Gentleman journalist is still writing, playing golf at 94

PIET EBERSöHN writes: South Africa’s oldest agricultural magazine, Farmer’s Weekly, was for some time part of the Perskor stable. The magazine was started by The Friend in Bloemfontein in 1911 and was later sold to the Argus Group. The Argus sold it to Republican Press, which was later taken over by Perskor. K’rant introduces one of the stalwarts of the magazine.

Piet traced GEORGE NICHOLAS, undisputed doyen of South Africa’s agricultural journalists. He turned 94 on the 29th of May this year, but is still a regular contributor to Farmer’s Weekly and does not miss his weekly round of golf – albeit he owns up that he recently reduced it to nine holes only.

George and his wife, Connie, were living in Pretoria for the past 37 years, having been based in the capital since he took over as the head of FW’s Central Bureau. George recovered well after a brutal assault on him earlier this year, but decided to leave Pretoria and settle in a retirement village in Stutterheim where their daughter lives.

Right: Anneli Groenewald, deputy editor of Farmers Weekly, handed a cartoon to George and Connie Nicholas when Pretoria’s agricultural journalists said goodbye to them recently. Picture: Hans Lombard.

Although being a top journalist, George is also the biggest gentleman I have ever met, reminding me of a story ex-agricultural minister Hendrik Schoeman liked to tell about a man looking at the epitaph in a graveyard. It read: “Here lies an honest man and a good politician”, the man wondering why they buried two people in the same grave.

Next to my Afrikaans teacher, Naas Terblanche, and Die Transvaler’s “taalredakteur“, oom Angel Engelbrecht, George played an important role in my resolve to speak Afrikaans as purely as possible.

I once used the word “dryfliksens” in his presence and he immediately admonished me in his fatherly way: “Piet, julle het só ‘n mooi taal, hoekom moet julle dit so opmórs!”

The penny dropped well and truly.

George matriculated in the 1930s at Sentrale Hoërskool in Bloemfontein – where two other Perskor stalwarts, Peet Simonis and Neil Steyn, did the same much later. He started his journalistic career at The Friend, and although he knew nothing about farming, joined the Farmer’s Weekly in 1944. The editor liked his newspaper reports about the local show and offered him a higher salary.

When the magazine opened an office in Salisbury George was the man to go. As the then Rhodesia Herald was also part of the Argus Group George doubled as agricultural editor of the newspaper.

He tells of an article he was contemplating, on an experiment with Belgian Pietrian boars (right) at a local pig research station. He considered cancelling the story, because most of the boars died of heart attacks while they were mating with sows. The editor insisted that he write the story and on being asked to suggest a heading, he offered “They Died Smiling”. Although much appreciated, it was not accepted.

George also remembers accompanying 15 Rhodesian tribal chiefs in 1964 on a seven-week world tour to study agriculture. At London’s Piccadilly station they encountered a very long escalator going down – something they have never seen before. George and four of the chiefs went first. They were so happy to arrive safely at the bottom that they stopped in their tracks to savour the achievement. Next moment, the remaining members of the party crashed into them, bowling them over – to the amusement of the more seasoned Underground travellers.

After 20 years in Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe, George returned to South Africa in 1975 to head the FW’s Central Bureau in Pretoria.

Wherever he went, he served the community in numerous ways. As far as journalism is concerned he was the national president of the Rhodesian Guild of Journalists for eight years, a founder member and later president of the Agricultural Writers Association of South Africa (AWASA) for five years. He represented the latter on the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. In 1985 AWASA elected him as honorary life vice-president.

Oboe

Few people are aware of it, but he also played the oboe in the Salisbury Philharmonic Orchestra.

When Pretoria’s agricultural journalists said goodbye to George and Connie recently (another Hans Lombard initiative), he told the following story:

The Pretoria Show annually publishes a newspaper during the two weeks that the show runs. One year it was George’s job to write the copy and take the pictures. Every evening there was some fancy dinner which he had to attend to take pictures. By the tenth dinner he was thoroughly fed up with catering fare.

So he told wife Connie: “Nobody will miss us. Let’s sneak away and get the films to the photo laboratory to develop. While we wait for it, we can have some fish and chips at the Wimpy close by.”

So they left, dropped the films at the laboratory and went to the Wimpy – dressed to kill.

Next to them was a family tucking away at their food. George noticed frequent glimpses at him and Connie. However, as journalist his path crosses those of lots of other people, and it could have been that they met before. Eventually the people finished their meal and departed. Only George and Connie were left in the restaurant.

The manager came up to them and asked if they wanted anything else. “Yes,” George said, “we’d like a cup of coffee each.”

They drank their coffee and George called for the bill.

“There is no bill,” the manager said, “the people that just left settled it.” “But why? Who are they?” asked a flabbergasted George.

“I don’t know them. They just said they felt so sorry for these two old people, dressed for a formal dinner, eating fish and chips at the Wimpy, that they’d like to pay your bill,” the manager retorted.

“Well then, let us pay for the coffee,” George said, upon which the manager smiled: “No way. It’s on the house!”