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Upington Tales I — the river town, the murder case and the all-woman newspaper

Upington Tales I — the river town, the murder case and the all-woman newspaper
Die Gemsbok squad: Back row, from left: Nicolene Burger, Mariaan Esterhuyse, Ona Nel, Lidia Peens, Marina Scheepers; Front, from left: Shieda Jonkers, Elsa Jones and Ebeth Burger. (Image: Chris Marais)
Chris Marais
By Chris Marais
23 Jan 2025
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Sent to Upington to cover a murder case 41 years ago, two urbanites find themselves in the company of a local newspaper legend.

Overflying the Orange River in the Karoo-Kalahari crossover zone at 10,000m in an SAA Boeing 737 was like watching a restless green anaconda writhing its way through a vast khaki landscape.

Descending, you could see the vibrant river, the lush farms on her flanks and the stony desert beyond. Even a city-bred youngster like me could instantly work out the economics of the situation. Having a riverside farm with canal access meant you were blessed. Anything further out and you farmed hard, Kalahari-style.

Mid-20th century Upington from the air. (Photo: Courtesy of Kalahari-Oranje Museum)



The Pierre van Ryneveld Airfield back in the 1950s, long before it became the Upington Airport. (Photo: Courtesy of Stolper & Son) The Pierre van Ryneveld Airfield back in the 1950s, long before it became the Upington Airport. (Photo: Courtesy of Stolper & Son)



In the mid-summer of 1982, photographer Noel Watson and I had been sent to Upington by the Rand Daily Mail newspaper in Johannesburg to cover a murder case that had a land battle at its core.

A local farmer had lost his prized river island property to the man he had borrowed money from, a well-known senator and prominent Karakul sheep farmer. Shots were fired, one guy died and the other guy was up for murder.

Read more: Colours of the Kalahari — answering the desert’s call

The dinky little Upington Airport with its super-long landing strip (Concorde was tested here and, if it really needed to, the Space Shuttle could have touched down here as well) became our sunset stop-over for more than a month.

We would hand the day’s shot film over to a willing passenger on the 7.30pm flight to the Big Smoke. He would then drop it off at the Avis counter and someone from the office would pick it up, rush it to the darkroom and print up selected photographs for the late morning edition of the Mail.

What could go wrong?

Let’s just say there were some irate phone conversations with various editors (news editor, picture editor and night editor) over the weeks that followed. Drunken flight passengers from Upington don’t make the most reliable film couriers.

Upington Legendary newspaperman Douglas Jones. (Photo: Courtesy of Die Gemsbok newspaper)


Mr Jones


Enter Douglas Jones, star reporter and Editor of Die Gemsbok, the local paper. A tall, rangy guy, Jones had the look of a long-ago Hollywood matinee idol. He had a gruff voice and a direct manner and being the only other journalist to cover the murder case in those first few days, a great sense of generosity towards the two urbanites who were plying him with drinks at the bar. 

Jones quickly brought us up to speed on the murder case at hand, the main players in the courtroom and the dynamics of life along this stretch of the river.

His sense of humour broke the ice of Upington for us, as it were, and we came to love our time in this district. There were misdemeanours, accidents and incidents, to be sure, but that’s for another fireside session. As the T-shirt in the Kalahari Mall shop window announces: “Bad Choices Make Great Stories.” I would only add the word “Sometimes.” 

We were in the company of a legend.

Douglas Jones had worked just about anywhere a South African reporter could land a job, including Die Vaderland and Die Republikein in Windhoek. But when he settled at Die Gemsbok, he brought all his old-school skills with him and gave this wonderful little country paper everything he had. In a way, Upington had given Jones a second wind.

When he died in September 2006, Douglas Jones was mourned by many. And now, 41 years after that first trip, I was in Upington again to meet his widow, Elsa, who had taken up the reins of Die Gemsbok after his passing.

But first, we do some sight-seeing to orientate ourselves.

We spend most of our first Upington day doing the drive-around touristy stuff: the Kalahari-Oranje Museum and the donkey statue dedicated to all the beasts of burden that helped build the Orange River Scheme a century ago, said black ox in the veld followed by a quick spin with Lady Luck at the slot machines of the Desert Palace Casino.

