at the Anglican All Saints Mission near Qutubeni – a tantalising clue that invites investigation, as the Ulyate family was a well-known 1820 Settler family that farmed in the Eastern Cape.Though he was aware of the existence of his father, who Elinor suggests wanted to adopt him, Dickinson played no role in Walter's upbringing. Walter and Rosabella were raised by his mother's extended Hlakule/Sisulu family, who were descended from the royal Thembu clan that traces its genealogy 20 generations back to King Zwide. All that is known of Albert Victor Dickinson, whom Walter only met a few times, is that he was born on July 9, 1886, and was the son of Albert Edward Dickinson of Port Elizabeth. Elinor says there were conflicting oral reports as to whether he was a road supervisor or a magistrate, but he worked in the Railway Department of the Cape Colony from 1903 to 1909 and was transferred to the Office of the Chief Magistrate in Umtata in 1910.

Walter Sisulu died on May 5, 2003, a week short of his 91st birthday. He is buried in Croesus Cemetery, Newclare, Johannesburg. His wife, Albertina, herself an important icon in the struggle years, lives in Johannesburg. 

Article written by: Sharon Marshall

The Sisulu wedding, 1944. (Standing on the left is Nelson Mandela. The pretty bridesmaid next to him is Evelyn Mase, Mandela's future wife.) 

 (With kind permission from South African History Online.)

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

Born in Bowery, New York, U.S.A., 15.9.1871 and died in Johannesburg, 11.3.1949, Schlesinger was a financier and pioneer of the South African entertainment industry. He was the second son of the family of ten of Abraham Schlesinger, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant. The European branch of the family owned a saw-mill in the Patra mountains on the border of the present Czechoslovakia. Since the mill could not provide a livelihood for the whole family, two brothers, Abraham and Moritz, emigrated to America and started their career by splitting wood, Abraham later going into the cigar business and then opening a bank.Schlesinger grew up on the outskirts of the Bowery, the East Side district of New York, helping, as a boy, to supplement the family income by peddling hair-clips and selling newspapers. By the age of eighteen he was a commission and insurance agent. Having read about the Witwatersrand gold discoveries, he took ship to South Africa in 1894, joining the Equitable Insurance Company (an American concern) in Johannesburg, and becoming a highly successful insurance salesman. Within less than two years Schlesinger rose from a state of abject poverty to affluence, earning more than £1 000 a month commission by tirelessly travelling the length and breadth of the country selling policies, and in this way acquiring an extensive knowledge of South Africa.

Isidore William Schlesinger

Just before the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) the Equitable made him its regional manager in Ireland. He returned to Johannesburg at the end of hostilities to launch a property development enterprise, the African Realty Trust, which, until 1904, developed new residential suburbs in Port Elizabeth (Mount Pleasant) and Johannesburg (Orange Grove, Houghton, and Killarney) by giving salary-earners an opportunity to buy their own homes on an instalment basis.

At the end of 1904 Schlesinger founded his own insurance company, the African Life Assurance Society, which, during its first year of business, sold 2 274 policies valued at more than £I million. As the managing director Schlesinger personally organized the whole company from board-room to stationery cupboard, and coached all canvassers and agents. In 1905 he bought the Robinson South African Bank (founded by J. B. Robinson), which had run into financial difficulties, converting it into the Colonial Banking and Trust Company, which specialized in small loans to businessmen. In 1911 he established the African Guarantee and Indemnity Company, which handled all types of insurance finance.

Schlesinger first entered the entertainment business in 1913 with the purchase of the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg for £60 000. He rapidly converted a near-bankrupt enterprise into a flourishing concern, African Consolidated Theatres, and provided a centralized organization for the distribution of films and variety acts on a nationwide basis. A,subsequent subsidiary enterprise was African Film Productions, with its weekly African Mirror , considered to be the oldest news-reel in the world. During the twenties it was Schlesinger who sponsored the country’s first chain of radio stations, forming the African Broadcasting Company (1930), from which, in 1936, the South African Broadcasting Corporation evolved as a government undertaking.

Schlesinger also interested himself in commercial farming, and at Langholm, near Grahamstown, he pioneered several large pine-apple plantations, establishing a canning factory in Port Elizabeth. At Kendrew, near Graaff-Reinet, he embarked on an elaborate programme of citrus cultivation under intensive irrigation, a project which failed, however, owing to the technical inadequacies of the catchment area. It was in Zebediela, in the northern Transvaal, that he developed what became the largest single citrus estate in the world.

By the early thirties, on the basis of the spectacular success of the insurance companies he had founded, Schlesinger had come to own an imposing network of cinemas and theatres, besides holding major interests in retail concerns, banking, advertising, hotels, catering, amusement parks, agriculture, canning, diamond cutting and newspapers, besides being chairman of more than eighty companies.

Of stocky stature, always immaculately dressed, and an avid reader of miscellaneous literature, ‘I.W.’, as his associates and staff called him, was a man of tremendous physical energy who liked working long hours, especially on ventures that provided a test for his salesmanship and astonishing business acumen. He enjoyed the excitement of launching new enterprises, which he planned down to the minutest detail. He maintained close personal control over all his companies, and hated delegating authority.

Schlesinger married Mabel May, a well-known actress of Johannesburg. Their only son, John Samuel Schlesinger (*1923), was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal, and Harvard University, U.S.A., and took over the vast Schlesinger organization in 1949, on the death of his father.

During the last years of his life Schlesinger was crippled with arthritis. Despite his affection for his adopted country, he never gave up his American citizenship. He was buried at Zebediela, in the northern Transvaal.

