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Piet Botha During the 1990’s Jack Hammer opened for Deep Purple and

Uriah Heep on their “Masters of Rock” tour and were also priv-
ileged to be the supporting act for ZZ Top (one of Botha’s prime

18 July 1955 to 2 June 2019 influences) on their South African tour.
During 1997 Botha was asked to write and record an Afrikaans
album. The result was the all-Afrikaans ‘Suitcase Vol Winter’
album, which is considered a classic by many and a superb
example of the ground-breaking Alternative Afrikaans genre.

In August 2003, another Afrikaans album, ‘Die Mamba’, was
released and received much critical acclaim, including being
voted the best album of 2003 by the influential SA Rock Digest
e-mag.

Botha was one of the first musicians inducted into the South
African Rock Hall of Fame in January 2002.

In February 2006 a “Tribute to Piet Botha” gig was held in
Pretoria to celebrate the music and life of Piet Botha. This whole
day event included performances by many South African artists,
all paying tribute to the influence, friendship and mentorship of
this humble musician.

On the 6th May 2006 Piet Botha was awarded a South African
Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribu-
tion to South African music. He was also awarded a Prestige
Award by the FAK in September 2006 for his contribution to
the Afrikaans language.

In May 2008 at the annual STRAB festival in Mozambique, Jack
Hammer released the critically-acclaimed album, ‘Highway 13’.
Piet Botha was born in 1955 and shared his birth date of 18th
July with Nelson Mandela. He began writing songs and forming In 2011 Botha appeared in the television series “Wie Lê Waar”
bands while still at school and his first professional gig was as (Who Lies Where) on the Afrikaans TV channel kykNET. In
an acoustic duo in 1974 at a local drinking hole in Pretoria. the programme he visits the graves of famous Afrikaner icons
and tells about their lives. The series led indirectly to the record-
Piet Botha was the son of the former South African Minister of ing and release of the very popular “Spookpsalms”, Botha’s first
Foreign Affairs Pik Botha (not to be confused with P.W. Botha). solo album in 8 years.
Pik Botha who served during the last years of the apartheid era
was considered to be a liberal, at least in comparison to others In 2012 Piet cemented his over two decades of friendship and
in the ruling National Party and among the Afrikaner commu-
nity at the time.

From 1981 to 1983 Piet Botha was involved with Wildebeest
which was one of the first bands to mix rock music with Afri-
kaans lyrics and recorded ‘Bossies’, a song about the South West
African / Angolan Border War, which was very much a no-no
during those Apartheid times.

In 1984 he co-founded the Blues Rock group Jack Hammer
which was more than just a band, it was a collective of mu-
sicians that somehow survived the strange machinery that is
the South African music industry and produced some sterling
original albums over the years. Since their first performance the
one constant factor in the band had been the man affectionately
known as “Hammer”, Piet Botha.

During 1985, Piet Botha lived in Los Angeles, working con-
struction, and other immigrant jobs by day, and writing and
recording by night.

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