Sakkie: A Hunter’s Story

THIS IS THE story of Sakkie, a man whose dream of being a professional hunter was cut short by a single gunshot that shattered his left leg.

I met Sakkie when PH Neil Pretorius fetched me for a two-day excursion into the bush. Sakkie hailed from a town in the Western Cape and had ridden all the way to Port Elizabeth on his motorbike. Neil had already told me how his friend had lost a leg in a hunting accident through no fault of his own, and now had an artificial leg. The traumatic incident had occurred four years earlier and caused Sakkie to lose all interest in hunting, the outdoors, and anything to do with firearms. But now a flicker of the old flame was beginning to flare once more and Neil wanted to get his friend back into the bush and hunting again. I felt