More than a century before paralympian Oscar Pistorius appeared in court on a murder charge, a founder member of the Pistorius clan in South Africa earned himself a lesser degree of infamy in circumstances also involving a wooden door.
In 1844, Carel August Pistorius, one of five brothers who came out from Germany, bought land and built a farmhouse on the south bank of the Vaal River. He called it Maccauvlei.
The farm took its name from the large flocks of spur-winged geese – in Afrikaans, wildemakoue – that frequented the nearby wetlands.
According to the website of the Maccauvlei Golf Club, located across the river from present-day Vereeniging, Carel Pistorius’s fierce misogyny and obdurate nature resulted in his being dubbed “Kwaai Angus” (Angry Angus) by his neighbours.
“This formidable character had a particular mistrust of women and cheques. His mistrust of women evinced by the fact that into his heavy wooden front door were carved the words ‘Women Deceiveth Ever’.”
Exactly 170 years later, Oscar Pistorius — who may be descended from one of Carel’s four brothers — stood in the dock of the Pretoria High Court, defending himself against a murder charge after shooting through the wooden toilet door in his Pretoria townhouse.
