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Ampie's Endgame

·2 mins

Hansie Steyn, 37 year old, lived in Jamestown, one of the suburbs of Stellenbosch, and was the only son of Ampie Steyn and his wife Katryn. The three of them lived together in a 3 bedroom house on a double plot in Jamestown. Ampie was born in 1935, and lived in the area his whole life. His father originally was a sharecropper on one of the strawberry farms in the area, but Ampie started working at the municipality after school. Through hard work, Ampie worked himself up to the position of foreman in the parks department of the Stellenbosch municipality. During this time, he bought the plot in Jamestown, and had the house built over a number of years. Katryn died in 2011, and he and Hansie continued living in the house.

Ampie always enjoyed making things in his garage, and when he retired from the municipality in 2000, he decided to convert his garage into a proper workshop where he could repair small mechanical things, like bicycles, lawnmowers, etc. Since the plot was quite large, he decided to build a larger garage and workshop on the plot. Over the next two years, he built a double garage with a proper 10m x 10m workshop attached to it. He enjoyed his retirement years repairing things for the local community. Through all of this, Ampie kept a very close eye on the finances, and carefully managed the household expenses from the pension he received, and the bit of money he made repairing things for people in his workshop. Ampie was a proud man, and fiercely independent.

It was during 2018 that Hansie noticed Ampie becoming forgetful. He would sometimes forget where he put his tools, or forget to lock the workshop when he was done for the day. He also started forgetting to pay the municipal accounts. One day, he left a soldering iron on, which caused a small fire in the workshop. Fortunately Hansie was at home, and could put the fire out before too much damage was done. Shortly after this incident, Hansie took Ampie to the local clinic, where the doctor diagnosed him with early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Winning Team #

Team SKyJaazi Members:

  • Ziyaad Jassiem
  • Sydil Kupa
  • Jason Fynn
  • Kabo Mabusha