Gold panning champion on her way to Spain

Sendra Mthuke will be heading to the World Gold Panning Championships in Spain next year after winning the proficient ladies title in this year’s South African National Gold Panning Championships (SANGPC) at Pilgrim’s Rest on Saturday.

This was the 14th annual Gold Digging championship held in the historical village, and there is no end to the event in sight.

“This is a growing sport, especially in South Africa” says Jenny Swanepoel, chair of the World Gold Panning’s communications division. “South Africa has the highest amount of children competitors in the world; the youngest of which is two years old.”

The somewhat 600 entrants are divided into 10 categories. The winners of the categories are:

Pikkies (younger than five years old): Lentsu Hope Sebopela

children (between five and ten): Charmaine Fezile Mthobeni

beginners ladies: Jana de Klerk

beginners gents: Jacques Burger

2 person team: Team Lix

3 person team: Die Goudpan Vermaaks

5 person team: Macmac Smugglers

jokers: Riaan van Heerden

veterans: Coen Vermaak

traditional pan: Sendra Mthuke

juniors (10 to 16): Anja Cronje

proficient ladies: Sendra Mthuke

proficient gents (panners who have partaken in at least one competition): Joseph Mashaka

provincial: Anglo Africa

funny couples: Pot of Gold

Jané Vermaak (15) from Sabie is the current junior world champion. She predicts that gold panning will always be a part of her life since it “gives her time to have fun with her family and allows [her] to travel the world”. She was one of 34 panners representing South Africa at this year’s world championships in Kopparberg, Sweden in August. Her mother, Sonja Vermaak, is part of the current five-person world champion groupm along with Sendra Nzimba, Surprise Thulelo, Joseph Mashaka and Lois Peens.

The rules of the sport are simple: an unknown number of gold nuggets is “seeded” into 10kg-20kg sand buckets. Each contestant gets

a bucket and moves to their respective panning holes. The announcer counts down and everyone starts panning. The person to get all their nuggets in the shortest time, wins. However, since no one except the ‘seeder’ knows how many nuggets are in each bucket, contestants don’t know how if they have discovered all the nuggets.

“Water is used to wash the sand off the pan. Because the gold is the heaviest, it is supposed to stick to the pan,” says Swanepoel. “If panners lose any of their nuggets they are penalised with an extra three minutes. Therefore it’s sometimes better to be patient and careful, even if you are a bit slower.”

Contestants get to keep their loot after the event. The gold nuggets, about 1mm in size, are produced in South Africa and mainly supplied by

the South African Gold Panning Association (SAGPA) and the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation (DoCSR). “The department does, and always will, support this event and the sport as a whole,” says DoCSR spokesperson Sibongile Nkosi. “The sport promotes cohesion between ages, races, genders and classes.”

DoCSR MEC Norah Mahlangu-Mabena panned for the first time and competed in the beginner ladies category. She astonished crowds when she took second place! According to Nkosi, MEC Mahlangu-Mabena is very supportive of the sport and believes it is a way to “preserve heritage.

“At this year’s world championships in Sweden,” says Nkosi, “the cassette playing the national anthem, suddenly stopped. But we sang on wholeheartedly, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes. Everyone became even closer after that.”

Sendra won an all-expenses-paid trip to next year’s world championships in Navalgas, Spain, in August. For more information on Saturday’s

results, visit https://worldgoldpanningassociation.com/calender.html