During World War 2, he enlisted with the South African Army as a young soldier and served in North Africa as a tank driver. It is probably here where he developed driving skills that became useful later in his life. Soon after the war, in about 1946, Bill Mitchell (later the founder of the company Lake Marina Properties (Pty) Ltd. and several others) arrived from England with his wife, a Miss Patchet. It is said that Bill Mitchell and his wife eloped and married in England before arriving in South Africa. The Mitchells settled in Paarl where Bill managed the Patchet steel company. It is also Bill Mitchell who built one of the first houses in Courtrai, a suburb of Paarl.
At about this time, China was a car salesman for Sam Baumeister in Paarl and it is probably through the motor trade that he befriended Bill Mitchell. Bennie Woods and Aubrey Bloom were another 2 close friends of China. It is not clear whether China worked for Patchet Steel at this time, but he did transport truckloads of steel for Bill Mitchell to Rhodesia, the present-day Zimbabwe. China assisted Bill in various projects as a general assistant and a bond developed between these two persons. Bill Mitchell had the ability to identify special skills in people and put it to very good use in his business. The Patchett steel business was sold and moved to Rhodesia.
Bill Mitchell and his family moved to Valley Road, Hout Bay and in about 1953 Bill Mitchell started another business, Transcape Steel. Mr. Mitchell, amongst his various business undertakings, was also involved in the diamond business, probably with Sam Collins, and had a diamond plant in the Barkly West and Kimberley area. China finds himself here, probably as a general assistant or a machine operator, and meets Johannes Hendrik Coetzee, better known as “Zig” and with whom he forms a strong friendship. Zig was an ex-policeman and also a good rugby player. He could zigzag his way through the opposition, but unfortunately fractured his neck during a rugby match. The injury was not too serious, but left him with a permanent crook in his neck. Anyhow, China and Zig became good friends and worked together on several other projects.
The company of Lake Marina Properties, under Bill Mitchell, purchased the farm known as Afdaksrivier portion 6 and on which Fisherhaven is now situated. China and Zig moved to Fisherhaven and became involved in the site works that took place here from about the end of 1967 to the middle of 1970. Zig was the site manager and China the works foreman, but he also drove heavy-duty vehicles. During my enquiries, I met Frans Kroukamp, a carpenter of Botrivier. As a young man, Frans worked as an assistant on the Fisherhaven site during those early years. For the duration of the project, he and other assistants lived in a converted double-decker bus, parked roughly at the 4-way intersection of Farm Road and China Marais Drive. When I asked him what sort of persons China and Ziggy were, he simply said: “Meneer, hulle was rowwe manne!” I have the impression that they worked and played very hard. Zig married Jean Armstrong during 1967.
