13) A Decision to Move
Zambia had gained its independence from Britain in October 1964 and since then standards had been dropping. Jonny was finding that safety standards on the mine were not as good as they always had been. Once while he was working underground waste ore was tipped down the shaft he and his gang were working on. It could have caused a fatal accident. Standards that had once been so high were slipping and men’s lives were put at risk.
Schooling was another problem. Our children were still only babies but they would need to go to school one day. When the new government had taken over they made schooling free. Until then a small fee had been payable but unfortunately the government did nothing to supply the extra school places that were needed to give every child a place to be educated. There were riots at the school gates at the beginning of the term and the children with the strongest parents were the ones who got the places. It was a very sad situation. Most of the white people had family in other countries and were able to send their children out of the country for their education if they wished to but the local people did not have this advantage so they just missed out. We did not want to send our children out of the country when it was time to send them to school; they were too young for that. We also did not want them to be educated in over crowded and ill equipped classrooms
Health services also began to drop, very much like the education department the health department made everything free and so it was swamped with many sick people and they just did not have the facilities to accommodate them all.
These things had a snowballing effect, skilled people left because standards dropped and so there were less people to maintain things and standards dropped even further and there were less people to train the local people to do the jobs that needed to be done. Because people were leaving and taking their money out of the country there was a drain on the economy so the government brought in laws to stop people taking out all the money that they had saved on the mines.
I now sometimes wonder if things would have been better if people had stayed and helped the country get on its feet but the exodus of skilled workers was so great nothing we could have done would have made a difference. Our decision was maybe a selfish one but there was a great deal of unrest there and with the terrible unrest and brutal murders that had not long ago happened in the Congo still very fresh in peoples minds we were concerned about the future.
Many of our friends were packing up. One couple, Ray and Jill Wain and there two daughters Colleen and Diane were just about ready to go when we heard form another friend Peter Mansell that he was looking for someone to drive down his second car. We introduced them to each other and Jill drove Peter’s car for him.
Two brothers Mike and Gordon Spencer were planning to go back to their native Durban. They had quite a bit of money tied up in the country and so they decided to buy cars from the United Kingdom and have them shipped out to South Africa, this was a way of getting ones money out of the country. Jonny’s brother-in-law Derrick’s brother David Van Leeve, who was not going to leave just then decided that he would buy a car from the U.K. too. They all ordered brand new E-Type Jaguars but before they took delivery David changed his mind and bought a second hand car instead. He asked Jonny if he would like to take over the Jag that he had ordered. It seemed a very good business deal as we were going to Southern Rhodesia that had by then declared UDI and had sanctions placed on it. There was a shortage of imported cars and we figured that we could sell it there for a nice profit.
By then we had sold our VW the “Little Red Devil” and I was driving a VW Variant estate car. When we made up our minds to leave we decided to sell the Variant and buy a VW Kombi also with the idea of making a profit on it when we got to Rhodesia. Dave Van Leeve bought the Variant from us. At that time Jonny was driving a Daihatsu truck, so before we left he loaded most of our furniture on to the Daihatsu and took it to Rhodesia. Ray and Jill had agreed to store it for us. I think we had it in mind to take the Daihatsu with us when we left but on that trip Jonny found a bit of a problem getting spares for it so we decided that it would be better to sell it in Zambia where spares were readily available.
Before we could take our pets into Rhodesia we needed to get permits for them all. We could not take the Duiker so we had to find homes for them. Many of our friends wanted to give them homes but we were not sure that their yards were fenced well enough or that their dogs would not attack them. Also we were sure that we would offend someone if we chose one family over another. We heard about a place in Ndola called the Monkey Fountain Reserve. I rang them to find out if they would give our pets a home and was very surprised to be told that they were very short of female duiker so were more than just willing to take them, they really wanted them. They had a large enclosure for their duiker but they were mostly males. When the time came for them to go two men came to collect them. We had quite a job to get them into their vehicle as they had got a fright because Moses was up on the roof at the time, taking down the television aerial. The men from Monkey Fountain said that things that could attack them from the sky frighten most wild animals. But eventually with the assistance of Jonny, Moses, Buck Jones and one of his sons Bokkie and Bandy were safely loaded onto the van and were off to their new home. It was sad to see them go, they had been such lovely pets and we were all very fond of them.
