THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS 1987-1988

President MrM.l.C. Daly

Vice-Presidents H. Lundie
S.N. Roberts

Prof. C. deB. Webb

Trustees M.l.C. Daly

ClIr. Miss P.A. Reid

S.N. Roberts

Fellow of the Natal Society ClIr. Miss P.A. Reid

Treasurers Messrs Dix, Boyes and Company

Auditors Messrs Thornton-Dibb, Van der Leeuw

and Partners

Director Mrs S. S. Wallis

Secretary P. C. G . McKenzie

COUNCIL

ElectedMembers M.l.C. Daly (Chairman)

S.N. Roberts (Vice-Chairman)

Dr F.C. Friedlander

W.G. Anderson

Prof. A.M. Barrett

T.B. Frost
l.M. Deane

Prof. W.R. Guest

Prof. C. de B. Webb

G.J.M. Smith

City Council Representatives ClIr. P. C. Cornell

ClIr. N.M. Fuller

ClIr. R.L. Gillooly

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NAT ALIA

Editor T.B. Frost

DrW.H. Bizley
M.H.Comrie
l.M. Deane
Prof. W.R. Guest
MsM.P. Moberly
MrsS.P.M.Spencer
Missl. Farrer(Hon. Secretary)
Natalia 18 (1988) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010
 Cover Picture
Alan Paton at work in his study
(Photograph: Natal Witness)

SA ISSN 0085 3674

Printed by The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company (Pty) Lld
 Contents

Page
EDITORIAL 5

REPRINT
Deux Ans A Natal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

NATAL SOCIETY LECTURE

Alan Paton: Often Admired, Sometimes Criticized,
Usually Misunderstood
Colin Gardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

ARTICLE
Her Majesty's Loyal and Devoted Trekker Leader:
Petrus Lafras Uys
fan S. Uys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

ARTICLE
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal: A Centennial
Appraisal
Bill Guest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

ARTICLE
The Natal Society Museum (1851-1904):
Potentialities and Problems
Shirley Brooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

ARTICLE
Italians in Pietermaritzburg
George Candy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

ARTICLE
Planning and Planners -Issues to be Addressed in
the NatallKwaZulu Region
P. S. Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

OBITUARIES
John Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu ....................... 93
Christoffel (Stoffel) Johannes Michael Nienaber . . . 96

NOTES AND QUERIES

Moray Comrie ................................ 99

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES. 119

SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS. 126

REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL..................... 127

Editorial

There has been a distinct tendency, in the media at any rate, to link history
with the arbitrary clockwork of the calendar. Thus anniversaries of events 500,
400, 300, 200, 100 or 50 years ago are deemed worthy of celebration; those of
501, 401, 301, 201, 101, or 51 are not. In fact, anniversaries in terms of prime
numbers - 509,419,307, 127, 73 or whatever- might be more interesting to
mathematicians and no less interesting to ordinary mortals, though perhaps
more difficult to remember.
Certainly 1988 has been defined in terms of other years, none of which has
any particular connection with the present: 1588 (the Spanish Armada), 1688
(the 'Glorious' Revolution), 1788 (white settlement in Australia), 1888 (the
Jack the Ripper murders) and 1938 (Hitler's Anschluss or the establishment of
the Dried Fruit Board - take your pick!)
In Natal we have had commemorations of Bartholomew Dias (1488) and
the Huguenots (1688) - neither of direct significance to this Province, but
dutifully celebrated as declared National Festivals - as well as the Great Trek
and the establishment of Pietermaritzburg (1838). Any jollifications to mark
the latter have been understandably subdued in the light of the tragic 'unrest'
which continues to sear and scar the city's surrounding townships. Posterity
will almost certainly judge the most enduring monument to the
sesquicentennial to be Pietermaritzburg 1838-1988: A New Portrait of an
African City published jointly by Messrs Shuter & Shooter and the University
of Natal Press. Several members of the Natalia Editorial Board were among
its seventy contributors and Ms Margery Moberly, as head of the University
Press, the driving force behind its production.
Natalia 18 pays only partial attention to fashionable anniversaries. lan Uys,
historian of the Uys family, casts a questioning light on some traditional
Trekker hagiography in the article we publish to mark the 150th anniversary
of the Great Trek, while Bill Guest sets the scene for the 1989 centenary of
commercial coal mining in Natal. For the rest, the articles on the Natal
Museum, the Italians in Pietermaritzburg, and Planning in Natal are unrelated
to anniversaries - and no less interesting for that.
Undoubtedly the most distinguished Natalian to die during the year was
Alan Paton, whose life we commemorate not with the usual obituary, but by
the publication of the annual Natal Society Lecture - 'Alan Paton: often
admired, sometimes criticized, usually misunderstood' - delivered by
Professor Colin Gardner.
But Natal has lost other sons and daughters - Bishop Alphaeus Zulu, Dr
A.D. Lazarus, Professor C.J. Nienaber, Professor Jill Nattrass, Mr Douglas
Mitchell- whose passing has impoverished us all. We regret not being able to
publish obituaries of all of them due to the failure to produce copy timeously
by people who were asked to write. A more personal loss to members of the
Editorial Board was the death, after a long illness, of Dr John Clark, a former
Editor of Natalia. His irrepressible zest for life has made his departure like the
extinction of a light.
My thanks go to all those who have contributed obituaries as well as articles,
book reviews, notes or queries to this edition of Natalia, and not least to my
colleagues on the Editorial Board without whose untiring efforts the journal
could not possibly continue to appear. T.B. FROST
6

Deux Ans A Natal

The Reminiscences ofa Traveller

by M. Bourbon
translated by Fleur Webb

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain

With grammar and nonsense and learning,

Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,

Gives genius a better discerning.

So wrote Oliver Goldsmith in She SlOOpS to Conquer. It is our hope that some genius, whether
sustained by learning or by liquor or by both, will help solve the puzzle of the little piece of mid­
nineteenth century Nalalialla which we publish in three parts in this and the next two issues of
Natalia.
Items in the French language about colonial Natal are rare. In this instance, to the charm of
rarity is added the fascination of mystery. The little book which we are serialising in English
translation appeared first in French in 1850. Written by M. Bourbon, and published in Mauritius,
it went out into the world under the title Deux Ails aNatal: Souvenirs d'un Voyageur.
But, anyone who reads Deux Ans will soon find grounds for wondering whether M. Bourbon, in
fact, ever visited the colony, let alone spent two years there. If he did, why is his text so littered
with inaccuracies? Does his book, as the title suggests, consist of the 'souvenirs' of a traveller in
the real world, or is it made up of the 'souvenirs' of a well-informed savant with a gift for romantic
and whimsical invention? If the latter, what had this savant read to feed and fatten his creative
spirit"
One source was certainly A. Delegorgue's Voyage dans l'Afrique Australe, published in 1847.
Bourbon's account, given in translation in the pages that follow, of a herd of elephants destroying
an African village at the head of the bay at Port Natal is, in the original French, almost word for
word a transcription of a similar story on pp. 100--1 of volume 1 of Delegorgue's Vovage; and
there are other passages in Deux Ans which clearly have a similar derivation.
But is it adequate, or fair for that matter, to categorize Bourbon simply as a plagiarist" Large
parts of the book are reasonably accurate, and cannot be shown to lean on any prior source. At
least one passage (an allusion to colonial Natal's labour 'problem' and the probable future need
for imported Indian labour) is prescient in a way that suggests first-hand knowledge of conditions
in the colony. Alongside these passages are others which, while they appear to be factual, are
tantalisingly non-specific (e.g. the reference, which can be found in the pages below, to the
merchant who became'a kind of honorary French consul'). And alongside these, in turn, are still
others, which appear to be neither derivative nor factual, but simply the products of a fertile
imagination. What, for example, does one make of the star-crossed lovers - Natal's own Pyramis
Deux Ans cl Natal 7

and Thisbe - whose heart-rending story is told in this first part of Deux Ans? Did they really
exist? And if they did, who were they, and when did they come to Natal?
So the questions can be stacked up. But underlying them all are the prime questions: Who was
M. Bourbon? What was the course of his career? And, when, if ever, did he visit Natal') Only one
person has so far been able to produce information with any bearing on those questions. That is
the distinguished Africana expert and historian, Or. Frank Bradlow, who has gathered together a
number of obituary notices relating to the death in Mauritius in September 1881, of a much-loved
and revered educationist and journalist, M. M. Bourbon, who 'lived his life with gallic zest', and
was renowned for his wit and eloquence. (Mauritius Argus, 19 September 11\81.)
Those obituary notices are a start - but possibly, of course, a false start! Not one of them. in
the biographical information which it carries, makes any allusion to a sojourn in Natal. Can
anyone else, therefore. contribute to untangling the Deux Ans puzzle?
C.deB. WEBB

