SUMMARISED TRANSLATION OF ARTICLES IN EDITION 105/2011 OF THE "ONS HAANTJIE" NEWSLETTER OF THE HENNING FAMILY LEAGUE

Weer 'n Henning Vermoor/Another Henning Murdered. Mrs Amelia Henning *29-12-1973, a mother of two, who worked as a clerk at the Mangaung Police station and was a police reservist, has presumably been murdered during the night of 25 November 2010. Her naked body was found the following morning in the field next to Pasteur driveway in Hospital Park, Bloemfontein. She has probably been raped and had several knife wounds in her breast and face.

The police combed the area with dogs for clues. Amelia was last seen alive the previous evening at 19:30 at her place of residence in Fowler Str, Hospital Park, when she took meat from the fridge and told people at home that she is going for a braai elsewhere. She did not have a vehicle, so she walked.

A police spokesman said that the police is following up clues. They found several items belonging to Amelia on the crime scene. Amelia's cell phone was used for the last time at 02:00 hours, therefore, the police suspect that she was murdered soon there-after.

Amelia has been married to b5.c5.d4.e4.f1.g7.h1. Frans Henning *9-1-1971 until 2005, when they got divorced. Frans's present wife, Marisa, said that the day after Amelia's death was one of most difficult days of her life when she had to tell the two daughters of Frans [Megan-Lee (17) and Franschesca (10)] that their mother has been murdered. Frans was away with business at that stage.

Photo caption: Frans Henning with his second wife, Marisa. Unfortunately we could not get a photograph of Amelia

Republiekfees 1971/Republic Festival 1971. Who still remembers the festivals South Africa had every five to ten years after it became a republic in 1961? The 1971 festival was on the one hand a very pleasant festival, because the South African economy flourished and all the country's people, whites, blacks and coloureds shared in the prosperity. South Africa was on its way becoming one of the most prosperous countries in the world. The government worked hard to uplift, educate and train the people of Africa, who stayed behind over milleniums, to look after themselves. In the same time the whites progressed even further. Everybody, therefore, benefitted from the system.

On the other hand the 1971 festival was a festival of grief. As part of the festivities which was planned for 31 May 1971 at Cape Town, a squadron of three Hawker Siddeley 125 (Mercurius) airoplanes of the SA Air Force would have taken part in a fly past. This was the squadron transporting all VIP's, like the State President, Cabinet Ministers and other Heads of State.

b1.c6.d12.e3.f2. Cmdt Lourens Adriaan Francois Henning * 17-8-1930 was the commanding officer of the squadron and pilot of one of the aircraft. On 26 May 1971 the squadron had a practice. An accident happened and all three aircraft crashed in formation into Tabel Mountain. All eleven crew members died instantly. Cmdt Lourens Henning and seven of the crew members were buried in the hero's acre in the Voortrekkerhoogte cemetary. Unfortunately the new government allows this cemetary, and especially the hero's acre to fall in a state of decay.

Since Olivier Henning started with his research on the Henning families in 1980, he tried to make contact with Rhona Henning, spouse of Lourens or any of his five children, but without success.

This year it will be 40 years since the accident, therrefore, we would have liked to call this accident in remembrance with a photograph of Lourens, with or without his wife and children. Unfortuately it is still not possible because we can not make contact with them. Do any of our members know anything about Lourens's widow, Rhona (if she is still alive or not), or their two son's, Lourens Henning *29-4-1956 and Jan Steyl Henning *5-4-1969, or the three daughters, Iris *26-1-1954, Anne-Marie *6-4-1957 or Lizette *4-6-1962. Unfortunately we do not know their marriage particulars.

Toekoms van Henning Museum/Future of the Henning Museum. Many of the residents of Aliwal North have always been involved with the town museum. They elected a museum committee and with the support of the municipality manned, financed and managed the museum. Towards the end of 1986 the museum committee, with the support of the municipality started playing around with the idea to prepare an exihibition of the history of the town.

Early 1987 our League Secretary, Olivier Henning heard of this idea and started discussions with officials of the "old Aliwal North" municipality and the museum committee on the possibility of the Henning family participating in this exhibition, due to the fact that a Henning family was one of the first residents of the district and several other Henning families played one or other role in the history of the town. This proposal was acceptible for both parties. The town council there-after approved the proposal with a contract only expiring at the end of December 2013 (with the option that it could/would be extended there-after).

Unfortunately things changed drastically in 1995 with the negative attitude of the new town council and municipality towards any exhibition covering the history of whites. The fact that the museum also prepared an exhibition on the history of black people did not influence them at all. We can mention that Olivier Henning even donated a nice portrait of the mid 19th Century Xhosa Paramount Chief Kreli (the only one that exist) to the museum.

