<a href="https://absafricatv9491.live-website.com/south-africa-makes-travel-easier-with-48-hour-eta-visa-for-eligible-indian-travellers/" title="South Africa Makes Travel Easier with 48-Hour ETA Visa for Eligible Indian Travellers”>South Africa is mourning the death of the beloved former SABC news presenter-turned-conservationist, Gillian van Houten. She was 72.
Her death was confirmed in a moving Facebook post by her former husband, wildlife filmmaker John Varty of Londolozi Game Reserve.
Van Houten was a familiar face on TV screens in the 80s and 90s, before she left the broadcasting world to join Varty on a leopard conservation project.
Varty tells their love story in a song he wrote for her in 2022, in which he talks of a doctor telling him that her memory was slipping away.
He reportedly later revealed that van Houten had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
The video features a sound clip from van Houten, who relates how at the time she received a letter from him, she needed a new challenge.
“Then on a scrappy piece of paper came an invitation to join my friend and wildlife filmmaker John Varty on a leopard project at Londolozi Game Reserve. On impulse, I resigned my job, packed my bags, sold my house and caught a small plane out.”
What followed was a life of conservation memorialised on film and in photographs of van Houten and Varty with rescued big cats as cubs and the animals’ journey into adulthood.
They have three children together – Savanna, Sha and Tao.
Among the tributes to van Houten on social media, was this clip from her newsreading days on SABC:
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