However, he had to leave school and work as a carpenter with his uncle in order support his family after his father broke his hip and became bedridden.
He worked for a while in Swaziland and Botswana, using the trade taught to him earlier in his life and settled as a building contractor in Mafikeng, South Africa (then Bophuthatswana).
Although the novel has an Afrikaans mindset he wrote it initially in English, in neat, fully handwritten hardcover books before his daughter Elizabeth translated it.
Scholtz wrote two more books while waiting for the publication of Vatmaar, which were published later: Langsaan die vuur: vyf lewensverhale (1996) and Afdraai: ’n kroniek van seermaak en seerkry(1998).
On 17 November 2004 Andrew Henry Martin Scholtz died[1] from acute asthma after spending the last two months being blind as well.