Moving the dogs was not a problem, they needed to have all their injections and health certificates to be given permits to cross the border but they were easily done, getting the paper work for the parrot was much harder. I suppose it was something to do with the fact that it was a wild creature and not a domesticated one like the dogs. We had to get forms from all sorts of government departments to get Koos’ permit. I don’t remember the whole procedure but I know it took a lot of time and afterwards we used to laugh as no one ever asked for his permit, no one ever looked at it.
It turned out that Jonny would have to go to England to take delivery of our E Type Jag, we had not expected that but we arranged that he would fly from South Africa to England. We would all motor down to Southern Rhodesia together, we would put our dogs into kennels there and then we would continue on to Pretoria where the children and I would stay with Don and Vicky while Jonny flew to England to collect the car and arrange for it to be shipped out to Cape Town. He would then fly back to South Africa and we would go to Cape Town together to collect the car.
Dave Van Leeve who had bought our VW Variant asked us if we would take it down to Rhodesia for him. He was going over to England too to collect a car but for some reason he wanted to have the Variant in Rhodesia to travel back to Zambia in later. I did not want to take it as it meant that I would have to drive it as Jonny was going to drive the Kombi. Eventually I was talked into it and when we could see how much stuff we had to take with us we were glad that we had the extra space. Jonny was to go in the Kombi with all the furniture that had not already been taken down to Ray and Jill and Saint and Mitzie and Koos. Me in the Variant with the two babies, the suit cases and sundry items such as the sewing machine the food mixer and other small items. The day before we were due to leave we got a message from Dave, who was already in England that he had changed his mind and he did not want us to take his car to Rhodesia but by then we knew that we needed it to get all of us and all of our possessions there so we just had to tell him that it was too late to change his mind and we were taking it.
We arranged that we would travel the first part of our journey at night. It was a long stretch to the border crossing at Chirundu with no suitable places to stop so we figured that if we could drive through this part when the children were asleep it would make things easier. Our plan was that Cecilia was going to have Jonathan and Dominic for the day while we finished packing the cars and then we would sleep for the rest of the day and would wake at sundown to collect the children have a last meal with Cec and ride off into the night with two sleepy children that Cecilia had kept awake all day. They would be so tired they would fall asleep on the cot mattresses that we had laid out in the back of the car. I suppose we should have taken Jonathan and Dominic into our confidence and organised it with them as they were not very cooperative but that is another story.
Schooling was another problem. Our children were still only babies but they would need to go to school one day. When the new government had taken over they made schooling free. Until then a small fee had been payable but unfortunately the government did nothing to supply the extra school places that were needed to give every child a place to be educated. There were riots at the school gates at the beginning of the term and the children with the strongest parents were the ones who got the places. It was a very sad situation. Most of the white people had family in other countries and were able to send their children out of the country for their education if they wished to but the local people did not have this advantage so they just missed out. We did not want to send our children out of the country when it was time to send them to school; they were too young for that. We also did not want them to be educated in over crowded and ill equipped classrooms
Health services also began to drop, very much like the education department the health department made everything free and so it was swamped with many sick people and they just did not have the facilities to accommodate them all.
These things had a snowballing effect, skilled people left because standards dropped and so there were less people to maintain things and standards dropped even further and there were less people to train the local people to do the jobs that needed to be done. Because people were leaving and taking their money out of the country there was a drain on the economy so the government brought in laws to stop people taking out all the money that they had saved on the mines.
I now sometimes wonder if things would have been better if people had stayed and helped the country get on its feet but the exodus of skilled workers was so great nothing we could have done would have made a difference. Our decision was maybe a selfish one but there was a great deal of unrest there and with the terrible unrest and brutal murders that had not long ago happened in the Congo still very fresh in peoples minds we were concerned about the future.
Many of our friends were packing up. One couple, Ray and Jill Wain and there two daughters Colleen and Diane were just about ready to go when we heard form another friend Peter Mansell that he was looking for someone to drive down his second car. We introduced them to each other and Jill drove Peter’s car for him.
Two brothers Mike and Gordon Spencer were planning to go back to their native Durban. They had quite a bit of money tied up in the country and so they decided to buy cars from the United Kingdom and have them shipped out to South Africa, this was a way of getting ones money out of the country. Jonny’s brother-in-law Derrick’s brother David Van Leeve, who was not going to leave just then decided that he would buy a car from the U.K. too. They all ordered brand new E-Type Jaguars but before they took delivery David changed his mind and bought a second hand car instead. He asked Jonny if he would like to take over the Jag that he had ordered. It seemed a very good business deal as we were going to Southern Rhodesia that had by then declared UDI and had sanctions placed on it. There was a shortage of imported cars and we figured that we could sell it there for a nice profit.