A portrait in oils by Edward Roworth is reproduced in A. C. Bouman’s Painters of South Africa (Cape Town, 1948).There is a cartoon in black paint by ‘Nemo’ in the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, reproduced in the Sjambok (28.6.1929), and a portrait in Cartwright.

Born on the 22nd August 1874 in a London suburb; died 5 February 1951 in Johannesburg. Conductor, composer.The son of German emigrants to England, Theo Wendt’s father was not completely happy about British education and sent his son to one of the Moravian Church Schools (probably Klein Welka) in Germany. There the discipline was strict, the academic standards high, and the boy could indulge his musical inclinations by beating the drum in the cadet band and by having pianoforte lessons. By the time he had turned fourteen he was determined on a career as a musician and after he had been tested by Carl Reinecke, the Director of the Leipzig Conservatoire, he returned to England for piano lessons under Robert Ernst, before entering the Conservatoire in Cologne in 1891. During his two student years in Germany he became saturated with the late German romanticism of Wagner, and returned to England for further study at the RAM. There the Academy Orchestra offered the possibility of nurturing his rapidly growing love of orchestral direction. He played the viola, at times also the timpani and other percussion instruments, and had sufficient opportunity for exercising his conducting talent. Exempted from examination, he was elected an Associate in the year in which he left England (1896).

He came to South Africa, provisionally to teach pianoforte and harmony at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown. He taught for 29 hours a week, but he also had a select private practice and was appointed to the management of a new branch of the music dealers, Jackson Bros. In time he also took up the teaching of pianoforte at St Andrew’s College. He became prominent at concerts at which he featured in the company of Percy Ould, a violinist whom he assisted in organizing music for the Grahamstown Exhibition of Arts and Crafts (end of 1898 – beginning of 1899). Wendt composed an Ode for chorus and orchestra to mark the beginning of the Exhibition and also spent some time playing on the pianos exhibited by Jackson’s. Shortly after his arrival, and towards the end of 1899, he presented pianoforte recitals at which a few of his own compositions featured on the programmes. But the opportunities for a first-rate musician were too limited and in 1901 he left the town to take up for a short while the management of a new musical branch of Darter’s in East London and then to visit Durban for a year.

Wendt embarked on a tour of South Africa in July/August 1914 (despite war clouds) and gave over 50 successful concerts at Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban (when the War broke out), Grahamstown (to revive old memories?) and Port Elizabeth. They returned to Cape Town by sea. The tours were resumed after the War and became an annual event, inspiring Durban and eventually Johannesburg to emulate them.

Amid the rather dreary round of recreational and social concerts, the Thursday evening concerts devoted to the symphonic repertoire formed an almost charmed circle and extreme measures had to be adopted after the War when they were endangered by financial considerations. A voluntary Thursday Evening Subscriber’s Society saved the situation by guaranteeing a few thousand pounds each year for their continuation. Without these concerts Wendt would have had no cause to stay on in Cape Town. In 1921 the reluctance of the Council to concede his artistic aims led him to the brink of resignation. He was approached by the Vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand to consider an appointment to the chair of Music in their projected Music Department. When Cape Town required to know the conditions under which he would continue as conductor, he demanded that the Council be relieved of the responsibility of the orchestra; this meant that an outside body would have to accept its management. The Cape Peninsula Publicity Association took up the burden and a new arrangement was reached which relieved the conductor of perennial financial worries. But after three happy years with the orchestra, there was trouble over the reinstatement of a previous reduction of 5% to the players, and when Wendt indignantly took up the cudgels, he was threatened with a reduction of R600 in his salary to meet the additional costs. In April 1924, on the eve of the orchestra’s sixth tour of the Union of South Africa, Wendt fesigned and became Musical Director and Studio Manager of South Africa’s first broadcasting station in Johannesburg. His first association with radio lasted two-and-a-half years and was ended when the broadcasting licence was awarded to Mr Schlesinger, a step which led to the creation of an African Broadcasting Company and the reconsideration of all aspects of broadcasting.

Wendt was responsible for supplying seven hours of listening entertainment each day. This included talks for women and children, operatic excerpts, plays, orchestral and chamber music concerts, as well as light music.

At the end of 1926 he departed from South Africa to establish himself in the United States of America. The American part of his career can be summarized. During the first six years of his stay he was mainly a lecturer in harmony and counterpoint at a college of music, but soon he had a variety of other occupations. He had some standing with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, for whom he composed original music and orchestrated existing music; on Sundays he travelled to Boston to conduct the Boston People’s Symphony Orchestra of 90 players; during the difficult times of the Great Depression he organized and conducted 90 orchestral players at Carnegie Hall and as a result was engaged by the National Broadcasting Corporation to conduct a series of symphony concerts. By 1933 he was established in American music circles and achieved an appointment as permanent conductor of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra in Western New York State. Three years later he left America to visit Germany with his third wife, a Wagnerian soprano, presumably for the furtherance of their respective careers. While in Germany he had the opportunity of conducting the Berlin Radio Orchestra and was invited to London by the BBC to conduct his Six South African songs for a radio broadcast.

Barely a year after his arrival in Germany he was contacted in Munich by Rene Caprara, the first Director General of the SABC, to join Jeremy Schulman and Arnold Fulton in conducting the new SABC Orchestra. He accepted this proposition and landed in South Africa for the third time in February 1938, this time to conduct a body of players which, in combination with the semi-professional City Orchestra of John Connell, had at times a complement of 80. This arrangement lasted until 1944 when the SABC appointed him their official orchestrator and arranger. During these years he also returned to Cape Town as a guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra he had established. The University of Cape Town awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Music on 10 December 1948.

Source: South African Music Encyclopaedia and Cape Times.