Special 60th milestone for Kobus and Estelle
They have two daughters, four grandsons, and one great-granddaughter.
Kobus and Estelle de Lange celebrated 60 years of marriage on December 12. They have been homeowners at San Lameer for 41 years and have lived there permanently for 28 years.
Kobus attended school in Pietermaritzburg and then started work at Sanlam Insurance at the age of 17 in Durban.
On Friday nights, he played badminton at the church hall, where he met Estelle by giving her a lift home.
After they were married, they bought a general dealers store in Port Shepstone called Rathboneville Store.
At that stage, they sold their house and Estelle’s new VW (and more) to afford the purchase price.
Eventually, a Greek, Paul Pavlou, bought the store.
Back in Durban, while employed by Sanlam, Kobus bought a bookmakers business with partner Hennie Dirker.
After selling his share, Kobus bought Umtata and Butterworth Tattersalls in the Transkei from Sun International.
In the meantime, he bought a farm in Cato Ridge where, in Kobus’s words, ‘one worked yourself thin as a rake’.
He sold the farm to concentrate on marketing at Sanlam and reached the top 20 in the company, qualifying for an overseas trip to South America.
After a few trips and 38 years with Sanlam, he took pension at age 55 and moved with Estelle to their holiday home at San Lameer, starting a new tattersalls at the Wild Coast Sun.
Three years later, he sold the tattersalls and started a golf cart rental business at San Lameer.
Eight years later, at age 67, he had 38 golf carts, which he sold to Eddie Horn – and finally retired, officially.
Friends convinced them to buy a caravan, which they did and explored Southern Africa with them.
Kobus could then do as he promised Estelle when they got married – take her to visit places she had never been to.
Otherwise, they keep busy playing golf and investing in the stock market, visiting family and friends and so on.
They have two daughters, four grandsons, and one great-granddaughter (Miamai, who is 15 months old).
Their daughters are Rochelle and Leonie, a biochemist in London and a teacher in Pretoria, respectively.
One grandson (Tiaan) is an accountant with Deloitte in London, two (Armand and Wian) are engineers in Pretoria, and the fourth (Jacques) is a quantity surveyor in Cape Town.
The family united to celebrate the special occasion in Stellenbosch.
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