In September 1847, as I was leaving the 'dark and inhospitable' shores of

Bourbon (to quote the rather severe expression of Commander Laplace) for
the 'lovely friendly island' of Mauritius, I chanced to encounter on board a
passenger who told me so much of the wonders of Natal, that I resolved
forthwith to accompany him on a visit to that African California,
Upon disembarking at Port Louis, I hastily gathered together a small supply
of goods suitable for trading: blue cloth, knives, scissors, mirrors, etc.
Although I had not much, it was more than enough, I was told, to offer in
exchange for a magnificent herd of oxen, to settle down in princely fashion in
Natal, and to lead the patriarchal life of a great rich farmer.
I lived for two years in Natal. I am far from having made my fortune, but at
least my experiences might prove useful to others who intend making the same
journey and who will perhaps be more fortunate than I was.
As you know, Natal (the coast of Natal) extends from the Bay of Lorenzo­
Marquez to the Keis-Kamma river, the eastern limit of the Cape Colony. The
name derives from its discovery by the Portuguese on Christmas Day 1497.
In 1824 the English founded a little settlement at Port Natal which was soon
abandoned. Then came a great number of Dutch families from the Cape,
seeking to escape from English domination. But several years ago the Dutch
were expelled, and Port Natal today is under British rule.
There is no port at Port Natal, although there is a fine roadstead protected
by a bar about 150 feet wide which is not without danger to the larger vessels.
As we came in, I saw the wreckage of two handsome French three-masters
which had run aground as they attempted the crossing.
The population of Natal has increased considerably of late. Almost daily
one sees ships arriving from England laden with immigrants, numbering eight
or nine hundred a month.
The principal town, Pietermarisbourg, boasts a population of no fewer than
10 000 Europeans. It is the seat of government. They have there double­
storeyed houses, most of which are built of locally made bricks, with roofs of
slate. The streets are wide and well laid, but not yet macadamised.
Three miles from Port Natal, where we disembarked, stands another, much
less important town named Urban where the inhabitants number barely
1500. The streets of Urban are obstructed by heaps of sand which render them
almost impassable. The place called Port Natal is not even a village. There is
not much to be found there apart from the customs offices and a few scattered
huts.
The native population of the two towns, or rather settlements, for they do
8 Deux Ans aNatal
not yet deserve the name of town, is not numerous and appears unlikely to
increase in the near future. The Cafres have few needs and do not easily
accept the domesticated state. It is interesting to note that one does not
encounter a single Cafresse or Caffrine (whichever you choose to call them)­
hence no maid-servants!
The population of Natal is therefore almost entirely white. There are
English in great numbers, Germans, a few Dutch still, and very, very few
French. I met a Belgian in Urban, who was engaged in a number of minor,
rather lucrative trading ventures. He was at one and the same time, a
wholesale dealer and a retail seller of land in both town and country, a
provision merchant, a vendor of tiger skins and exotic as well as indigenous
goods, and finally a kind of honorary French consul.
Many people in Mauritius speak of Natal as an Eldorado, a sort of promised
land where it suffices simply to set foot in order to make a rapid fortune. To
avoid disappointment and misunderstanding, I should explain the situation.
In Natal, as in all the countries of the world, money makes money. If one
has nothing, one acquires nothing. If a man wishes to amass even a modest
amount of money, he must arrive in Natal with some sort of capital, a sum
round enough to enable him to buy a substantial number of acres, to clear the
land, to purchase agricultural implements, to pay farm labourers, to fill the
pastures with herds and, finally, to build a house if he does not wish to sleep
under the stars.
Admittedly, the government sells the land cheaply, a shilling an acre out of
town. One could hardly do better. The lots are six thousand acres, no more,
no less, for six thousand shillings (1500 piasters). One pays a fixed price, as
one does for little pies - 6 000 acres for 1 500 piasters - it is almost a gift. But
not all acres are the same. As there are as yet no surveyors in Natal, do you
know how land is measured? You take a horse, a good trotter, and you put on
its back a Cafre, trained for the task, who trots for half an hour in a straight
line (as far as is possible) from north to south, then for another half hour from
east to west. You place a stake at the furthest limits, and you are told: 'There
are your 6 000 acres-take them and pay up!'
These 6000 acres are usually virgin soil and wooded, so you have to clear
them, then plough them, then sow them; in fact make them productive. And
to do this what do you need? Hands, money, more money, and still more
moneyl And even with money, if you have it, where do you find the labour?
You cannot rely on the Cafres who are a pastoral people, and not
agriculturists at all. Where will you find workers? In India perhaps - later.
You need a house, unless you carry it with you ready-made, like a snail, or,
like some of the immigrants, have it built at great cost by the speculators, who
watch out for the new arrivals, as a cat watches out for a mouse.
The Cafre who is satisfied with boiled or roasted maize, lives very cheaply,
but the man who is accustomed to live after another fashion, who relies on a
well-stocked bazaar for his regular meals, may be caught unawares and forced
to content himself with things which formerly he would have disdained. These
6000 acres are thus worthless, even with sufficient capital to exploit them, and
one can make no profit from them as things stand.
Doubtless (and this is the reckoning of the more patient and wise) the land
must increase in value with time and the growing number of immigrants. The
present owners will be able to divide up the land and sell, for five or ten
shillings, that for which they paid only a shilling. (This is already happening on
Deux Ans a Natal 9

the outskirts of the towns.) But one must be prepared to fold one's arms and
wait for such opportunities. In fact one must be young and ready to sacrifice
the present for the future. Many times have I attempted to console
disappointed immigrants, and I must admit that this distant future of which I
tried to give them a glimpse, appeared to them rather dark and disquieting.
They continued to be concerned with the difficulties of the moment.
As I see it, the only possible industry in Natal today is cattle-breeding. Oxen
are sold very cheaply - for next to nothing, if one is able to go into the
interior to buy them. Pasturage is rich and abundant and the Cafres, who
know no other trade, eagerly offer their services in return for one or two
shillings a month, with or without food.
Ten miles from Port Natal I met a man well-known in Mauritius, who,
under a charge of bigamy, married for a third time (so they say) to escape from
the severity of the English law which, as everyone knows, does not punish
trigamy at all, although bigamy is a capital offence. This man, whom I will not
name, arrived in N ata! with the first immigrants and, in return for 6000
shillings, became the owner of 6000 acres of more or less arable land. Today
(that is to say four or five years later) this same property, not yet cleared, but
enhanced by a fine house, extensive outbuildings and huge cattle paddocks, is
valued at 20000 p., not including the numerous herds which are fattening at no
cost in the pastures, and which represent a considerable asset. It is generally
reckoned that cattle sent to Port Natal in the condition required for export are
worth a minimum of fifteen pi asters a head. The milk of the cows is made into
butter which is salted for export and even for consumption inland; the
remainder serves to maintain a profitable piggery. A few Cafres, for the
moderate remuneration I have already mentioned will herd the cattle, milk
the cows, etc.
In the towns, income is derived quite differently. One buys, or rather, one
used to buy (for at present the prices are higher) an acre for eight or ten
shillings. On this land one builds, after a fashion, little houses which one then
rents out to new immigrants at a price! Even greater profits are made by those
who keep furnished lodgings (heaven knows in what manner they are
furnished) for the use of those who come to take the air of the country and to
seek their fortunes. This speculation is not without profit, as many people
have in less than six months (I cannot claim that their gains were strictly
lawful) found the means not necessarily of enriching themselves, but of
operating on a larger scale and of making even bigger profits due to the
greater number of victims to be exploited.
There is little or no trade. A few rare provision merchants sell, for their
weight in gold, the tinned goods from their trader's packs, adulterated wine
and spoiled brandy and liqueurs. I believe that a well-stocked shop would
attract many customers in either of the towns and would make a fine profit.
But in a country where luxury is not yet known, and where even the basic
necessities are lacking, it would be folly to contemplate importing fancy goods
and opening an expansive business of the sort that flourishes in Port Louis,
where the wise man may join the philosopher of old in crying: 'What a lot of
things I do not need' .
The Cafres, by inclination, and the immigrants, from necessity, are great
philosophers of this sort. Both are satisfied with the bare necessities by way of
outward ornament. Fashionable dressmakers and tailors would waste their
time and trouble here.
10 Deux Ans if Natal

I have heard, since I left, of a young pastry-cook, well-known in Mauritius,

where his little cakes were all the rage, who has not found it possible to
produce a single little pastry in Natal. He tells all who will hear him that he
cooked his goose by leaving Port Louis for Urban, where threequarters of the
houses are simply little huts, whose only aperture is a miniature door, in which
immigrants are obliged to lodge for a rent of five piasters a month. In such a
hovel, where one can only breathe by putting one's nose out of the door, how
would it be possible to produce those culinary wonders which are the delight
of gastronomes and the glory of civilized dinner-tables?
A strange thing! There are no doctors in Natal. I shall not presume to say it
is for that reason that there are no invalids; one must not quarrel with the
profession. The climate has something to do with it; a real Italian climate.
Moreover one lives very soberly - of necessity it is true, but what matter?
Sobriety is the mother of health, and I fear for the doctors and the druggists
that this state of affairs will continue for a long time.
Lawyers are also unknown here. What a fortunate land, says some poor
litigant whose resources have been drained by legal fees. There is no police
force either, not the shadow of a policeman on the beat. Who patrols the
streets then? I will tell you, for I have not yet enumerated all the delights of
Natal. The Cafres are not the only indigenous inhabitants. There are present
also in great numbers, lions, hyaenas, wolves, tiger-cats and cl host of other
quadrupeds which are very interesting to observe in a menagerie, well
barricaded behind a good iron cage, but which one hardly wishes to meet face
to face at a turning in the forest or at the corner of a street. These animals,
whose ferocity varies according to the state of their appetites, never come out
during the day. This is very considerate of them since they have the right to do
as they please. But at night it is a different matter. Hardly has the sun set,
when they sneak into the town and sniff at the doors which the townspeople,
knowing their habits, are careful to keep well closed. And, let the unfortunate
late-corner take heed, whether he be delayed by business or a lover's tryst. A
hundred to one he will not return home. The night-watch of this new kind of
police force is very effective. You will realise then that theft and nocturnal
adventures are rare in Natal.
There are also snakes in great numbers. Following the advice given me on
my arrival, I cannot recall ever going to bed without having inspected carefully
all the nooks and crannies of my room and even my bedding - for that is their
preferred hiding place - to assure myself that I was not harbouring one of
these dangerous guests. I do not claim to be brave like the Bayards and the
Chevaliers d'Assas, but I am not a coward. I confess, however, that I shall
never forget how I was frightened one day by a gigantic boa. I still shudder at
the thought.
At that time I was living in the country, ten miles from Urban. I was on a
visit to one of my neighbours who was showing me his nursery of cotton, olive,
and orange plants etc. As we returned to the house, I walked ahead into the
sitting-room. Suddenly I saw, only three paces in front of me, a huge snake
rearing up with its mouth wide open, hissing, and ready to dart forward and
entwine me in its sinuous coils like a latter-day Laocoon. I was frozen to the
spot and would have been done for, had it not been for the presence of mind of
my host who was following behind me. Suspecting that something was amiss,
he pushed me aside, closed the door and called his servants who made short
Deux Ans a Natal 11

