She was closely involved in the planning of television programs for the establishment of the Afrikaans service and started the children's magazine.
Her most famous work was Liewe Heksie; the stories were originally written for radio and later published and edited for television and video.
[2] She attended the University of Pretoria, and in 1954 she completed a BA degree, majoring in Afrikaans and Dutch, English, and Art History.
In 1974, Vels returned to Johannesburg, where she was appointed by Television as organiser of Afrikaans magazine that included children's programmes.
The latest book was "Liewe Heksie en die rekenaar" (Dear little witch and the computer) which appeared in 1999 (illustrated by Piet Grobler).
[citation needed] She received several awards from Cultural Institutions, including: Verna Vels died from cancer on Thursday, 21 August 2014, at the age of 81.