Soutpansberg farming pioneer passes away

Date: 17 September 2015 By: Isabel Venter

Last week the Soutpansberg region had to bid farewell to one of its ‘thoroughbred’ farmers, Mr Angus Gordon Macdonald.

He passed away in his sleep early on Thursday morning, 10 September, at the age of 92 years.

Angus, an only child, was born in Johannesburg on 27 November 1923. At the age of four months he moved with his Scottish immigrant parents, Murdoch and Margaret Macdonald, to the farm Zwartrandjies near Bandelierkop. Murdoch, a chartered accountant with the Fowler Steam Engine Company, resigned and decided to go farming, and that became a new challenge that was exacerbated by droughts and the Great Depression.

When Angus was only 14 years old, in 1937, malaria claimed his father. The burden of keeping the farm going and looking after his mother now fell on his young shoulders.

Angus was schooled in the then Pietersburg and immediately started farming after school with cash crops and livestock (beef and dairy cattle) to support his mother and himself.

During 1950, Angus met Melanie. The two of them tied the knot in June the following year and raised two children, Jill (now Whyte) and Ian.

Being intelligent and an avid reader, Angus educated himself in all farming and environmental matters and soon became an excellent and progressive grassland farmer.

Later he focused on Bonsmara stud cattle and was one of the early founder breeders. With his dairy-farming grounding, he was a gifted ‘cattleman’ and Zwartrandjies Bonsmaras soon established itself as one of the better Bonsmara stud herds in South Africa.

Zwartrandjies soon became too small for someone with Angus’s entrepreneurship, strength, energy and work ethic, and in 1964 he ventured north to the then Rhodesia. There he established an extensive beef-cattle farming company with his long-time school friend, Frank Oldrieve.

This venture grew rapidly and by the late 70s he was the general manager of three large cattle ranches with more than 3 000 breeding cows. However, the political unrest, war and cattle rustling in Rhodesia at that time resulted in the operation's being severely compromised and it was subsequently terminated.

Angus returned to the Soutpansberg, purchasing two farms near Levubu where he established avocado orchards.

Apart from farming, Angus was also a good horseman and sportsman. During the mid-50s he won numerous titles at the Louis Trichardt Tennis Club. He was also a naturalist and conservationist and long-time member of the Wildlife and Dendrological Society and was a keen and knowledgeable birder. He loved the Kruger National Park and did many adventurous trips to game reserves around southern Africa.

He farmed and tended to his beloved cows until his 80s. Zwartrandjies was later sold and Angus and Melanie retired to Louis Trichardt.

His family will remember him as a great father and grandfather with many stories, a razor-sharp sense of humour, a generous man with great work ethics and integrity. “He lived a long, full, happy and meaningful life and will be greatly missed, but leaves us all with very fond memories,” said the family.

A memorial service for close friends and family will be held on Saturday, 26 September, at 11:00 at Alan and Jill Whyte’s home on the Piesanghoek road. 

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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