Big Brother's daredevil
2001-08-29 13:40
"I always have to do something new, push the limits," said Steve van Rooyen (29), Big Brother's contestant from Zululand and a self-confessed adrenaline-junkie. "So entering this competition is something I just knew I had to do."
And the residents of the farming town of Mtubatuba are behind Van Rooyen all the way.
"He's got just the right kind of personality," said town doctor Maarts Pillay. "Yes," said the childhood friend, "he's got a hide like a rhino. Nothing fazes him and everything is good for a laugh."
A few weeks ago, Van Rooyen announced to all his friends that he had entered the Big Brother contest. Most were frankly disbelieving. It was hard to think that someone they had known all their lives would become a national celebrity - literally overnight.
Even a few days before the series started, Van Rooyen himself was telling friends that he was not certain whether he was on the shortlist.
It emerged that everyone associated with the show had been sworn to secrecy.
It was a stunned community that suddenly saw him being introduced on the habit-forming virtual reality peepshow, and within 24 hours he was the town hero.
Van Rooyen's parents, Linda and Glen van Rooyen, have travelled back to Mtubatuba to look after his house and affairs. But according to their contract with the show's producers, they are not yet allowed to give interviews.
However, whenever they appear in town they are approached by people they hardly know, who wish them luck for their son.
Van Rooyen grew up on a farm just outside Mtubatuba, on the Umfolozi River. His father farmed, among other things, macadamia nut trees. Van Rooyen spent one of his teenage summers planting 2 500 macadamias, and vows now that there is nothing that anyone can teach him about the prickly trees. But he was not keen to follow in his father's footsteps.
"I couldn't really see myself as a farmer," he said. "But all my friends are here in Mtubatuba. So when my folks decided to sell up and leave (they retired to Umdloti) I decided to stay on and find myself a business."
Van Rooyen started an extermination company called Mtuba Pest Control and struggled in the beginning to get it off the ground.
"I went out on every job myself: spraying, removing bees from ceilings, getting rid of moles, you name it. Really getting my hands dirty. But the people of the town really supported me and have been really good to me."
His business has grown and he now employs two other people and has made quite a "killing" in Zululand by getting rid of creepy crawlies.
But his real love is getting into trouble.
"I've got plenty of insurance," he chuckles, getting onto his BMW 650 Dakar motorcycle.
Weekends find Van Rooyen setting off to Durban to hit the night-clubs and discos. Just before he left for Big Brother, he was setting up a shark-diving tour operation. Back home he is never far away from dirt-biking, diving, mountain-boarding and surfing - actually any pursuit that involves high speed and a fair amount of danger.
But he has also achieved something which up until now would have been regarded as impossible - he has turned an outdoor farming, fishing and boating community into a town full of couch potatoes. - Natal Witness