work of the terrible visitor. Do I need to add that, in spite of the repeated
invitations of my neighbour, my first visit was also my last?
After the snakes, the tigers and the hyaenas, to talk of locusts is something
of an anti-climax. Locusts are, however, along with the flooding of the rivers
and the great rains, one of the most terrible scourges of agriculture in Natal.
They come in their thousands, casting a shadow across the sun, and settle on
the planted fields, which they ravage and destroy in a moment - it is worse
than an Algerian Arab raid.
Talking of wild animals, may I, in passing, tell you the little story that was
the topic of every conversation when I arrived in Natal, and which recalls the
legend of Pyramis and Thisbe. It was just like that story of ancient times.
On the banks of the Ouse, not far from the city of York, lived a young girl of
noble birth and a handsome young plebeian whom chance, or some powerful
deity, had thrust together to their mutual misfortune. They loved each other
tenderly, but the noble lords whose Gothic towers looked down on the fertile
plains of that country, did not intend that an improper alliance should tarnish
their bright escutcheon. Rendered desperate by the obstacles placed between
them, and resolute in their determination to be together, whatever the cost,
the two lovers agreed to abandon a cruel motherland, where happiness was
denied them, and to go to some far country to seek the fulfilment they
dreamed of. The name of Natal reached their ears. They heard this land
described as a new Eden, free as it was of the vices and the prejudices of
civilization, and they thought that they could do no better than to settle on
those distant shores, blessed by Heaven and the African sun.
They set off, taking with them an aged relative who was to serve as a mother
to the young and inexperienced girl. After an uneventful voyage which I shall
not describe, their ship cast anchor off the coast of their dreams, which our
travellers greeted with a cry of hope. Disillusionment met them as soon as they
set foot ashore. This land, which they had pictured as green and pleasant,
appeared lonely and arid; the mirage had vanished and only the desert
remained.
However, in spite of the difficulties and the various disappointments which
they had to endure, they were far from being unhappy; at least they suffered
together. At some little distance from the town (for they did not wish to shut
themselves up between walls which reminded them of Europe) two humble
huts, like those of ancient times, became their temporary abode. There they
were to wait until a holy minister should bless this union for which no sacrifice
was too great. In one of the huts huddled the scion of a noble line, together
with her discreet companion, while in the other, situated a mile away for the
sake of propriety, lodged the amorous abductor. They met each day and
charmed the sorrows of the present hour with hopes of future happiness.
One evening their conversation was more than usually prolonged. The
moment they longed for was not far off and they felt they brought it nearer still
each time they talked together of their plans for the future. Immediately after
their marriage they were to leave Natal and return to England where they
were to try and soften the hearts of their austere relations to receive them
favourably like two prodigal children who had been punished and were
repentant. It was midnight when they parted. The sky was dark and from the
plain below there arose dull grunts, stifled murmurs, distant threats, which at
this late hour would have frightened all but the most ardent lovers.
12 Deux Ans cl Natal

The next day, the young girl and her female companion waited, waited a
long time;
'But only the Cafre from the valley

Disturbed with the sound of his footsteps ... '

the silence of their isolated hut.

At the hour when the sun dips towards the western mountains, unable to
continue in this terrible uncertainty, her heart heavy with dire forboding, our
Thisbe came from her humble cabin and set off in the direction of the dwelling
where, she hoped still, her beloved was detained by some indisposition. She
walked on, she entered the forest where the shadows were lengthening.
Suddenly, at the foot of a tree, which must have been a mulberry, she saw ...
Those of you who have been moved by the misfortunes of our lovers, read no
more. She saw some shapeless remains, bloody tatters, and lying beside the
mutilated hat of the one she was to see no more, her own portrait which she
had given him as a love token. This was all that the panthers had left. At this
deadly sight, cold and stilL the poor wretch shed no tear. She uttered one cry;
then smiling, she turned and took the road back to her hut: she had lost her
reason.
We will not tell you the names of the principal actors in this sad story; what
good would it do you to know them') But if you wish to see one who was once
so loving, so weak, so imprudent and so unfortunate, go to Bedlam and, if you
can make yourself understood, they will show her to you.
They tell in Natal of many other adventures which, although less poetical
and romantic than this one, are nevertheless full of local colour and are not
lacking in interest for the keen observer of human nature. 1 met many times in
the little town of Urban, where I often went on business, a butcher whose
pitted and scarred face was horrible to behold and who himself told me the
cause of the terrible mutilation of which he was the sad victim.
'I was one day,' he told me, 'far out in the country hunting, when suddenly a
panther appeared before me. What was 1 to do? To take flight was out of the
question, for in two bounds my terrible adversary would have leapt upon me
and brought me to the ground. 1 decided on what seemed the wise course,
though it proved to be otherwise. I took aim at almost point-blank range and
my bullet struck him right in the forehead. The wounded animal rushed
furiously at me, sank his claws into my face and died without relaxing his hold.
My companions, attracted by my cries, came running immediately and had all
the difficulty in the world freeing me from my terrible enemy, dead though he
was. They carried me home, more dead than alive, although I had not lost
consciousness for a minute. The bones of my face were crushed as though in a
vice and blood gushed everywhere. A whole year of treatment was not
sufficient to heal my wounds, so you see I had a narrow escape.'
This man was awful to look upon; his face was hardly human: it was a
frightening mask. Well, this man, in spite of his terrible lesson, went hunting
again as frequently as before, and as far from the town as ever.
Apart from the unpleasantness of meeting with a panther or a hyaena,
which is rare before nightfall, Natal is a real hunter's paradise. Anyhow,
hunting is the only possible diversion, and the best way of employing one's
time. The famous Egyptian ibis swarms there; the red partridge and other
birds are so numerous and so trusting, that they virtually offer themselves to
the murderous bullets. Quails, larks, woodpigeons, turtle-doves are at the
Deux Ans a Natal 13

mercy of even the most inexperienced hunter. Their numbers are so great that
even the clumsiest shot cannot fail. 1 know what 1 am talking about for in
France, however hard I tried, 1 was never successful in killing any game, biped
or quadruped, while in Natal, 1 counted my victims by the dozen.
Notwithstanding the remorse 1 felt at killing inoffensive creatures, who
were trusting enough to come and take maize from the hens in my yard, 1 was
not sorry to leave the inevitable piece of beef to my Cafres and to regale
myself from time to time on some red partridge or morsel of Egyptian ibis, a
treat fit for a king. But hunters worthy of the name find no enjoyment in such
small game. They require quarry of another kind, and excitement at any price.
They would willingly go out at night, if they were not afraid of being
treacherously attacked, and confront hyaenas and all the other wild animals
which hide away during the daylight hours. 1 can assure you that 1 have never
had any such inclinations, but I have known in Natal so many intrepid and
experienced hunters that 1 can understand, after all 1 have seen and heard, this
passion for hunting carried to the extent even of risking one's life.
Now take lion hunting for example, many of my readers would not care for
it 1 wager. Well, I have seen (it must be seen to be believed), 1 have seen
hunters who, for reasons of serious indisposition, have been unable to
participate in the hunt, and who have almost wept with despair. In such
circumstances, 1 would soon have been consoled, and yet 1 took pleasure in
stories of these adventures, where hardship doubtless outweighed enjoyment,
but where danger doubled the price of victory .
1 knew intimately one of these intrepid lion hunters. I can still hear him
telling me of his first success. He was a worthy Hollander, not by nature a
braggart, and one whose reputation had long since been made in the land.
'1 was,' he told me, 'still a child, entrusted to watch over my father's horses,
when 1 saw a lion and a lioness prowling about, waiting for a favourable
moment to seize their prey. I was unarmed but, as our wagons were not far
off, I went to look for the gun which my father, who was absent, always kept
loaded. Half an hour later, the lion was lying dead with a bullet through his
head. This early success encouraged me, and since that time, whenever
anyone wishes to be rid of dangerous neighbours, they call on me.'
They tell me that this man, who must have been about fifty at the time, had
killed more than 300 lions in his lifetime. He went lion hunting as others might
go to the theatre or to a ball for the pleasure of it, and not in order to sell the
skins, which are only worth ten or twelve pi asters in Natal. He gave me some
very interesting information about the habits of the king of beasts: the lion,
taken unawares, flees at the approach of a man, a child or even a dog. But
beware the hunter who would come between him and his prey! The lion will
share with no one, and if there is a confrontation, one of the contenders is sure
to be killed. The proof that this noble beast is full of generosity, if not of
disdain, towards man, is that he rarely kills the hunter who has wounded him
and whom he has at his mercy. His revenge is limited to a few bites which leave
deep memories, it is true, but which do not kill.
They tell in Natal of one of these intrepid hunters who, in seven years, twice
found himself beneath the claws of a, wounded lion. All that happened was
that he had a bad fright, a few broken limbs, and some deep imprints of teeth
and claws.
The Cafres, armed only with the assegai, go lion hunting on horseback, not
in order to make a more rapid escape after the attack, but to leave behind
14 Deux Ans cl Natal

