I would like to pass my heartfelt condolences to the Soutpansberg and tourism community for the death of the person who was close to our (because I am not alone) hearts.

As an African man of 43 now, I got to know Mr Chris Olivier in 2000. He was, in fact, our trainer under Drum Beat College in the tourism arena. We knew him as a non-racist person who had a zeal to expand the tourism industry in the province and beyond. He was also interested in the well-being of the group he was leading, making a follow-up on our studies and lending his helping hand where necessary.

At one stage, he gave me R1 000 to go and register at the University of Venda in order to complete my honours degree’s extended essays. As he was always a busy man, we used to visit him in December on appointment. Every October and November, he would send Happy Birthday wishes to both my friend and me respectively.

We failed to visit him in 2014 and were surprised when we did not receive his messages on our birthdays in 2015. We questioned ourselves, but could not visit the house once again. It was only on the 24 June 2016 (this year!) that we visited his house at 35 Akasia Street, New Town. We were welcomed by a friendly white lady who explained everything to us.

Although we were saddened by the bad news, we were relieved as we now know what had happened to him. I was also going through your Afrikaans article entitled: Streek neem afskeid van toerismeman.

May his soul rest in peace. He will always be remembered by his words: “Guys, what are you doing to survive?” Whenever we asked, “How are you, sir?”, he would say, “I’m struggling to survive!”.

The assignment he gave us is still incomplete: “Go and think of ways to make money, just a thought of inventing something.” His assignment was calling for intellectual property.

By: N.E. Lugaga from the Elim area