Con Men and Confidence Tricksters
Con men and Confidence Tricksters Having been a settlement since the mid 1800’s, Port St Johns has seen the most varied and interesting people walk and sail through its gates. As Sydney Turner, the sea captain more responsible for the settling of PSJ once said; “Port St Johns has become the receptacle for society’s drop outs”. Transkei became a hidey hole for brazen, clever con men. Bribery and corruption was the norm. It was the done thing to get necessary permissions, licenses, exemption from taxes – whatever. Jacob Ballantyne fancied himself as a builder of an African Empire, on hearing him speak, one could almost imagine that he had read one too many epic African novels and had modeled himself on his namesake, the swash buckling gentleman ...