them a prey for the lion, which enjoys a substitute revenge and forgets the real
culprit as he attacks the innocent victim. These people, whom we call savages,
have invented another ingenious method of ridding themselves of the
dangerous intruders which threaten their herds. They never attack them as
civilized hunters do, for the sole pleasure of killing and boasting of it later, but
simply to protect their possessions in legitimate defence. At about ten or
eleven at night, fifteen or twenty of them gather round a dead ox, which the
lion had attacked the previous evening, and to which he is bound to return.
For even if one is a lion, one can hardly eat up a whole ox in less than two
meals.
The lion arrives at the appointed hour; his majesty eats when he pleases.
Then one of the Cafres, the bravest among the brave, protected by a great
shield of buffalo hide, thick and tough and concave in shape, approaches his
terrible adversary and casts his assegai. The lion starts up and leaps at his
attacker who, falling flat on the ground, covers himself with his shield. The
furious animal roars and attempts to tear with his teeth and claws the upper
surface of the shield, which resists all his efforts. As he returns to the attack
with increased strength and fury, he is encircled by a band of armed men who
are watching for their opportunity. He is attacked and stabbed by twenty or
even a hundred assegais. He thinks that the man he holds pinned beneath him
is responsible and attacks him relentlessly while his strength lasts. But soon
the lion grows weak and falls beside the Cafre under the shield, who emerges
only when the king of beasts shows no further sign of life.
I could tell you also of hunting hippopotamus, buffalo and crocodiles, etc.,
but after having heard of the lion you would not be impressed. I shall make an
exception in the case of the elephant, who deserves this favour. If the lion is
king of the beasts, the elephant is the giant.
This is the story I was told the very day I arrived in Natal. A herd of
elephants (for these animals always move in herds of 15, 20 and sometimes
even, in the interior, of 80 or 100), well, a herd of 5 or 6 elephants, a kind of
vanguard probably, had crossed the upper regions of the bay during the night,
and had advanced across a farmer's lands, along a pathway that leads into the
forest and up a hill. At the end of the path stood a mouzi (Cafre village)
composed of a dozen inhabited huts which were unfortunately not protected
by the hedge of dry thorns. The first elephant crushed one of these huts,
probably unintentionally. Upon hearing the cries of the startled inhabitants,
the colossus fled. Those following him did the same, trampling through the
mouzi, and crushing huts, animals and people beneath their feet. I have seen
near the bay of Natal, the footprints of one of these elephants. They were
three and a half feet deep, and wide enough for me to hide in if I needed to.
But there is scarcely any elephant hunting in the territory of Natal as such. It
is only beyond the boundaries, in the interior, which was formerly Dutch and
is now English, that one can have some idea of this kind of hunt which,
according to the accounts of travellers, surpasses in excitement the hunter's
wildest dreams.
One must cross the Tonguela river, the northern boundary of the country of
Natal, venture into the land of the Zoulas, and request a safe conduct of their
dreaded and formidable king, Panda, either to arrange for the exchange of
cattle with his subjects, as I was obliged to do myself, or to hunt elephants
which he himself prizes for their ivory.
Here it becomes necessary, in order to give the reader an idea of the
Deux Ans a Natal 15

customs and usages of these unknown lands, to enter into some explanation.
People have a vague notion, from reading the Cape newspapers, that the
Boers or Dutch farmers, were driven from Natal by the English bayonets and
assegaied by the Zoulas. But why so much conflict over such wild and desolate
lands? This is what so many people do not understand, and what I myself
would still be ignorant of, had circumstances not brought me to the spot.
It is a sad and bloody story, which I shall tell as briefly as possible. In 1820
the eastern part of the Cape Colony which was separated from the country of
the Cafres by the Groote-Vish-Rivier, was left uninhabited by reason of the
departure of the Dutch farmers (Boers) who, to escape from the continual
invasions and pillaging of the Cafres, had moved to the towns.
In order to replace them, new colonists (Settlers) were brought from
England in such numbers that two towns sprang up as if by magic: Port
Elizabeth and Graham's Town. The Boers shortly afterwards returned to their
former dwellings, hoping to live in peace because of the increase in the
population. But the Cafres began their raids again just as they had in the past.
Finally in 1836 the Boers, complaining of insufficient protection from Sir
Benjamin D'Urban, then governor of the Cape, emigrated once more. They
numbered 1 700 men, women and children under the leadership of Pieter
Retief, a man of great simplicity and dauntless courage. 'Let us go beyond the
deserts and seek a new promised land', he told them. Scarcely had this large
nomadic colony crossed the Great River (Oranjie Rivier) than they were
obliged to find grazing for their numerous herds. A tribal chief, Massilicatzi, a
hundred leagues away, sent 10000 men against the Boers, who were taken
unawares.
However, at the first cry of alarm, they prepared to defend themselves. The
Boers took up their guns, the women loaded, and the children passed the
bullets. The Cafres, surprised by the resistance, beat a retreat, taking with
them a large proportion ofthe herds; that was all they wanted.
The earth was littered with dead bodies lying all around the camp. The
women had taken part in the combat with the desperate courage which God
has given mothers to protect the lives of their children. Several were seen to
break the heads of men who attempted to penetrate the enclosure by crawling
flat on their stomachs like snakes. More than 600 Cafres were left dead on the
field. Massilicatzi, hearing of the defeat of his warriors, whom he believed to
be invincible, had several of his men stabbed to death on their return because
they had not obeyed his express orders to bring back 'ten white women and
ten white houses' (Boer tents). In vain they tried to explain that the emigrant
women were not the sort to allow themselves to be carried off so easily; the
assegai performed its task and all was soon over.
One hundred and twenty leagues away in the south east, another tribal
chief, Dingaan, hearing of the good fortune of his neighbour, and furious not
to have a share in the booty, sent 25000 armed men against him. Massilicatzi,
beaten at the first encounter, was forced to move further inland, taking with
him the remainder of his people and his numerous herds.
Retief, taking advantage of the dispute between the thieves, made his way
towards Natal, where he arrived after seven days journey. He made his camp
on the banks of the limpid Tonguela and then set off for Port Natal (17
October 1837) where he was courteously welcomed by a few Englishmen
(original settlers) to whom he confided his intention of requesting an interview
with Dingaan to discover his attitude towards the new immigrants.
16 Deux Ans cl Natal

I have before me all the authentic papers concerning the long and disastrous
pilgrimage, and 1 regret that 1 can give here only a short resume of them: the
letters of Retief to Dingaan, the replies of the latter, with a cross instead of a
signature etc. 1 shall quote only, in translation, the address of the English
residents of Port Natal to Pieter Retief:
We, the undersigned inhabitants (original settlers) of Port Natal, hail
with sincere pleasure the arrival of the deputation of emigrant farmers
under Pieter Retief, their governor. We beg that they will present our
good wishes to their constituents, and assure them of our desire to meet
them as friends and eventually as neighbours, and of our wish that a
mutual good understanding may at all times prevail between us.
(Followed by 14 signatures).
This paper like all the others proved that the greatest harmony reigned at
that time between the Boers and the English settlers at Port Natal.
On 8 November Retief wrote to Dingaan from Port Natal to thank him for
cattle taken back from Massilicatzi after his defeat. 'That which has befallen
Massilicatzi', he said, 'makes me believe that God Almighty, who knows all
things, will not permit him to live much longer. God's great book teaches us
that kings who behave as he has done, are severely punished and are not
permitted to live and to reign for long. In friendship, I must tell you the great
truth that all, black or white, who will not hear and believe the word of God,
shall be wretched.'
These are certainly good and fine words which, frankly addressed to a
barbarian king, have the charm of old-fashioned simplicity, and give a good
impression of their author. The postscriptum of this letter deserves to be
transcribed in its entirety. It will give an idea of the kind of war waged by the
Cafres against their neighbours, and of the profit they derive from it even
when they are defeated and driven back with losses.
'I enclose', adds Retief, at the end of his letter to Dingaan, 'for the
information of the king, an account of those assassinated and of the cattle
stolen by Massilicatzi: 20 white and 26 coloured persons massacred, including
9 women and 5 children; livestock stolen from 27 owners; 51 saddle horses, 15
young raising horses, 945 milk cows, 3726 stock cattle, 50745 sheep and goats,
9 guns and 4 wagons.'
Retief set off immediately to find Dingaan at Ungunklunklove, arriving
there after five days' journey. Dingaan would only give him audience on the
third day after his arrival. And when the leader of the immigrants had
expressed the wish to settle south of the Tonguela, Dingaan found a thousand
pretexts for delaying his reply: a great number of his cattle had been stolen
and he was obliged to suspect the Boers as foreigners, etc. But when Retief
promised (a promise which he fulfilled) to bring back the cattle stolen by
others, the king of the Zoulas agreed to sign the act of cession.
Accordingly on 3 February 1838 Retief appeared for the second time before
Dingaan who, the next day, signed the act of cession with his royal cross in his
own hand.
On Monday 5th (a day of mourning for the poor immigrants), Dingaan,
who seemed much preoccupied, came and sat in his great armchair (in the
upper part of the mouzi) with his two principal regiments lined up to left and
right. At the invitation of the chief, Retief entered the enclosure with his
companions who numbered 59, all of them unarmed as a token of peace. The
Deux Ans cl Natal 17

