Some of our older readers still remember the Van den Bergs fondly

Date: 26 July 2025 By: Andries van Zyl

Most of our readers were introduced to Oom Willem van den Berg for the first time through his exploits captured on 16mm film and now brought to life again in our weekly column about his travels over the past few weeks. But some of our older readers actually knew the Van den Bergs and still remember them fondly.

One of them is 86-year-old Tannie Ingrid Vittinghoff of Louis Trichardt. She says she really enjoys Oom Willem’s weekly travel recaps in the newspaper as they fondly remind her of her childhood years.

Tannie Ingrid recalls how she was once asked to help Oom Willem’s wife, Tannie Jo, after she had broken some ribs when she fell from her horse. At the time, Tannie Ingrid was only in Standard 5 (Grade 7). This happened in 1950.

The reason their paths crossed was that Tannie Jo ran a dairy just outside Louis Trichardt, although she and Oom Willem lived on their farm in the Levubu area. Tannie Ingrid’s father was a manager at the dairy, and when Tannie Jo got injured, the then-young Ingrid was summoned to assist.

“I was very, very nervous at first, but Tannie Jo and I developed a special bond. I loved making flower arrangements and made sure that there were fresh flowers in Tannie Jo’s house every day. She really, really appreciated it,” said Tannie Ingrid.

In recognition of all her help after Tannie Jo’s fall from the horse, she later gave Tannie Ingrid a very special and expensive silver brooch that came with the Van den Bergs when they moved from the Netherlands. “To this day, I still have the brooch, and it is very special to me,” said Tannie Ingrid. She recalls with a smile how “jealous” her mother was of the special gift.

Also remembering the Van den Bergs are former Louis Trichardt residents the Vallenduuks. “We are former residents of Louis Trichardt and now live in Mossel Bay. We read the Zoutpansberger online and came across an interesting article about Oom Willem. We knew him. He attended our wedding in 1974 in Stellenbosch. He was an uncle of my wife’s stepfather, Jan Koker from Levubu. We visited Willemonie and got to know Muschau, his ‘houseboy’, who spoke fluent Dutch, but not English or Afrikaans. Just an interesting little snippet of news you may not have known,” wrote Bert Vallenduuk in a recent letter to the Zoutpansberger.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.