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ESTATE LIFESTYLE

ALOE
KOPPIE

By Nicole Zerwick Photography by Ivan Muller 082 454 8487

he bench is warm in the morning love of the outdoors. He would walk from his House at

sunlight. Nestled between Doornkloof to his office at the Union Buildings, a trip
indigenous grasses and monkey’s of 25km by road, but slightly shorter across the veld
tail and shaded by Parsley trees, it is and over the Koppies. “A coronary inducing hike for
a peaceful retreat from the busy- those more beloved of blue light brigades and boozy
ness of the weekday gardeners, lunches” Kevin Ritchie of the Pretoria News quipped in
Thousekeepers and service providers a recent article on Smuts' House.
to the houses in this cul-de-sac on Boohay Lane. Even
the Spotted thick knee (Dikkop) couple think so. They During his happy botanical rambles, Smuts observed
warily eyed my arrival and are keeping their distance a grass type growing in Irene that was diff erent from
as I sit and absorb the sights and sounds. I can just see the other grasses identified in the area. It was named

the roof of Smuts House peeking through the trees, after him: Smuts finger grass or Digitaria Smutsii (now

it is so much closer than one thinks. This little Koppie Digitaria eriantha, cultivar Irene). It is still grown for
that used to be part of the Irene Estate, largely built grazing and as a hay crop for livestock. When asked by
up now, was once a favourite ramble of General Jan an American botanist why he, a general, should be an
Smuts. He would spend hours rambling and observing authority on grasses, Smuts replied “But my dear lady,
nature here and “in a light-hearted mood, he often I am only a general in my spare time”. An incredible,
used to say that Aloe Koppie was the one and only humble human being in whose footsteps you can walk
thing he really envied on his neighbour’s farm” Nigel by rambling our little Aloe Koppie.
Helme wrote in his book, Irene.

Jan Christiaan Smuts was born in Riebeeck West in
the Cape Colony and lived the life of a farm boy which
Can you find the following

developed his life-long love of nature. In those days on the Koppie?
rural custom was that only the eldest son of the family
was schooled and subsequent children remained to
work on the family farm. Sadly, Smuts’ older brother White stinkwood
died and at the age of 12 and Smuts then entered (Celtis Africana)
school. He excelled and went on to study law at
Christ’s College, Cambridge on a scholarship. Upon River bushwillow
graduating he returned to South Africa and started (Combretum erythrophyllum)
a career in law, drifting towards politics with the
approach of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899. After serving Parsley tree
in the war, he continued his career in politics, serving (Heteromorpha Trifoliata)
2 terms as Prime Minister of South Africa. For his entire
life, Smuts felt a disdain for materialism and a deep Monkey’s tail
(Xerophyte retinervis)

SOURCES: Aloe
(Aloe Transvaalensis)
• Helme, Nigel : Irene
• Ritchie, Kevin : Pretoria News, Red top grass
19 April 2018 (Melinis repens)
• www.smutshouse.co.za
• www.britannica.com/biography/
jan-smuts
• www.grainsa.co.za

Cornwall View • Issue 6 2019 11