king ordered his troops to entertain the guests with singing and dancing.
Barely a quarter of an hour later, Dingaan arose, entoning a chant which the
Boers did not understand: it was the sentence of death. On hearing the chief's
voice, the Zoulas fell upon the Boers, bound them, and dragged them to a
hillside close by, where they were tortured and put to death. The heart and the
liver of Retief, wrapped in a piece of cloth, were carried to Dingaan according
to his commands.
Thirsting for blood, these barbarians set off for the wagon encampment
where Retief had left the wives and children of his unfortunate companions.
There the carnage began again with renewed fury. It is estimated that 347
women and children perished in this horrible massacre.
On 16 December 1838, the Boers under the command of Pretorius, took a
terrible revenge on the barbarians near a river which has since been named
Bloed Rivier (river of blood). More than 3000 dead were left on the field of
battle. On 20th, the victorious Boers arrived at Dingaan's capital which was a
smoking ruin. The king had fled the day before, leaving the town in flames.
The Boers made their camp on the hill where Retief and his companions had
been massacred. They claim that in a wallet lying beside the skeleton of their
unfortunate leader, they found the act of cession of Natal to the Boers, with
the signatures of the king and six of his counsellors. Was it to nullify the act of
cession, which he appeared to regret, or simply for the barbarous pleasure of
spilling blood that the king of the Zoulas had, in so cowardly a manner,
assassinated the cream of the immigrants? Nobody knows. Be that as it may,
to conclude the story of the cruel despot: in January 1840, the Boers
undertook a last expedition against him, which drove him beyond the
boundaries of his territory where he was killed by his neighbours and natural
enemies, the Ama-Souazis.
Over and above the death of the tyrant, the prize of this victory was 40000
head of cattle. Panda, his brother, with whom he had long dealings of bloody
strife, was then chosen to assume the royal heritage and supreme power over
all the Zoula tribe, men and beasts.
Panda, according to the Cafres, had incontestable rights to the succession.
Dingaan, who had assassinated one of his brothers, Djacka, in order to
become king, wished also to be rid of Panda, who bore him a grudge. The
latter lived in princely fashion near the Omatagoulou river, not far to the
north of the Tonguela. Dingaan sent for him. Panda refused to obey, and
sought refuge in the territory of the Boers, requesting their assistance against
Dingaan: he preached to the converted.
In May 1842, following a vain attempt three years earlier, the Governor of
the Cape, with the intention of bringing about an end to the hostilities
between the Boers and the Cafres, sent to Natal 250 troops with 60 wagons
drawn by 600 oxen, and accompanied by 250 Cafre servants under the
command of Captain Smith, who took the title of Commander of Natal in the
n3Jlle of Queen Victoria.
The Boer leader, Pretorius, refused to recognise him and, strengthened by
fresh reinforcements, he called on Captain Smith to leave Natal with his
troops and to abandon arms and ammunition. In reply, Captain Smith
prepared to begin hostilities. Soon afterwards, a few canon shots were fired by
each side, and several skirmishes took place between the English troops and
the Boers, without any decisive result, until the day (25 June) when the
English frigate, the Southampton, cast anchor at Port Natal.
18 Deux Ans aNatal
The disembarkation was effected in twenty minutes, and Lieutenant­
Colonel Cloete had no difficulty in meeting up with the forces of Captain
Smith, whose position was beginning to give cause for anxiety. The Boers,
who numbered 600, saw that all was lost, and abandoned their camp the same
day. They withdrew six leagues from Port Natal, from which position they
began negotiations with Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete. On 15 July, the Boers
signed the act of submission, which is here literally translated:
Pietersmaritzburg, 15th July 1842.
We, the undersigned, duly authorised by the immigrant farmers of
Pietersmaritzburg, Natal, and the adjoining land, present on their behalf
our solemn declaration of submission to Her Majesty the Queen of
England, and, in addition, we accept the following conditions which
have been imposed on us:
1. The immediate return of all military and civil prisoners.
2. The surrender of all canons under our command.
3. The restitution of all property, public or private, in our possession,
confiscated by us for our profit.
(Followed by the signatures ofthe President and members ofthe Council.)
In consequence, a general amnesty was granted to the Boers, with the
exception of four of the principal leaders who had a price put on their heads
(£1 000). But none of them suffered the fate of Joseph who was betrayed by his
brothers.
This, then, is a short account of the history of the colony of Natal up until
the day of the Proclamation of the apprehension ofpersons exempted from the
amnesty by Sir George Thomas Napier. From that time, the Boers,
determined in their resolution to remove themselves from the domination of
the English authorities at the Cape, withdrew further into the interior, where
their numbers increased due to the arrival of great numbers of Dutch
immigrants and where, free and independent, they led the patriarchal and
quasi-phalangist life which they had won by so much sacrifice.
(To be continued)
 19

The Natal Society Annual Lecture

Wednesday, 10 A ugust 1988

Alan Paton: Often Admired,

Sometimes Criticized, Usually

Misunderstood

My title may seem a little aggressive, perhaps even rather arrogant. Who am I
to say whether Alan Paton has been misunderstood or not? Who indeed is
anybody to make statements on this matter?
Until a few months ago one could find out something about the real aims
and views of Alan Paton by asking the man himself. Of course literary and
social critics are always a little wary of the views of writers about their own
works, especially when those works were written some years previously.
Writers (like other people) sometimes forget what was in their minds when
they wrote something, or perhaps their views and attitudes change and they
deny that they meant this or that, or - subtlest of all, but not uncommon­
for one reason or another they weren't fully aware even at the time of the
implications of what they were saying. Indeed there are some contemporary
critics who would regard a writer's views of his or her own works as being
significant only because they provide a pointer towards the writer's lack of
self-knowledge, and (the argument goes) it is that area - that area of
blindness, of tell-tale revelation -that criticism can most usefully focus on.
Whatever use one would wish to make of a writer's statements, however ­
whether paradoxical or not - the sad fact is that we can no longer consult
Alan Paton when we are thinking either of his life or of his works. He has gone
from us. We are left on our own.
In fact one could say of Alan Paton what W.H. Auden said in his poem on
the death of the great poet W. B. Yeats:
But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities

And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,

To find his happiness in another kind of wood

And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.

The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living.

20 AlanPaton

Perhaps one needs to adjust Auden's statements a little. When a writer dies he
becomes not only his admirers, but also his critics, his detractors - and those
who find themselves somewhere in between. But on the other hand ­
certainly in the case of Paton - if his words are 'modified in the guts of the
living' (as of course they must be), at least he doesn't yet need to be 'wholly
given over to unfamiliar affections'. Many of those who respond to him and to
his work are the sort of people he knew quite well; some of them, indeed, are
people he knew personally.
What is happening now, then, inevitably, is that - whether they realize it or
not - different people, different groups of people, are creating their own
Paton, their own image of Paton, while insisting of course, as must always
happen, that their Paton, their image of the man and his works, is the
authentic one. And what I intend to do in this address is to join in this process,
recognising (at least to some extent) what I am doing. I shall offer some
features of my Paton, my image of Paton, and I shall criticize some of the
views held by others. Of course I believe my image to be the true one, or at
least a true one, or I wouldn't be speaking at all. But at the same time I must
concede that my view can't help being my own.
And since my view can't help being my own, I think it would be reasonable
for me to say just a little about myself and my relationship with Alan Paton ­
if only to put you on your guard! No, not just for that reason: I hope any
snatch of the Paton life-story, told from a slightly different angle, is of some
interest.
Like so many other people, I was bowled over by Cry, the Beloved Country
when I first read it, as a schoolboy. I think I later joined the Liberal Party in
response quite as much to the main thrust of Paton's novel as to the slightly
dry abstract principles of the Party. And it was through the Liberal Party, in
the early 1960s, that I got to know him. A little later, a group of us from
Maritzburg (one of whom was Edgar Brookes, another was Marie Dyer) used
to drive down along the single carriageway road to monthly committee
meetings at Alan Paton's house, which was then in Kloof. I remember
particularly the dark days from 1963 and 1964 onwards, when so many
members of the Party had been banned: Peter Brown, Elliot Mngadi,
Christopher Tshabalala, John Aitchison, almost all the notable members.
Alan himself would certainly have been banned if he hadn't been so eminent
(his passport had been taken away). So probably would Edgar. At our
meetings Alan's sharpness, his wisdom and his wit helped to keep us going.
In 1968 the Liberal Party was forced out of existence by the piece of
legislation with the fantastic name of the Improper Interference Act. But the
intellectual life of the Party continued, to some extent, in the journal Reality
-which is still going strong, I may add, and has just a few days ago brought
out Vol. 20 No. 4, which consists of a series of articles on Alan Paton. Alan
and I were members of the founding editorial board. As the months went by,
different members of the board reacted in slightly different ways - as was
inevitable - to new developments in political thinking and strategy; and in
1972 several members, of whom I was one, felt that, in order to keep in the
mainstream of current opposition thinking, the subtitle of Reality should be
changed from 'A Journal of Liberal Opinion' to 'A Journal of Liberal and
Radical Opinion'. Alan who was the chairman of the editorial board, was not
very happy with this proposal; but our view prevailed. I wrote the editorial for
AlanPaton 21

the following number, the one for November 1972, and among other things I
said:
The editorial board hopes that each issue will bring out many of the ways
in which liberalism and radicalism coincide or merge into one another.
The board is also aware, however, that there are some tensions between
liberal and radical viewpoints: we hope that the journal will reflect these
in an honest and fruitful manner . Any valid political attitude needs to be
constantly evolving in order to meet a changing situation, and at the
same time constantly in touch with the past and with its underlying
values .

