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STRANDFONTEIN
Silver screen for ‘skollie’ SAMANTHA LEE @Samantha_Lee121
I
t has been years in the making, but his dream of being a writer is finally being realised. John W. Fredericks (71) now lives in Strandfontein it has been a long journey to finally having his story told through a movie he wrote. The movie, Noem my Skollie, will soon hit the silver screen. Born in Kewtown in 1945 he recalls a hard life growing up on the Cape Flats. “It was a violent place. My father was a dustman and he was illiterate and always wanted me to read and write so he would pick up books for me to read on the refuse dump,” says Fredericks. His love for reading stemmed from this early encounter. And he found himself spending a lot of time at the dump. He describes it as a scene out of the Wild West, with horses, wagons and a miss mash of various recreational activities. “In our time there were no heroes. Our idols were these street fighters who beat each other to a pulp, so many of us aspired to be like them,” says Fredericks. “Some rose above those childhood fantasies but for others it become a right of passage. Leaving behind a legacy of heartache and shattered dreams.” And through these influences, he and his friends signed a pact. “I did not realise at the time that we had formed a gang. By the next day someone sprayed our name on the wall and we were looked at as a group and we were accused as a group,” he says.
They were called the Young Ones. He had been in and out of trouble since that day and at the age of 14 he received his first lashes. “At that moment I was labelled as a skollie,” he says. For the next year he had several other encounters with the law and at 15 he had the words “Mr Crime” tattooed on his arm. “I was always the best storyteller and at school I was always the best at writing competitions. For me, I was going to be a writer but something happened to me at that refuse dump,” says Fredericks. “It started with cops and robbers and I always wanted to be the bad guy.” After another run in with the law, the magistrate decided that lashes would no longer be effective and Fredericks was tried as an adult. He was sent to Pollsmoor at the age of 17. He recalls it being a sobering moment. Going from being a big gun to being made to feel like nothing. “I was nothing but a number on a ticket,” he says. He recalls the way he and his friend were looked at. “When we went in the guard shouted ‘hier is twee Christmas hampers vir julle’.” They were beat up and after refusing to be raped he was beaten again repeatedly. It would be his way with words that saved him in the end. “They wanted me to take the number, but I refused,” he says. He offered them a service to write letters and tell stories. V Continued on page 3.
A 71yearold Strandfontein man is proving that perseverance is key to success. John W Fredericks turned from a life of crime and is now living his dream of being a writer and a movie he wrote about his life will hit the big screen in September. PHOTO: SAMANTHA
LEE