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| Pieter Snyman 6 April 1919-30 April 2005 |
1. Zeerust, 1919. Pieter Johannes Jacobus Snyman was born on 6 April 1919. As a toddler he contracts the feared illness ‘polio’ but soon regains his health to become a healthy and robust child active in sports.
2. The ‘Springbok’ Soldier. As a young man of 20-25 jr. he volunteered to serve as an infantry soldier in the Second World War (5th SA Brigade > SA Irish Regiment etc.) from 1940 to 1945 eventually to see action in historic battles at e.g. Abyssinia, El Guma, Mega, Addis Abeba, Alexandria, Mersa Matruh, Tobruk (El Quasc), Sidi Resegh & Suez against the formidable ‘Desert Fox’, Gnl. Erwin Rommel.
3. Sinking of the ‘Nova Scotia’. On 28 November 1942, at 7:15 and on leave to South Af-rica, his ship, the Nova Scotia, is sunk 80km from Lourenzo Marques in the Indian Ocean by the German U-boat (U-177) captain, Robert Gysae (i.e. about 250km from Durban). Wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a lifebelt only, Pieter dives overboard and settles with 17 Italian p.o.w.’s and another South African on a primitive, makeshift raft comprising a motley-engineered collection of banana crates and oil drums, and with an oar he assumes command of the raft and its ‘crew’ where they spend were to spend three bitter days in the Indian Ocean on the open sea.
After the third day the Portuguese ship, the Alfonso de Albuquerque with Cpt. Jose Augusto de Brito appears on the horizon; he picks up all survivors and delivers them safely to port in Lourenzo Marques (Mozambique). Reportedly only 192 of the 1266 passengers survived the tragedy.
To avoid being interred in Lourenzo Marques for the duration of the war, however, Pieter and some friends manage to escape on foot through Swaziland and Nelspruit (South Africa) back to the RSA where he served out his time (until 1945) in the army in Pretoria and in Potchefstroom.
4. From soldier to preacher. On 5 March 1943 Pieter and Marie Holtzhausen are married and after much introspection, intercession by his young wife and the constant prayers of a godly mother, Pieter comes to repentance in Christ and begins to prepare for the ministry. At the time of his departure in 2005 (aged 86) Pieter Snyman had served an estimated six decades as a dynamic, beloved preacher in the South African Pentecostal movement, known for his famous quip: “I’d rather cool down a fanatic than try and raise a corpse!”
Acknowledgements
Recommended Resources (Geni)
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