Alan Paton usually produced a dour expression for photographers. Not this time!
(Photograph: Natal Witness)
22 AlanPaton

Alan remained humorously a bit sceptical, and was from that moment
convinced, I think, that Gardner and a few others had dangerously left-wing
tendencies. In the following issue of Reality, however, there appeared a little
poem, signed A.P., which went like this:
Sometimes I was a glad lib
Sometimes I was a sad lib
No more I'll be a bad lib
For now I am a rad lib.
I never was a mad rad
I would have made a bad rad
Although I hate the glib rad
Myself! am now a lib rad.
Lib now takes its sabbatical
But I'll not be fanatical
I shall remain pragmatical
Though I am now a radical.
No more I'll lie and fiberal
Nor talk a lot of gibberal
Nor will I quake and quibberal
I now am a rad liberal.
I really now have had lib
Now I am a rad lib
I pledge to the new REA LITY
My firm and true feality.

It was a humorous conclusion, but a gracious one too. I don't want to give the
impression that Alan Paton was suspicious of me: he invited me to edit his
collected shorter works, which came out in 1975, and I gave one of the
celebratory lectures in Cape Town on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.
Mind you, that may all have been partly because I was a Professor of English,
and Professors of English are meant to be used to doing that sort of thing. (I
must record here that Alan, as a person happily removed from the trials and
the pretensions of the academic life, had a wonderfully ironical and almost
scornful way of pronouncing the word 'professor'.) But he and I were on good
terms, and he must have known that, though as the years went by our political
positions diverged to some extent, I had a profound respect for him and for his
writing. If he were looking down on us now, however and I have little doubt
that he is - he would probably say: 'Humph! Professor Gardner! I suppose he
will make me look like a spokesman for the left wing'.
I must now switch from the narrative mode to what I suppose might be
called the literary-and-social-critical mode. And as I am going to attempt an
assessment of Alan Paton as a writer and as a person (though, as I've
suggested, the image that I offer can't help being my own), I shall move,
soberly, from saying 'Alan' to saying 'Paton'.
My bold subtitle for this address was (you'll remember) 'often admired,
sometimes criticized, usually misunderstood'. It's clear that I'm going to offer
some criticisms, both of many of those who admire Paton and of many of those
who criticize him. This will mean that what I want to say - or the remainder of
AlanPaton 23

what I want to say - will fall roughly into two parts. I hope however that these
two parts will be held together by one or two common themes.
Let me turn my attention first to those who have been critical of Paton. This
group of people, too, ohviously falls into two sections. There are those who
have criticized Paton because he is too liberal, too far to the left, and those
who have criticized him for the opposite reason, because his liberalism is too
timid, too conservative, analytically inaccurate, or just plain ineffective.
When Cry, the Beloved Country was first published, a large number of white
South Africans situated themselves in the first of those two categories. Paton
died a respected figure, a figure indeed (as I shall argue) shrouded rather too
voluminously in that kind of public esteem which tends (maybe half­
deliberately) to mask a person's real views and achievements. But we must not
forget that for about twenty-five years of his life - from 1948 well into the
1970s - he was regarded by many of his fellow whites with a curious mixture
of horror and awe. A few previously fairly close friends avoided having much
to do with him for fear that they too might he suspected of heing communists.
For many years the security police watched him constantly, and from time to
time they raided his home. On one occasion his car's windscreen was smashed.
But in spite of this massive history of hostility and (at a fairly rudimentary
level) of intellectual disagreement, in 1988 it seems impossible to take this
whole area of opinion seriously. The view that Paton was a dangerous'
character is simply absurd; the notion that it is sacrilegious to want to change
the traditional white South African way of life has evaporated in the minds of
all those whose thought is in any way coherent and reputahle; and Msimangu's
fear 'that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned
to hating' has long since become a classic articulation of the anxiety of very
many South Africans of all races.
Far more important, far more worthy of our consideration, are the
criticisms from the left. There may be some people who doubt this. I think
such doubt can only be based on ignorance. The liberal movement, most of
which locates itself somewhere between the left and the centre of the political
spectrum, is obviously of great significance in South Africa; it has been so in
the past, and it will continue to be in the future. But the left is clearly not only
important but powerful too, and it has been especially so in the last ten or
fifteen years. Not only (I would guess) are the majority of blacks to be found
on the left, particularly the intellectuals and the community leaders, but many
very thoughtful and dedicated whites, particularly young ones, are radicals of
one kind or another. I have to say that I am in many respects a radical myself.
It wouldn't be easy or sensible to try to make a catalogue of all the left-wing
criticisms that have been launched over the years at Cry, the Beloved Country,
Paton's best-known and most controversial work, and at liberalism and the
Liberal Party (which Paton describes and celebrates in Ah. But Your Land is
Beautiful), and at the views of Paton in his last years. (It may seem rash to
bracket all these items together; but in fact they are all subtly interrelated:
those who admire Paton and those who criticize him agree that the man and
his work - the ideas, the actions, the writings - make up almost a seamless
garment - not of course that either liberalism or the Liberal Party were
wholly Paton's own work.) Many of the criticisms could be said to focus on
points of historical or socio-political detail, or matters of personal or political
strategy. Of course different critics have varying views of the magnitude or
significance of these points of disagreement; some would regard them as so
24 AlanPaton

important that they would amount to a rejection of Paton's whole literary and
political thrust.
Let me give some examples of these criticisms. Cry, the Beloved Country is
thought of as offering, in the two Kumalos, an inadequate picture of black
socio-political consciousness: the Reverend Stephen Kumalo is too simply
rural, too naive, too passive, whereas John, his brother, the urban activist, is
treated largely unsympathetically. Johannesburg is presented rather too
simply as a place of sin, as a corrupt alternative to tribal tradition or pastoral
reconstruction, instead of as the place where, to a large extent, the future
South African society will be built. Then, related to this, there is a tendency in
the novel, and in Paton's other literary and political works, and in traditional
South African liberalism, to place too strong a stress on the emotions, and on
the notion of a voluntary, personal, religious or quasi-religious change-of­
heart, rather than on those aspects of political reality which a radical would
tend to highlight: the need for structural analysis of the overall situation in
terms of classes and of interest groups, and the necessity then for organization
and mobilization (of the kind witnessed in recent years in COSATU and the
UDF) so that real and ultimately irresistible pressure can be brought to bear
on the political rulers. I think most of the radical criticisms of Paton and of his
works fall roughly within the scope of the points that I have sketched. A
typical radical critique of his prose style, for example - with its stark
insistences, its resonant haunting phrases, its occasional hints of the biblical­
would be that, in its brooding poetic intensity, it tends to turn the mind
inwards, towards the feelings and the conscience, rather than outwards, to the
difficult realities of a complex socio-political situation. Similarly the Liberal
Party, with its fine ideals and its real generosity of spirit - that Party which, as
Paton tells us in his second autobiography, Donald Molteno accused him of
regarding as a church - this Party never came near to devising a political
strategy which would bring it any real power. Again - it is perhaps a related
point - in his later years he took his own path, and went against (and
therefore arguably partly undermined) the broader liberation movement by
opting not for a unitary state but for federalism and by seeing the
NatallKwaZulu Indaba as a possible move in that direction.
What can one say about all this? Well obviously different people would
respond in different ways. What do I say about it all, since it is I who am
creating for you my own image of Paton?
I must honestly assert that everyone of those criticisms seems to me to have
a certain degree of cogency; I don't myself think that any of them can be
simply refuted or swept aside. But I have to add, firstly, that Cry, the Beloved
Country, and indeed the Liberal Party, need to be seen in historical
perspective. Considering the way socio-political facts change, even under a
Nationalist Government wedded to the ideal of granite fixity, it is remarkable
how many of the human and social elements of the 1948 novel have retained a
real currency. The Liberal Party, too, has to be seen in realistic historical
terms. It may seem to have achieved very little in terms of the immediacies of
power politics; but in the 1950s some valid and significant alliances and
friendships were formed; and as for the 1960s, the opposition was having a
rough time on every front. No other group achieved much.
But my further response to the radical criticisms - which, I repeat I
recognize as having a real and often important validity - is that they miss
something central. And this is what I mean when I talk of a misunderstanding.
AlanPaton 25