The municipality was not interested in maintaining the building or make any financial contribution. The curator of the museum, Mrs Madeleine Joubert performed this task over 24 years on a voluntary basis, without any renumeration. Due to the attitude of the municipality, age and her health, she decided that she is going to retire at the end of November 2010. Other members of the museum committee will keep the museum open after her retirement.

During September 2010 a deputation of the Museum Department of the Eastern CapeProvince visited mrs Joubert. They told her that they are not going to extend the contract with the museum committee of the town and that they are going to manage the museum themselves. They would decide which exhibitions would stay, which must go and how every exhibition would look like. They would take ownership of everything in the museum. Mrs Joubert told them that everything in the De Wet and Henning exhibitions, as well as several other exhibitions, belong to those families and is not the property of the government.

For our Family League these developments are very disappointing and alarming. We do not know if we can trust the provincial- and municipal officials. May be, they are sincere in their efforts, but our experience prove different. We already hear the threats that they are going to store things in front of our exhibition.

If we have to remove our exhibition -whither?, transport to remove everything?, who will do the job?, when? Are we going to try to get another site for our exhibition or do we store the exhibition at some place, and where do we get such a place, or go everything back to the original contributors? What about contributors who have already died? Although mrs Joubert is no longer directly involved, she undertake to keep us informed. Any suggestions on this subject will be welcomed

Photo captions. 1. Church Square museum, Aliwal North where the Henning exhibition can be found.

2. Olivier Henning present Mrs May De Wet of the Aliwal museum with a portrait of Paramount Chief Kreli during 1996

Afrikaner Kultuurgoedere/Afrikaner Cultural Goods. It is a fact that there are a few Henning's in South Africa who do not have any relationship with the Afrikaner nation any more. In spite of this, we can not ignore the fact that almost all Afrikaner monuments, memorials and other cultural goods also commemorate the history of all South African Henning's.

In the "old days" every nation in this country took the initiative collecting money for the erection of one or other monument or memorial. If it was in national interest, the government would take control over the monument and supply the funds for the management and maintenance of the institution. The nation concerned would still elect the governing body.

Shortly before the 1994 elections the government handed the ownership of several cultural institutions over to the applicable nation's representatives. The ruling was that the government would still subsidize these institution. The government, however, still stayed in control of a number of other cultural institutions.

In the case of Afrikaner cultural institutions the Heritage Foundation (HF) took over control of the Voortrekker Monument (VTM) in Pretoria, the Blood river terrain in Natal and a few other monuments and memorials.

Apart from the government's subsidy, the HF was now responsible for the manangement and financing of these institutions. An enormous task! It is known that lack of community involvement of the majority of fellow citizens and their closed purses are a very big challenge for the HF.

In the meantime the HF had to intervene at many of the institutions which were not handed over by the government, eg the National Literature Museum (NALN) in Bloemfontein, the Winburg Museum, several Anglo Boer War Concentration Camp graveyards, - burgher graves, - prisoner-of-war graves, as well as several other monuments.

Due to the enormous amounts of money needed, the question arised whether all these institutions should not be handed back to the government. In the case of monuments which stayed under control of the government, like the ANC Freedom Monument, the government supplied all funds needed. The implication of this, however, would mean that the government would appoint the governing body.

The majority of members however decided that the government could not be trusted. They have a history of loading all governing bodies with ANC skeletons. Other means of funding must be developed.

One of the methods decided on was to allocate membership of the Heritage Foudation to people. Interested people could apply for one of four categories of membership:

A1 - a donation of at least R50 000.00 plus an annual amount of R2 000.00 there-after
A2 - a donation of R10 000.00 plus an annual amount of R2 000.00 there-after
B - a donation of R5 000.00 plus an annual amount of R1 000.00 there-after
C - a donation of R1 000.00 plus an annual amount of R200.00 there-after.

The management committee of the Family League participated a few months earlier with the erection of the Concentration Camp Memorial in Bloemfotein due to the fact that so many Henning women and children died in these "Hell Camps". We have now decided to participate again and to apply for Category C membership of the HF, due to the fact that all these institutions commemorate the heritage of all Henning's. It is felt that Category C membership is afordable.

Our membership, however, place a responsibility on the shoulders of all our members. If you do not contribute regularly, we would not be in a position to make our contribution to the HF.

We also want to appeal to all our members to consider applying themselves for membership of the HF. A document in this regard is attached. You can also contact the Heritage Foundation at the following telephone number 012 326 6770 or send an E Mail to: hub@voortrekkermon.org.za, www.voortrekkermon.org.za . The Henning family can set an example to other families with several applications. Two individuals and the Family League are already members.

The vow taken by the Voortrekkers in 1838 at Blood River is only available in the original Cape Dutch and in modern Afrikaans and is to difficult for me to translate in English.

