Neville Luyt was laid to rest last Saturday at his hometown Steenberg Cove. The funeral was attended by Coastal Links South Africa members and Masifundise Development Trust Staff.
Hearing of Neville’s passing, a former Masifundise staff member Josh Cox wrote:
“I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear from Mandla and Michelle at Masifundise of the passing of Neville Luyt this week. I had the very great privilege of working closely with Neville during my time at Masifundise. As a leader of Coastal Links SA he always impressed me with integrity and willingness to stand up for what was right”.
“He would boldly and unashamedly speak out against the wrongs he saw taking place within his community, and even within Coastal Links itself. We travelled together both to Denmark for a conference and to West Africa for two weeks in 2013.”
“Travelling for so long with someone so far from home you get to know them really well and Neville and I had many laughs and unforgettable experiences together in West Africa, where he shared passionately the story of Coastal Links SA with fishermen we met along the way. Neville’s passing is not just a great loss for the Luyt family, it is a real loss for the small-scale fishers of South Africa and indeed the world. He will be sorely missed”
Concurring to Josh’s message, Florina Albertyn from Hawston said “That is so true, this is one great leader I can and will never forget. I still remember our times like it was yesterday, he always had a smile on his face.I just wish we had more memories as friends and leaders together. He will be dearly missed. R.I.P Neville the fight will continue even if your are not here anymore”.
AN impressive man, a hardworking and dedicated community worker, a loveable brother, father and husband to his children and wife, and someone who inspired greatness in others, are some of the attributes ascribed to Neville Luyt, former Western Cape chairperson of Coastal Links SA, who passed away recently.
Neville Pheoneil Luyt, born on April 9, 1981, and passed away on Sunday August 30, 2015, after succumbing to a brain tumour that was diagnosed 18 months ago.
For that one-and-a-half years after being diagnosed with cancer in April 2014, Neville still managed to work until March 2015, according to his sister, Charlene Achilles.
“Neville lived all his life in Steenberg’s Cove in St. Helena Bay, he attended the Steenberg Cove Primary School, and completed his high schooling at Weston Senior Secondary School in Vredenburg in 1999, when he was 18 years old,” says Achilles.
He then went to work in the Lucky Star Factory in Stompneus Bay, where he worked until 2008, when he decided to walk in his father’s footsteps and become a fisherman.
“My father got him a site on a boat to catch snoek, and on his first day he caught 43 snoek, and Neville was so overjoyed, he got excited, jumped in the air and told everyone about his great catch. That was a great feat for a learner, and he really celebrated,” says Achilles.
Achilles says that her father was against Neville becoming a fisherman, but that he always felt that is what he must do, because that was always his interest.
And, once he got involved in fishing, he got involved in the plight of the fishing community.
Achilles remembers him as someone who always cared for his community, whether it was about the issues at sea, or issues in the community.
She remembers Neville also as the chairperson of the local housing committee for Windhoek, the community they live in, in Steenberg’s Cove.
“The land we live on is an informal development, on the beach, and our community has been living here for a very long time. My mother, who was born here, has lived here for more than 70 years.”
Achilles says that the land was sold to a private developer who wants to throw them off the land, and that Neville and the Windhoek Housing Committee took them to court to save them from being removed, and to get the land to be developed for housing for the community.
She also remembers him as someone who travelled to Europe and Africa, to go and tell the world about the struggles and difficulties that fisherfolk experience in South Africa.
Carmelita Mostert, a Coastal Links member from Saldanha Bay also has fond memories of Neville Luyt, and says that she met him in 2007 at a CLSA workshop.
He made a great impression on her, because she found him to be someone who inspired her to do more for her community.
“He always put his community first, it was never about Neville, and the community can look back, and point out to all the good things Neville did for them,” says Mostert.
These sentiments are also expressed by Mandla Gqamlana, Programme Manager at Masifundise, who worked closely with Neville, and sometimes travelled with him to distant places around the world.
“Neville was passionate in defence of people and values he cherished and we all saw the lion at work. He fought for people and pushed them on. If his passion ever overtook him, as it sometimes did, and if he ever let the lion loose too far, he would always, in the end, reflect, forgive, apologise and make up,” says Gqamlana.
“His amazing honesty, engagement, directness and passion made the lives of those around him better and built us to achieve more than we might ever have believed we are capable of. He had the rare achievement of putting more into others than he took out and in so doing made a difference.
“Neville had no space in his life for gloominess and made an art form of demonstrating the strength required to live a positive and worthwhile life. Neville loved unity, community and togetherness; and would like nothing better than for all of us to talk, laugh, cry and engage in the all-too-human ways in which we are naturally designed.”
Christian Adams, chairperson of CLSA, says that he salutes Neville as a stalwart of the struggle of the fishing community, and that he could converse with ordinary fishers, parliamentarians and international people about the struggle of the South African fishing community.
“He occupied the international stage on behalf of South African and fisherfolk all over the world. He once addressed the Danish parliament about the plight of small-scale fishers.
“He travelled all over Africa to advance the cause of the Pan-African Programme of the World Forum of Fisher People,” says Adams.
Neville also travelled to the Philippines to explain how the small-scale fishing court case came about, and the significance of the small-scale fishing policy and why it is important for fishers all over the world to fight for their rights to have their own small-scale fishing policies in place.
“He was a local leader, active as a fisher, and therefore he could translate our struggle so that even our Members of Parliament could understand,” says Adams.
Neville leaves behind his mother Ella, wife Azalea, his two sons, Ely (7) and Noah (3), three brothers, Hirem, Tommie and Glendon, and his three sisters, Edwina, Charlene and Carmelene. His father and one sister already passed away.
Achilles says that Neville was a hardworking family man who provided for his family, and that his family are well looked after at the time of his passing.
“He leaves his family a boat and a fishing permit through which they will be able to provide for themselves,” says Achilles.
As a last word of remembrance, Gqamlana had this to say on behalf of Masifundise: ‘So, let’s remember an extraordinary life, a life more lived, a life that made us better and a life that will live on through the many people he influenced, and through the honest, open, passionate and ultimately inspiring way he carried himself.”
The Funeral Details for Neville Luyt are as follows:
Funeral Service – Saturday 5 September from 10am onwards
Service and Viewing at his home, at 10am.
Funeral Service, St. Mary’s Magdalene, Anglican Church in Steenberg’s Cove at 11am.
Internment at the Laingville Cemetery at 1pm.