I concede that both Paton's writings and the Liberal Party offer a vision of the
strategies for liberation which is in some ways a limited one. But what they do
represent at their best is something which is, I would argue, at the very core of
all valid and strong political opposition in South Africa - and of course
elsewhere. That is a certain spirit, a restlessness, a determination to remove
injustice and tyranny and to establish harmony among individuals and in the
larger society, a courageous willingness to put oneself on the line, a refusal to
acquiesce in the mediocrity of thoughtless and selfish social conformism, a
recognition that any humane society must be based on co-operation between
equals and upon a broad compassion. 'Ah, but,' Oonald Molteno might say if
he were here, 'this is again the idea of liberalism as a religion.' Perhaps it is,
partly. My point is that at the root of all lively human action, within the
individual and within a group, there lies a commitment, an emotion, an
enthusiasm, an impulse, which is in some sense religious or is akin to what one
associates with religion. That impulse may express itself in various tactics and
strategies. But the impulse is the starting-point. It is that impulse, I believe,
that animates the range of opposition groupings in South Africa. And it is that
impulse which is powerfully expressed in Paton's writings and which, in a
thousand subtle ways, has been fed by those writings. That impulse was
expressed in the Liberal Party too, and has now transferred itself to many
opposition groups - the PFP, the Christian Institute (till that too was blotted
out), the NOM, the trade unions, the UOF. To suppose that socio-political
activity of a vigorous and creative kind can take place without such an impulse
is, I think, simply wrong. Indeed, in his powerful articulating and promoting
of that impulse towards justice and a true human community, Paton has to be
seen as, in the fullest sense ofthe word, radical.
By no means all radicals, of course, have failed to realize this. Here, for
example, are some of the words of Eddie Oaniels, who spoke at the Memorial
Service for Paton in St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town. (Oaniels had spent
fifteen years on Robben Island.)
I feel honoured and humble to have been asked to pay tribute to the
memory of Or Alan Paton. I can assure you that if Mr Nelson Mandela
was free he too would be paying tribute to the memory of this great
South African.
Now I want to move on, more briefly, to what may perhaps be considered
the more surprising part of my analysis: the ways in which some or many of
those who admire Paton seem to me partly to misunderstand him. I have
already suggested that in his last years he was in some danger of being
shrouded or swaddled in a sort of wet blanket of reputation and reputability.
As a fairly old friend of his, I must confess that I watched the spread of his
popularity among white South Africans with some alarm. (I hope I wasn't
motivated by envy.)
I am not suggesting that his popularity was bogus. Clearly (as I have already
implied) the thinking of many white South Africans has moved some way in
the last ten or twenty years, and equally clearly Paton's writing has played an
important role in pushing that thought forward. But - after the bitter
wilderness years of the 1940s, 50s and 60s - there was apt to be something a
little too easy and glib about the admiration of the 1970s and 80s. On the
whole people admired him for the right things. There wasn't much
misunderstanding in terms of simple comprehension. They respected his love
26 AlanPaton

of justice and fair play, his compassion, his humanity, his probing insight and
irony. But what they missed often and still miss, I think, is the depth of
emotion and commitment, the capacity and willingness to transform one's
thinking and one's living.
Can I show a little more exactly what I mean by this? I want to read a part of
his account of the memorial service for Edith Rheinallt Jones, who died over
forty years ago. Mrs Jones was a person who, though she had been warned by
her doctor not to exert herself, had decided that she did not wish to abandon
her various benevolent activities, one of which was to travel to black areas all
over South Africa inspecting and encouraging certain self-help projects. The
vision of a future South Africa which Edith Jones had, and which no doubt
Paton shared at the time, was no doubt in various ways imprecise and
unstructured. There may even have been, for all I know, in the manner of
those days, a slight element of the patronising in Edith Jones's attitudes. But
for all that there is no gainsaying the reality and the importance of the
experience that Paton describes. He was writing in 1968.

They had a farewell service for her in St. George's Presbyterian Church,
Johannesburg. That was my deep experience. Black man, White man,
Coloured man, European and African and Asian, Jew and Christian and
Hindu and Moslem, all had come to honour her memory - their hates
and their fears, their prides and their prejudices, all for this moment
forgotten. The lump in the throat was not only for the great woman who
was dead, not only because all South Africa was reconciled under the
roof of this church, but also because it was unreal as a dream, and no one
knew how many years must pass and how many lives be spent and how
much suffering be undergone, before it all came true. And when it all
came true, only those who were steeped in the past would have any
understanding of the greatness of the present.
As for me, I was overwhelmed. I was seeing a vision, which was never
to leave me, illuminating the darkness of the days through which we live
now.
To speak in raw terms, there was some terrible pain in the pit of my
stomach. I could not control it. I had a feeling of unspeakable sorrow
and unspeakable joy. What life had failed to give so many of these
people, this woman had given them - an assurance that their work was
known and of good report, that they were not nameless or meaningless.
And man has no hunger like this one. Had they all come, no church
would have held them all; the vast, voiceless multitude of Africa,
nameless and obscure, moving with painful ascent to that self-fulfilment
no human being may with justice be denied, encouraged and sustained
by this woman who withheld nothing from them, who gave her money,
her comfort, her gifts, her home, and finally her life, not with the
appearance of prodigality nor with fine-sounding words, but with a
naturalness that concealed all evidence of the steep moral climb by
which alone such eminence is attained.
In that church one was able to see, beyond any possibility of doubt,
that what this woman had striven for was the highest and best kind of
thing to strive for in a country like South Africa. I knew then I would
never again be able to think in terms of race and nationality. I was no
longer a White person but a member of the human race. I came to this,
AlanPaton 27

as a result of many experiences, but this one I have related to you was
the deepest of them all.

When in his later years Paton was interviewed on television by people who
knew nothing about that sort of experience, and would have been scared off it
if they had known; when he was revered as a Grand Old Man by people many
of whom had no idea what he had been through or what his true grandness
consisted of; when one realised that white South Africans with almost nothing
of Edith Jones in them were signing up for the Paton fan club and that even the
Nationalist establishment was prepared to try to co-opt Paton and his past (in
rather the same sort of way as the SADF has recently tried to co-opt the Allied
victory over Hitler) - I sometimes felt that the old lion was in danger of being
turned into a Chipperfields Lion Park lion, that the Old Testament prophet
was being converted into a respectable old codger whom everyone loves and
can feel comfortable with.
Of course the process that I complain of is to some extent inevitable. No
doubt fame is always a bit like this. I have already quoted Auden's lines:
The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living.

And perhaps one could add that the words of the old are modified in the guts
of the young, and the words of the experienced are modified in the guts of the
inexperienced. But still, I believe one has to try to keep alive what one sees as
the truth of the man. The fact is that if all those white South Africans who
claim to admire Paton had in them much of the true Paton fire and feeling, the
deep Paton conviction and commitment, that essential impulse towards justice
and community, South Africa would perhaps by now be a totally transformed
country.
But maybe there's one more question that I as a radical liberal- a lib rad or
a rad lib - need to put. Had his views in his post-Liberal Party days softened?
Had he perhaps - from my point of view - actually become a bit more
conservative and a bit more comfortable? Was there in fact a slight resonance
of the Lion Park in his later roars?
To some small extent, perhaps yes. It isn't easy for an old man to maintain
his earlier militancy or to keep up with every new thought. But on the whole.
no. And I speak as a person who disagreed with him about federalism and
about the Indaba and about sanctions. I think Paton's later positions were
essentially compatible with his earlier ones; and indeed I take it upon myself
to suggest that his disagreements with the broad liberation movement were
largely on points of strategy. I think Paton himself might well have preferred a
unitary South Africa, but he opted for a federal concept because he thought
that was in the long run more likely to work. (He perhaps became more of a
strategist as he grew older.) The UDF insists on a unitary state. because that is
what it wants and believes in; but who is to say for sure what might happen
when the real negotiations start? And in similar ways one might analyse the
other points of disagreement. Paton accepts the Indaba as a step in the right
direction. The UDF rejects it - inevitably - as being not properly
representative, and as anyhow inappropriate at the moment when so many
crucial people are exiled, detained, imprisoned or banned. But in the long run
of course, the Indaba, if it ever produces anything, may possibly prove of
some value in future planning.
28 AlanPaton

I am drawing towards a close, and I am conscious that I have dealt with only
a few aspects of the great Paton phenomenon. In fact I hear Alan calling from
above: 'Professor Gardner! Must you always be so damned serious?'
And I remember of course his words about obsession, spoken on several
occasions but most recently at a Speech Day last year:
I want to say a few special words to those of you who take the problems
of life and the world too much to heart. Beware of doing that. It is good
to care for the life and happiness of others, but care for your own too.
Your life wasn't given to you to be spent in suffering. It was given to be
enjoyed. It is good to fight against injustice, but don't become obsessed
by it, for such an obsession - indeed any obsession - will eat away your
life. I know, because I've seen it happen.
Well, that is the other side of the coin. Or perhaps I might call it - in
humility - the point at which I, the lib rad speaker, have been in real danger
of misunderstanding Paton.
He had a very wide range of interests. His knowledge of birds and plants
was astonishing. He loved ajoke. He loved a drink. He loved people.
I'd like to conclude with an anecdote told by his son 10nathan. (Like one or
two of the other things I've quoted, it's in the latest Reality.) 10nathan says
that many people have had many important contacts with his father, but 'not
one of these people can claim to have spent as many hours in a motor car with
him as I have'. And he recounts a number of amusing motor-car stories. Here
is one of them:
And then after 1948 and Cry, the Beloved Country there would be
Journeys with an American Visitor. The Visitor would sit in front and
hold forth in a loud American accent: 'Well, Alan, it seems to me that
the funnermental difference between our constitootion and yours is ... '
My father's voice would suddenly intervene: 'What's that bird, Jonno?'
- and the car would draw to a dramatic halt. Little did the visitor know
that my father had been paying no attention to him whatsoever for the
previous twenty minutes. Out would come the binoculars as Mr P.
peered up into a maroela tree. 'Yellow beak' he would say, clutching his
nose. 'And red breast.' Rubbing his chest. And for the rest of the
journey the American Visitor said not a word, the 'constitootion' having
been thrown out of the window.
And perhaps, in the end, that should be the fate of my speech ...
COLIN GARDNER
Alan Patan 29

ALANPATON
Select Bibliography
NOVELS
Cry, the beloved country. London: Cape. 1948; New York: Scribner, 1948.

Too late the Phalarope. London: Cape, 1953; New York: Scribner, 1953.