The Working Donkey statue outside the Kalahari-Oranje Museum at Upington. (Photo: Chris Marais)


Community media


Here’s the thing about regional newspapers like Die Gemsbok: They have eyes and ears on the ground – not only in the form of in-house journalists but also in the large network of contacts spread out in the towns, villages and farming communities within their catchment area. 

These news gatherers know which school or club won their rugby games last weekend, which old age homes are staging a fundraising fête on Saturday and which farmer produced a giant 11kg head of cabbage last month.

They also attend municipal council meetings, they’re the first news responders at a crime scene and they know who’s cooking the books in the halls of local power. They’re friendly with the cops, the whistle-blowers and the colourful characters populating their landscape.

Simply put, they have local knowledge.

In a world where most advertisers have run off to Facebook, Google and Amazon, the world’s print media have shrivelled. But when you kill your local newspaper by not supporting it with your pocket, you cut yourself off from happenings in your home town. And some people in the halls of power cheer madly because they can now continue the business of ripping you off.

Die Gemsbok squad: Back, from left: Nicolene Burger, Mariaan Esterhuyse, Ona Nel, Lidia Peens, Marina Scheepers: Front: Shieda Jonkers, Elsa Jones and Ebeth Burger. (Photo: Chris Marais)


Die Gemsbok


This is why I am delighted to see this little country paper still on its feet and steered by Elsa Jones, who came to Upington back in 1986 with a BA journalism degree and honours in communications from the University of Potchefstroom.

The Gemsbok boss, Douglas Jones, had only one question for the young graduate:

“Can you type?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“You’ve got the job.”

Because Jones covered the courts and the crime, Elsa’s beat became the softer side of the newspaper: social events, women’s group activities and human interest stories.

“A third reporter covered the sports,” she tells us, settling back into her chair in the editor’s office. “For the rest, we had correspondents. Over the years, we built on that network and trained our contributors in the basics of photojournalism. It’s amazing what you can do with smartphones these days.” 

“Every now and again we leave town to cover stories. Last weekend I was at a cultural festival 250km away, up in Blouputs.”

The newspaper prints only 7,000 hard copies every week, but it boasts a mind-boggling distribution system. Elsa Jones explains in detail, mentioning destinations that include Rustenburg, Vryburg, Kuruman, Olifantshoek, Postmasburg, Calvinia, Groblershoop, Springbok and Kathu. I lose track fast.

“And then we have a guy who drops newspapers off for us at Augrabies,” she adds.

The 90-year-old Gemsbok faces the same financial pressures as iconic foreign newspapers 30 times its size, with dwindling advertising revenues and reduced editorial budget. But the passion is still there.

“Although we cover the floods and the scandals, we are also always on the lookout for positive stories,” she says. “A community paper is essential for the people who live here.”

A life of crime reporting


A while later, I speak to Marina Scheepers, Die Gemsbok’s tough crime reporter. She replaced Douglas Jones not long before his death.

“I arrived here with a journalism diploma, which Dougie showed no interest in. He just wanted me to spell the Afrikaans word weereens (again) for him. I did, and he gave me the job.”

“You are the new me,” Dougie told Marina.

“Apart from the crime stories, I report on the river incidents as well. A lot of people fall in the river in summer, when it’s so hot. We think because we grew up here, we know the river. But its flow changes from time to time.”

Read more:  The legend of Victorian-era Kalahari outlaw, Scotty Smith

One of the strangest stories Marina has investigated began with a report on the birth of a half-human, half-goat born up in the border village of Rietfontein. Photographs were sent. Police investigated. It turned out to be a malformed goat foetus.

“It was just another crazy summer story, sent in during the silly season,” DM



This is a short chapter excerpt from Karoo Roads IV – In Faraway Places (360 pages, black and white photography, R350 including taxes and courier in South Africa) available from  September 2024. Anyone interested in pre-ordering a first edition, author-signed copy should please contact Julie at [email protected] for more details.

The Karoo Quartet (Karoo Roads 1 – 4) consists of more than 60 Karoo stories and hundreds of black and white photographs. Priced at R960 (including taxes and courier in South Africa), this Heritage Collection can also be ordered from [email protected]

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