The communication and marketing manager of Westcol, who also previously played a major role in the development of Khutsong Ext 5, is retiring and leaving our area this week.

Many students, educators and politicians know Salomé Du Toit as Westcol College’s spokesperson who, with her no-nonsense approach, always managed to inform and calm everyone, even during violent protests that would have seen most politicians running away from the spotlight. She did this work for all the college’s campuses in the West Rand.

Du Toit is a true resident of the area. She was born in Carletonville in 1961 and grew up in Blyvooruitzicht.
“We stayed close to the Oosthuizen family, who disappeared into a sinkhole in 1964. Although I was only three years old at the time, I can still remember my father talking about how it happened just after they arrived home from holiday,” she says.

Du Toit was a learner in Laerskool Blyvooruitsig when the school had to be temporarily moved to what is now Southdene because of safety precautions, and later completed her high school career at Callies.

She studied education at what is now the North-West University, specialising in home economics, and although she started her teaching career at the then Boskop Educational Centre in Potchefstroom, she later taught at various schools in the area, including at Wedela Technical School.

After another short move to Potchefstroom, she moved back to Carletonville and started working at what is now the Carletonville Westcol Campus.

Du Toit also became a well-known local politician and served as deputy mayor for several terms while still holding her full-time job at Westcol. At that time, the councillor serving as deputy mayor only received an allowance of R1 500 and had to help residents with all sorts of problems and communication.

According to Du Toit, her daughter, Liezl, once remarked that the work of a councillor at the time was “being everyone’s complaints office.”

Du Toit was part of the council when the decision was made to develop what is now Khutsong Ext 5, and this speaks well of the hard work that was done before this decision was made.

“We needed a place to move the people to because parts of Khutsong were not safe. We considered a place close to the Johannesburg Road near South Deep as well as near the Carletonville graveyard,” she says.

Because of her involvement in the action, there is a street called Du Toit Street in Extension 5.
In between education, about which she is still very passionate, and politics, Du Toit was also involved in various other activities such as the Wine Guild.

She is going to retire at Glentana in the Western Cape to be closer to her parents, Stoffel and Sarah Bester, who were also well-known residents of Blyvoor and Carletonville for many years.