This Douglas transport was delivered to the USAF as 44-76629 on 28Mar45, transferred 03Apr45 to the RAF as KN483 and briefly operated in the Middle East.
It found its way to the South African Air Force (SAAF) on 06Oct45, registered with the number 6881. In Nov53 it entered the civilian register as ZS-DIV for Africair (Wenela Air Service).
It was reregistered as VP-YSN on 28Oct60 and to A2-ZEN for Africair/Wenela Air Service on 01Dec68. And again to ZS-DIV (again for Wenela) on Feb75, which again was altered to A2-ZEN (for Wenela) in Feb77. It was reported stored without further use at Johannesburg-Rand in March 1979.
Apparently it found use again with the SAAF, this time with registration 6855, until it was registered to Dodson Air as N8194Q on 14Jul98. It was registered under the present ZS-OJJ tailnumber on 15Nov99, though completion of the Turbo Conversion may have been on a later date.

As N467NS it ended up with Dodson (@Rantoul,KS 04May09, as 'ZS-OJJ') and in August 2016 it was acquired by Preferred Airparts LLC (associated with Priority Air Charter, both based Kidron,OH) for which it was reg'd as N561PT on 30Aug16 (other sources speak of 30Jan2017).

"Wenela Air Services flew both cargo as well as passengers. Mainly, it was Mining labour destined for the Johannesburg area. The history of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA), also known as Wenela, starts way back around 1905 (1909?). It was partly a business and partly political thing that is well documented on the net. Their labour recruiting operations made a big impact on the land and culture. So ingrained that there is a place called Wenela in the Caprivi Strip (Namibia, close to Zambia-Botswana border).
I think even now there survives the Wenela Bus Station in Blantyre, Malawe.
The use of DC-3 and DC-4 aircraft to bring in mine labour from distant parts started sometime in the 1950's.
The planes were based in Francistown Botswana (then the Bechuanaland Protectorate). They would be flown to recruiting stations at Maun and Shakawi and Orapa, and to Lillongwe and Blantyre. The employees were then taken on by rail from Francistown to the Johannesburg area. There are soul-tearing stories around this aspect alone.
The entire airport, buildings, traffic control, runways, plus a whole lot of money into the local economy was all built on Wenela.
The aircraft and maintenance services, and pilots were supplied by Africair (Rhodesia) Ltd. based in Bulawayo, though most who lived and worked in Francistown were transferred to Wenela employ. I worked for Africair, and was hired out to Wenela to keep radio Communications and Navigation equipment working as well as ground transmitters maintained.
I shared a company house at Monarch Mine with a Wenela first officer. I did end up with a few ad-hoc flying lessons, but my job was in flight engineering and maintenance. I had to sign before the planes could fly.
The main airport feature at Francistown I recall was the huge semi-circular shaped hangar, with a full control tower built perched on top of it, and the part-steps, part ladder arrangement up the side of it to get to the tower.
My very first radio transmission was from DC3 A2-DJZ. On my first flight of any sort, I had to sign a form of indemnity absolving the company of any liability before clambering into a DC-3 which had only just had its wings put back on.
After the test flight it landed with 158 "snags", and I had aquired the experience of "floating about" inside a DC3 with no seats while it was being "test stalled"...
I can remember my embarrasment while my mother was giving the Africair boss a piece of her mind in Bulawayo Airport concourse while I was being taken for medical attention for blood poisoning contracted after a misadventure with a DC-4 parked at Maun. The rescue from Jubilee Hospital, and the "mercy flight" to Bulawayo in a Piper Cherokee with faulty nav equipment is a story in itself !
Plenty of stories to tell...
Getting a DC-4 up to 110 knots over a grass field on a hot day is exciting. Running hell for leather while carrying heavy kit to pile into a DC-3 with its engines running, to get away from an angry mama elephant is maybe even a little more than exciting!
I got to see the last big herds of wild buffalo around the Okavango. We would fly low to raise huge flocks of pink flamingos with the propeller noise.
You haven't lived until you have had to clean out a DC-4 floor of the pile of chewed out husks of sugar cane after a flight from the bush, or had to sneak oxygen from the pilots because they were flying higher to "calm" the passengers after fights break out during in-flight gambling sessions in the space near the door...
For all that, until A2-ZER crashed in 1974, that airline had an excellent safety record. No mishaps of any kind except for when a silly passenger hurt his wrist while clambering out to retrieve a bag on the ground. Even then, it was not Wenela's fault."

C/n of this DHC-2 is 1572, former Kenyan Air Force KAF-106 (thank you Peter Watson and Mick Butt).

Neil Aird added: " Delivered 11Jan/65, KAF-106 Kenyan Air Force, Cancelled Jan79 , became 5Y-BCJ East African Desert Locust Control Organization at Wilson / Nairobi,Kenya. Neil has another photo on his excellent website: www.dhc-2.com

To email me, click on the image and write the correct adress as given below
(replace -AT- by the @ symbol).

Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is because spam has increasingly become a problem.