Annique Theron

Annique Theron (born Anna Elizabeth [Annekie] Heystek in North Transvaal, April 18, 1929 - Pretoria, February 22, 2016) was a South African businesswoman best known for her line of cosmetics and health care products featuring rooibos as a main ingredient.

[1] Theron, born on the eve of the Great Depression, grew up on Mooikloof farm near Potgietersrus, where she lost her family while still young.

The family's first daughter, Suzette (married name Ferreira), was born more than 12 years after the last son, and the fourth child, Lorinda, early in 1967.

On April 8, 1968, when Lorinda was 14 months old, Theron heated rooibos tea and combined it with her bottle milk, finding the child's condition instantly improved.

Crediting the rooibos for the results, she set out to make the world aware of the healing power of this native plant.

Theron told Hanlie Retief of Rapport that the rooibos industry had subjected her for years to "absolute, blatant discrimination."

Burke-Watkins, a good friend of Theron, would thereafter market the Annique products in America through her company, Burke International.

A dispute arose when Burke-Watkins sent letters to American distributors of rooibos tea ordering them to either cease marketing it or compensate her company.

The dispute ravaged local products with R6 million in legal costs and eve involved the provincial government of the Western Cape.