ACTOR and TV presenter, Hannes van Wyk was in Kenton and spoke about mothers and women at the Women’s Association Agricultural ladies’ morning held at the hall at Stanley’s restaurant, last Saturday.
Best known for his role as Krynauw du Boisson in the M-Net series Egoli from 2001-2010, the actor also presents Kwêla on the Kyknet channel and regularly speaks at women’s functions.
“I am not married, thankfully, I don’t have children, thankfully, but I do it straight from my heart because I have an unbelievable mother,” said Van Wyk.
He said his mother is in a retirement village in Aliwal North where he grew up and went to school.
“All I can say is old age is terrible, but leave that,” he said. “She taught me to have respect for women.”
He remembers a time when his mother baked rusks flavoured with aniseed and wore a specific perfume, and how her hands, now flecked with age spots, took such good care of him and his two siblings.
“Women are definitely the stronger sex. My mother as in most households raised the children, gave advice, listened and was secretary at Aliwal North High School for 40 years.”
The three children used to ride to school on their bicycles so that they wouldn’t have to be seen in her white Morris Minor, he laughed.
Nothing was every too much for her, not even helping them with their homework late at night.
He told a joke about a woman who never had enough time for herself. She put the children to bed, changed into her tracksuit and covered her face with a green past which hardened into a mask, when she heard a noise coming from the bedroom. She went in and settled the children and as she left the room she heard a whisper: “Who was that?”
But he also advised women on serious issues. “We all have dreams for our children, but what if one of them doesn’t turn out. The mother blames herself. But children need to take responsibility for their own deeds, for example drugs,” said van Wyk.
“When you feel like you’ve done all you can, let go and let God,” he said. “The chain of a mother’s love can link a child to God.”
They may not say it, but your kids love you, he assured moms.
Chairlady Anlouise O’Connell said the annual event held to give women in the community something to do was attended by 160 ladies, compared to 65 women when she started it eight years ago.
