Hannes Oosthuizen matriculated at Germiston High in 1978 and started his national service in Ladysmith in June 1979. After completing his national service, he joined the South African Air Force where he trained as an Air Traffic Controller. During his army time he completed six tours to the border and ended with the rank of Captain, before leaving in 1988. He married Charlotte in February 1986 and have two children, Matthew who is 17 and Sarah who is 14.
After leaving the military, Hannes joined the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) where he worked as an Air Traffic Controller at various airports, namely Cape Town International, Johannesburg International, and Rand Airport. He finally hung up his ATC hat in 1993 and went into an export business with a friend. In 1998, Hannes and Charlotte decided to emigrate to the UK where he now works as a police officer in the county of Dorset. He is currently a patrol sergeant in the town of Bournemouth, on the south coast of England and Charlotte is the head teacher of a local private school.
Hannes has and still enjoys many hobbies. Besides obtaining his pilot's licence in 1988 and having flown hundreds of hours since then, he also completed the Dutch military static line parachute course, obtaining his Dutch para 'B' wings, as well as completing various firearms, tactical rappelling and parachute courses in Estonia, where he has also obtained his Estonian Army Special Operations Group parachute badge. In September 2006, Hannes was part of 162 military parachutists from 101st American Airborne, British 4th para and Pathfinder Parachute Group who jumped at Arnhem, Holland, as part of the official WW2 commemorations for the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, by jumping from a WW2 DC-3 over the original DZ at Ginkle Heath, in front of 20 000 spectators. Hannes is also an advanced scuba diver and has dived in various locations throughout the world, from diving with Tiger sharks in Umhlanga, Durban, to exploring a WW2 sunken German trawler in the Baltic Sea off the coast Of Tallinn, Estonia.
Hannes has completed a Degree of Arts in Police Studies with Portsmouth University and is currently completing a BSc(Hons) degree in the same subject. He will be commencing a Masters degree with Portsmouth University in Police Science and Management in 2007, during which time he will also complete his police Inspector's exam.
Hannes still retains many connections with Germiston, where he was born in 1960. He grew up there, attended primary school at Primrose and Dinwiddie Primary, then went on to Germiston High. He became involved with local government in Germiston when he was elected as a Germiston City Councillor in December 1994 but soon decided after serving his term, that politics wasn't for him and he vowed never to follow that route again. All his family live in Germiston, Edenvale, and Pretoria, and he regularly returns to visit them, having been back five times since he left. His wife is British and her family live in the UK, so it truly is a straddling of the continents to keep both sides happy, but he enjoys coming back, seeing the changes, and meeting up with family and old friends.
I have attached some photos. From the left, 1st photo = SA para jumpers at Arnhem 2006, 2nd photo = on police visit with Dutch police colleague in Maastricht, 3rd photo = Charlotte, Matthew & Sarah preparing for a dive in Tenerife, 4th photo = Matthew, Charlotte & Sarah 5th photo = Hannes & Charlotte
Married to: Charlotte
Children: Matthew (17) and Sarah (14)
Occupation: Police sergeant
Address: Bournemouth, Dorset, UK
Phone (H): +44 ...
E-mail: Available on request from rtjones@global.co.za