By then we had sold our VW the “Little Red Devil” and I was driving a VW Variant estate car. When we made up our minds to leave we decided to sell the Variant and buy a VW Kombi also with the idea of making a profit on it when we got to Rhodesia. Dave Van Leeve bought the Variant from us. At that time Jonny was driving a Daihatsu truck, so before we left he loaded most of our furniture on to the Daihatsu and took it to Rhodesia. Ray and Jill had agreed to store it for us. I think we had it in mind to take the Daihatsu with us when we left but on that trip Jonny found a bit of a problem getting spares for it so we decided that it would be better to sell it in Zambia where spares were readily available.
Before we could take our pets into Rhodesia we needed to get permits for them all. We could not take the Duiker so we had to find homes for them. Many of our friends wanted to give them homes but we were not sure that their yards were fenced well enough or that their dogs would not attack them. Also we were sure that we would offend someone if we chose one family over another. We heard about a place in Ndola called the Monkey Fountain Reserve. I rang them to find out if they would give our pets a home and was very surprised to be told that they were very short of female duiker so were more than just willing to take them, they really wanted them. They had a large enclosure for their duiker but they were mostly males. When the time came for them to go two men came to collect them. We had quite a job to get them into their vehicle as they had got a fright because Moses was up on the roof at the time, taking down the television aerial. The men from Monkey Fountain said that things that could attack them from the sky frighten most wild animals. But eventually with the assistance of Jonny, Moses, Buck Jones and one of his sons Bokkie and Bandy were safely loaded onto the van and were off to their new home. It was sad to see them go, they had been such lovely pets and we were all very fond of them.
Moving the dogs was not a problem, they needed to have all their injections and health certificates to be given permits to cross the border but they were easily done, getting the paper work for the parrot was much harder. I suppose it was something to do with the fact that it was a wild creature and not a domesticated one like the dogs. We had to get forms from all sorts of government departments to get Koos’ permit. I don’t remember the whole procedure but I know it took a lot of time and afterwards we used to laugh as no one ever asked for his permit, no one ever looked at it.
It turned out that Jonny would have to go to England to take delivery of our E Type Jag, we had not expected that but we arranged that he would fly from South Africa to England. We would all motor down to Southern Rhodesia together, we would put our dogs into kennels there and then we would continue on to Pretoria where the children and I would stay with Don and Vicky while Jonny flew to England to collect the car and arrange for it to be shipped out to Cape Town. He would then fly back to South Africa and we would go to Cape Town together to collect the car.
Dave Van Leeve who had bought our VW Variant asked us if we would take it down to Rhodesia for him. He was going over to England too to collect a car but for some reason he wanted to have the Variant in Rhodesia to travel back to Zambia in later. I did not want to take it as it meant that I would have to drive it as Jonny was going to drive the Kombi. Eventually I was talked into it and when we could see how much stuff we had to take with us we were glad that we had the extra space. Jonny was to go in the Kombi with all the furniture that had not already been taken down to Ray and Jill and Saint and Mitzie and Koos. Me in the Variant with the two babies, the suit cases and sundry items such as the sewing machine the food mixer and other small items. The day before we were due to leave we got a message from Dave, who was already in England that he had changed his mind and he did not want us to take his car to Rhodesia but by then we knew that we needed it to get all of us and all of our possessions there so we just had to tell him that it was too late to change his mind and we were taking it.
We arranged that we would travel the first part of our journey at night. It was a long stretch to the border crossing at Chirundu with no suitable places to stop so we figured that if we could drive through this part when the children were asleep it would make things easier. Our plan was that Cecilia was going to have Jonathan and Dominic for the day while we finished packing the cars and then we would sleep for the rest of the day and would wake at sundown to collect the children have a last meal with Cec and ride off into the night with two sleepy children that Cecilia had kept awake all day. They would be so tired they would fall asleep on the cot mattresses that we had laid out in the back of the car. I suppose we should have taken Jonathan and Dominic into our confidence and organised it with them as they were not very cooperative but that is another story.
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