POLOKO TAU
WILLIAM PAPPIE Jones is all smiles on the lush green golf course in a beautiful picture showing him holding up his golf club. Another picture on the back of his funeral programme shows the slain Eldorado Park taxi operator and businessman taking a swing.
These pictures and a blue-and-white golf bag on the podium near his coffin at the Saint Catherine’s Catholic Church in Eldorado Park yesterday bore testimony to Jones’s devotion to golf.
A fleet of minibus taxis parked outside the church also bore testimony to Jones’s life as a businessman.
The funeral service was opened with a hymn by the gospel ensemble Joyous Celebration, followed by speeches from golfers, business partners, family and friends.
Jones, 66, was praised throughout the proceedings for his dedication to his businesses, family and golf – his favourite sport.
His old friend and soccer boss, Irvin Khoza, reminisced about their longstanding friendship. He said people may have heard that “Pappie was very stingy. We used to sit and eat pap and vleis, phuthu(coarse pap) and sour milk and Fanta and bread. Maybe some of you have heard that Pappie once fainted from dehydration when he had cash on him,” he said.
The Orlando Pirates boss saluted Jones for his prowess in his many businesses. He described him as a beacon of hope who put his family first. “He came from an esteemed family and was raised by strong hands,” Khoza said.
Speaking on behalf of Jones’s children, Meredith Jones said he had raised them with “so much love and respect”, but said he “gave them tough love”.
Clement Jones described his brother as a “guardian angel” and “a role-model to young men”.
“He was a pillar of strength to all of us in the family. We have lost such a great person, a man of very few words,” he said.
Jones’s obituary states that he had been in the taxi industry since the early 1970s, but had developed a passion for golf at an earlier age. Having started as a caddie at the Bryanston Country Club, he became a golfer by the age of 10. He joined the South Africa Professional Golf Association in 1978.
Jones was quoted in the obituary as saying: “Golf is a gentlemen’s sport, and that is what always intrigued me and won my heart.”
Jones was the owner of, among his other businesses, the Observatory driving range and golf shop, established 15 years ago.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Bongani Mhlongo said Jones was shot eight times in the upper body and head as he arrived at his house at about 10pm on Thursday.
No arrests had been made by last night.
Jones was laid to rest at Westpark cemetery and a wake was held at Observatory golf course.