Photo captions: 1. Who still remember 16 December 1948, the inauguration of the Voortrekker monument when more than 100 000 people attended, including many Henning's (yours truly himself as a small boy). Can we again reach the proudness of a nation like in those days. These people contributed penny for penny towards the erectioin of the monument 2. The memorial tablet at the Concentration Camp Memorial at the War Museum, Bloemfontein, where recognition is given to the Henning Family League for its contribution for the erection of the memorial

Sterftes/Deaths. It is with regret that we learned of the death of two brothers five weeks apart. b9.c3.d3.e3.f4.g2.h4. Willem Jacobus Henning *22-11-1952 died on 21 October 2010.

He was in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Hospital for a third heart bypass operation. During the operation his heart stopped and the doctors could not get it working again.

He had his first heart attack 20 years ago and his first bypass soon afterwards. This lasted only three years. Early in 1994 he had his second bypass operation, which lasted for 16 years. (Willie's brother, Dr Nico Henning, well-known veterinary surgeon of Centurion, who informed us about the death of both his brothers, himself had a heart attack on 10 May 1994 and a by-pass operation three days later. His bypass is, therefore, also 16 years old).

Five weeks after Willie's death, his oldest brother, b9.c3.d3.e3.f4.g2.h1. Jan Melchior Henning *25-1-1947 died while sleeping during the night of 27 November 2010. The previous evening his brother Nico spoked and joked with him over the telephone.

A number of years ago Jan had heart problems and a by-pass operation. Everything went well until 5/6 months ago, when he was in an accident with a Black Taxi, which jumped a red traffic light and hit his vehicle on the left hand side. The impact of the collision knocked the left seat to the right, which broke all his ribs on the left side and bursted his left lung.The first two weeks his life was in danger and he was kept in a compulsary coma, until the lung has healed. During this time they had to shock his heart 20 times to beat correctly. According to Nico, his brother went back to work much to early. He was a boilermaker.

It also became known that b1.c6.d14.e4.f1. Christiaan Rudolph Jacobus (Chris) Henning *19-12-1924 died on 27 November 2010. Chris and his wife, Winnie would have been married for 62 years on 19 December 2010. Towards the end of his life he had several medical problems. They stayed at Westerbloem Retirement Village, Bloemfontein. They had one daughter, Santi, two grand sons and a grand daughter, plus seven great grand children - 6 daughters and a boy.

Photo captions. 1. Willie Henning busy with his favourite hobby next to the piscary
2. Chris (CRJ) Henning and his wife Winnie when they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary

Geldsake/Money Matters. We received the following donations the past three months:
TJ (Tjaart) Henning of Sinoville, Pretoria, a life long member - R1 000.00
CB (Neels) Henning of Tampa, USA, a life long member - R1 000.00
BS (Bjarne) Fowels of Hjelmeland, Norway, a life long member - R1 000.00
CR (Chris) Henning of Tsumeb, Namibia, a life long member - R600.00
WP (Werner) Henning of Cresta, Johannesburg - R500.00
Mrs M M (Marlene) Page of Pietersburg - R400.00
Mrs W (Wiena) Wilkinson of Paarl - R300.00
PB (Pieter) Henning of Sinoville, Pretoria - R300.00

Also thank you to Jan Andries and Jan Hendrik Henning and Henning Pieterse who keep on contributing with a mothly debit order, as well as all the other people who sent their 2011 contributions. Due to this the Family League can continue to serve the Henning family. Unfortunately there are still several members who have not yet contributed for 2011.

2010 Matrikulante/2010 Matriculants. Due to lack of space the article on the 2010 matriculants stand over until the next newsletter.

Henning Babas/Henning Babies. On 17 October 2010 the second Henning baby was born in Durham, North Carolina, USA. This was Allison Susan Henning, second daughter of b1.c6.d3.e11.f3.g1.h1. Prof Reyco Henning *13-9-1975 and his wife, Dr Cara Henning (born Cartwright).

Photo caption. Cara Henning of Durham, North Carolina, USA and her baby, Allison

Goue Bruilof/Golden Wedding Anniversary. b5.c1.d3.e1.f7.g4. Hermanus Francois (Herman) Henning and his wife Ena got married on 1 October 1960 in Pietermaritzburg. Their daughters, Marlize and Lizelle had the privilege on 1 October 2010 to celebrate their golden anniversary with them. Herman is keeping himself busy with jobs in and around the house. He also has a keen interest in rugby (especially Blue Bull and Sprinbok rugby) and read a lot. Ena is at the age of 70 still a keen tennis player. She is very busy in the kitchen.

Photo caption. The commemorative card issued at the golden wedding anniversary of Herman and Ena Henning