Ben Dekker

Ben Dekker died in November 2026, aged 86. Netwerk24 reported his death on the evening of 10 November 2026 and News24 published an obituary on 11 November, both using photographs supplied by Dr Lydia Dekker. Social media posts said he died in Port St Johns. The exact date, place and cause of death had not been confirmed in published reports at the time of writing, and funeral arrangements had not been made public.

Benito Adolfo Dekker was born on 21 October 1940 in Kentani (Centane), Eastern Cape, to newly arrived Dutch immigrants. He grew up in Vincent, East London, with two older brothers and two younger sisters, one of whom is the sailor Anna Woolf, described as one of South Africa's most accomplished long distance sailors. His father was Frits Dekker. He matriculated from Selborne College in East London at the age of 17.

After school he was contracted for five years by the Department of Forestry. He completed two years at Saasveld Forestry College and was posted to Lottering Forest Station in the Tsitsikamma, where he also qualified in surveying and drift sand reclamation, work that took him all over South Africa. In 1962 he started a BA in philosophy and fine arts at Rhodes University, working as a lifeguard to pay his fees. He continued studying at the University of Cape Town, where he earned an honours degree. His master's thesis, Bantu Philosophy, was turned down as politically incorrect and he said it was blacklisted by South African universities. Sources differ on whether a master's degree was ever granted: a 2001 Sapa report credited him with an MA from UCT, while a 2000 IOL report said the university council refused his registration as a master's student after the 1970 election. He posted the thesis online in 2012.

Dekker worked with CAPAB (the Cape Performing Arts Board) in the late 1960s as an actor, set designer and lighting technician, appearing in Uys Krige's Die Loodswaaiers (1966), Guy Butler's Cape Charade (1968) and Titus Andronicus (1970). He was among the first performers at The Space in Cape Town, in Gilgamesh and Othello Slegs Blankes (1972), and designed Matsemela Manaka's Egoli: City of Gold there in 1979. His films include Die Wildtemmer and Seun van die Wildtemmer (1973, as Kobus le Grange), House of the Living Dead (1974) and Survivor (1987). On television he appeared in the French series Sam et Sally (1980), as Gaitsigubib in Die Vlakte Duskant Hebron (1982), his best remembered role, and as Adam in The Outcast (1983).

In the 1970 general election Dekker, then a 28 year old student, stood as an independent against United Party leader Sir De Villiers Graaff in Rondebosch. With no money for offices he took out a hawker's licence and campaigned from a fruit barrow at the Rondebosch fountain under the slogan "Stem lekker, stem Dekker" (Vote well, vote Dekker). He called for universal suffrage, challenged Graaff to a swimming race to Robben Island and packed UCT halls. He polled 1,694 votes. Regarded as politically dangerous, he had his passport suspended, but he still travelled throughout Africa, sometimes on an Amnesty International travel document, and later served as a peacekeeping delegate for Amnesty International in conflict areas.

From 1980 Dekker lived at Second Beach in Port St Johns in a hut he built in the Mthumbane forest, fishing, diving for crayfish, foraging and gardening. He became a local landmark, and Lily's Lodge named its bar Ben's Bar. He looked after local AIDS orphans until they could be placed, laid out and mapped walking trails and guided hikes. Around 2018 he moved back to Cape Town and lived for some years in Woodstock, and by 2024 he was living on the Bluff in Durban with his friend Dr Lydia Dekker (no relation) and her husband Nico, before returning to Second Beach.

Dekker opposed apartheid openly at a time when calling for universal suffrage was outside mainstream politics. He believed in living lightly off the land and in conservation through hands on work, often carrying a panga to clear paths and trim overgrowth. Friends described him as someone who never allowed himself to be put in a box or given a political label.

Dekker painted, sculpted and wrote poetry. His books include the Afrikaans poetry collections Aas vir Aspoestertjie (1986) and Baai Besoekers (1993), Dylan Thomas: 20 Gedigte (2000, translated and illustrated), the self published Am I Still Alive? of short apartheid anecdotes, and the trail booklet Operation Footprint. He said he also wrote novels under pseudonyms. His life is the subject of Ben Dekker: Larger Than Life (2013) by Gerald McCann, and of profiles by WegTV, Netwerk24 and kykNET's Karakter series.

Dekker regularly drew police attention. In late 2000 he and his companion Loretta Toon were arrested for public indecency at a lagoon in Port St Johns, and in January 2001 both pleaded guilty and paid fines of R200 each. The same year he was reported to have thrown rocks at fishermen driving a 4x4 on the beach.

Dekker is remembered as a South African original: an apartheid era protest candidate, a familiar face of Afrikaans film and television, and a self taught naturalist who gave much of his life to the forests and beaches of Port St Johns. Writers, travellers and former classmates have written about meeting the towering, softly spoken man striding along Wild Coast roads, and news of his death drew tributes calling him a legend of the Transkei.