Op soek na Jac de Vries

From January 1981 to January 1985 I was First Secretary at the British Embassy in South Africa, moving between Pretoria and Cape Town with the parliamentary sessions.

I came to know, professionally and as a friend, Jac de Vries, deputy editor of Oggendblad. After my stint in South Africa my career took me back to South East Asia and Australia and I lost contact with Jac.

Jac de Vries

Whilst researching material online for a memoire (for family, not publication), I came across an article written by Jac for “K’rant” in 2015 stating that rumours of his demise were grossly exaggerated and giving an account of his eclectic post-journalistic career in South Africa and the UK.

In the sincere hope that rumours of Jac’s demise remain exaggerations, my wife Gwendolyn and I would love to be in touch again with him and his wife Christa. I hope that this will be possible through the medium of “K’rant”. The editor, Philip Deetlefs, has kindly offered to pass my email address to Jac should he wish to make contact.

I apologise to the editor and readers for writing this letter in English. My knowledge of Afrikaans has lain fallow for 35 years. Whilst I can still read it, I would not wish to inflict my attempts to resurrect it in writing on native speakers of a language, which, like its mother country, I hold in great affection.

David Fall