John Edward van Duyn was born in Klerksdorp on 5 June 1955 and attended primary school and high school there. After matric John was conscripted to the army, where he spent two years and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
John then attended The University of Witwatersrand where he began studying for a BCom. He dove headfirst into the social and sport aspects of varsity life, getting involved in hockey, Rag Royalty and residence administration. All this to the detriment of his studies, and John left the university after just two years. It was then that John started his first and only job for an employer. Said employer was IBM, the computer giants. John fitted in well and was well regarded in the workplace.
In 1983, after seven years with IBM, John left to begin his own business, Duva Chemicals (Pty) Ltd. He rented premises in Wynberg, bought a few formulas, and started mixing household cleaning products. It wasn’t long before John realised that the quantities one needed to make and store and the marketing of said products were a greater task than he had bargained for. There were too many competitors and it was too hard to get them into the big supermarket chains.
At this point, John “fell” into the stainless steel treatment game after he was approached by someone with a problem that needed solving. John did some investigation and the Duva Chemicals we all know today evolved. In early 1992, John bought a property in Chloorkop, Kempton Park, where the company is still located today. Duva grew in leaps and bounds. John started building automated plants for customers in the Tank Container Industry in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. He followed that with automated plants in Ireland and England and later China and Germany.
John’s name, and that of Duva Chemicals, became synonymous with the treatment of stainless steel. Every aspect of Pickling and Passivation and Electropolishing was what he knew best. People from all over the country and around the world would call John for advice or talk through a problem they were having. He was generous with his vast knowledge and always happy to assist where he could.
John married Janine in 1992 and they were blessed with three children, Caitlin, Jonathan and Kimberlin. He was immensely proud of his children and his first love – Duva Chemicals. Sadly, John was diagnosed with colon cancer in November 2017. Unfortunately, neither surgeries nor chemo-therapies proved successful and after a nearly three year battle, John succumbed to the awful illness that cancer is, on 19 August 2020.
John’s wife Janine has taken over as Managing Director of Duva Chemicals (Pty) Ltd, and together with knowledgeable and loyal staff they continue the legacy that John built. MHDSRIP.
“I first met John in the mid-1990s, when we were localising supply into the tank container industry through SATCA, the South African Tank Container Association. I was amazed, given his non-technical background, that he had such a lot of knowledge on the pickling and passivation of stainless steels. But he would never hesitate to phone me up when he needed some technical advice or wanted to mull a new idea and I think this thirst to learn more is what drove his success. On the social front, I remember the first time I travelled to Germany with him in 1997 to attend the tank container show, MariChem – John certainly embraced the mantra, “work hard, play hard”. He was a thoroughly likeable, approachable and gregarious person who enriched the lives of all who met him.” John Tarboton, Executive Director, SAIW