Ah, but your land is beautiful. Cape Town: Philip, 1981.

SHORT STORIES
Debbie go home. London: Cape, 1961. As Tales from a troubled land. New York: Scribner,
1961.
BIOGRAPHIES
Hofm!,yr. Cape Town: O.U.P .. 1904; London: O.U.P., 1965. A South African tragedy;
the life and times ofJan Hofmeyr (abridged edition). New York: Scribner, 1965.
Apartheid and the Archbishop; the life and times of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape
Town. Cape Town: Philip, 1973; London: Cape, 1974; New York: Scribner, 1974.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
Towards the mountain; an autobiography. New York: Scrihner, 1980; London: O.U.P.,
1981; Cape Town: Philip, 1981.
Journey continued. Cape Town: Philip, 1988.
OTHER WRITINGS
Meditation for a young boy confirmed. London: National Society/S.P.C.K., 1944;
Cincinnati, 1954. .
Freedom as a reformatory instrument. Pretoria; Penal Reform League ofS.A., 1948.
Christian Unity; a South African view. Grahamstown: Rhodes University, 1951.
South Africa today. New York: Public Affairs Committee, 1951; London: Lutterworth
Press, 1953.
Salute to my great-great grandchildren. Johanneshurg: St Benedict's House, 1954.
The land and people of South Africa. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1955. As South Africa and
her people. London: Lutterworth, 1957.
South Africa in transition. New York: Scrihner, 1956. Hopefor South Africa. London: Pall
Mall, 1958; New York: Praeger, 1959.
The people wept. Privately printed: Kloof, 1959.
The Charlestownstorv. Pietermaritzhurg: Liberal Party of South Africa, 1960.
Sponono; a play in three acts by Alan Paton and Krishna Shah, based on three stories by
Alan Paton from the collection Tales from a troubled land. New York: Scribner, 1965.
Civil rights and present wrongs, Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations,
1968,
Instrument of Thv Peace; the prayer of St Frands. New York: Seabury, 1968; London:
Collins, 1970.
Kontakion for you departed. London: Cape, 1969. As For vou departed. New York:
Scribner, 1969.
Towards racial justice; will there be a change of heart? (35th Hoernle Memorial Lecture),
Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1979,
Federation or desolation, (37th Hoernle Memorial Lecture.) Johannesburg: South African
Institute of Race Relations, 1985.
(With acknowledgements to Reality)
30 Petrus Lafras Uys

Her Majesty's Loyal and

Devoted Trekker Leader:

Petrus Lafras Uys

Voortrekker history, as taught at schools, was largely based on Gustav

Preller's Voortrekkermense. Having married Piet Retief's great-grand­
daughter, Preller tended to favour Retief. Members of the Uys family wrote
to him, but to no avail. I
The clash between the Voortrekker leadership was referred to by Senator
1.1. Uys, son ofWessel and nephewofPetrus Uys, when he wrote:
The Commission returned with great joy to their homes, which they
reached in the year 1835. They handed in a report of what had been done
by them after which Piet Retief and his followers left for Natal. I shall
not say anything more about the relations between Piet Uys and Piet
Retief.2
The disagreement between Retief and Uys was more than occasioned by the
generation gap of 17 years, that of the oldest versus the youngest Trek leader.
It was the first of the fundamental schisms splitting the Afrikaners into
'Verkramp' and 'Verlig' camps - in this case rejection of the Crown as
opposed to co-operation with the British authorities. The lack of a formal
constitution, coupled with their new-found freedom from British laws, were
factors which contributed to the discord which was to arise among the Trekker
leadership. Ultimately these divisions would lead to bloodshed and bitterness,
the effect of which are still felt today.
The foremost Trekker, Hendrik Potgieter, 45, was ostensibly a clan leader
by nature. He motivated Louis Trichardt to set off on his ill-fated journey to
Louren<;o Marques in Portuguese East Africa. When Potgieter trekked he fell
foul of the Matabele and fought them off at Vegkop. He lost his livestock to
them, including his draught oxen, and had to be assisted by the Rev. lames
Archbell and the Barolong Chief Moroka. 3
Gert Maritz, 40, then arrived with his party at Blesberg (Thaba Nchu)
where Archbell had his mission station. He agreed to assist Potgieter in a
reprisal raid on the Matabele's Mosega kraal. After the successful sortie they
then argued over the division of the cattle which had been taken as booty.
Potgieter fel t that the major share should go to his party, who had lost cattle to
the Matabele, but Maritz disagreed. 4
When Piet Retief, 56, arrived with his party in April 1837 he was welcomed
by Maritz as the solution to the problem. As he was a decade older than
Petrus Lafras Uys 31

Potgieter and was untainted by any Trekker disputes, surely he would be

accepted as the overall leader! Retief promoted the idea of a united laager and
on 17 April accepted the position as governor of all the emigrant farmers. He
unwisely excluded Potgieter from his provisional government, although he did
include one or two of Potgieter's supporters. His vision of an Afrikaner state,
free of British influence and with himself at its head, seemed very near. s
On 29 June Piet Uys, 39, arrived with his party of Trekkers. A bombshell
must have seemed to burst at the combined laagers, as he refused to accept
Retief as governor. Although he was always respectful towards his elders, Uys
had no time for Retief, whom he considered as a bankrupt and a self-seeker.
The recently formulated Trekkers' basic code of 'Nine Articles' virtually
entrenched Retief and Maritz as the governing hierarchy.
Who was this young upstart who so distrusted Retief that he wilfully defied
the fragile authority of the fledgling Trekker government? What right did he,
as a latecomer, have in deliberately ignoring the new Trekker laws? No doubt
he was vilified for his revolutionary attitude and his insistence on
independence from the 'United Laagers'. Perhaps, on the other hand, he was
one of the few men to foresee the bloody consequences of Retief's leadership?
Petrus Lafras Uys was born at Hessequas Kloof, Swellendam, on 7 October
1797, the second son of the deeply religious J acobus U ys. At 18 years of age he
married his 16-year-old cousin, Alida Uys, and they were to have three sons,
Jacobus, Dirk and Petrus. Jacobus was born in February 1819. 6 At the age of
21 Uys probably fought with Commandant Linde's Swellendam Commando in
the Frontier War of 1819. A man of Uys's temperament would have been one
of the first volunteers, especially as his older brother was crippled and could
not represent the family on commando. A daughter was born in April 1821,
but died aged one week. 7 His second son, Dirk, born on 3 March 1823 was to
be immortalised as one of the outstanding child heroes of the Trek.
Uys had, no doubt, seen advantages in farming at the mouth of the Kromme
River, for late in 1823 he moved with all his family to the Eastern Cape. A
third son, Petrus Lafras, was born at their farm Brakfontein on 1 September
1827. Five years later while his son, Jacobus, was out collecting wood a wagon
toppled over onto him and he was crippled. He was thereafter nicknamed
'Kruppel Koos' to distinguish him from his grandfather and namesake. Uys
then moved to a farm closer to the frontier, in the Bushman's River area. In
October 1833 he applied to the authorities for a higher charge for supplying
horses to convey persons who travelled at government expense. As a noted
horse-breeder, Uys was popular with British officers, among whom he had
many friends. 8
When dissatisfaction with British rule became rife three reconnaissance or
'Commission' Treks were organised. The first under Johannes Pretorius
reported unfavourably on South West Africa. The second group, led by J.
Scholtz, gave an encouraging report on the Zoutpansberg area. The third
party would follow the route of Dr Andrew Smith along the coast to Port
Natal. The inhabitants of the Albany and Uitenhage area organised the
expedition and appointed Piet Uys as its leader.
On 19 July 1834 Petrus Uys, Petrus and Jacobus Moolman and Gert
Rudolph requested permission from the governor to cross the frontier. This
was recommended by the civil commissioner and approved by the governor. 9
The reason Uys gave to his family for the Commission Trek was, 'I don't know
what will come of the country; 1 will ride to see if I can find a land good enough
32 Petrus Lafras Uys

for me and my descendants and countrymen and if I don't find one I'll go to
America, as the oppression is becoming too heavy'. 10 The Commission left
Uitenhage on 8 September. The party of 14 whites included two of Uys's
brothers, Cob us (with his wife Gertruida) and Johannes as well as Hans
(Dons) de Lange and Stephanus Maritz, Gert's older brother. ll Beyond the
border they met with Louis Trichardt and held discussions with him before
proceeding to the Xhosa and Mpondo Paramount chiefs, Hintza and Faku.
The Trekkers reached Port Natal in December 1834 where they met the
English settlers, including Robert Biggar, whom Uys had probably known in
Port Elizabeth. They then spent their time hunting south of the Tugela River
and camped near present-day Stanger. Richard (Dick) King was sent to the
Zulu king, Dingane, to arrange a meeting with the Trekkers. Uys was ill when
summoned by Dingane, so sent his youngest brother, Johannes, in his stead.
The Tugela had meanwhile come down in flood and Johannes could only
shout messages across it to Dingane's envoys. He gathered from them that the
Boers would be welcome to settle in N atal. 12
Word was then received of the outbreak of war on the frontier, so Uys
decided to return. They travelled through Xhosa territory, guided by Hintza's
son, and arrived in Grahamstown in March 1835. While there, Uys reported
to D'Urban on the Trek and also on Hintza's attitude to the war. After
obtaining Colonel Harry Smith's permission he then visited his family. 13 Uys
had left his wife and children in the care of his father at the Kromme River.
This was fortunate as his Bushman's River farm had meanwhile been
attacked. On 23 May he wrote of his losses to the Government and requested
compensation. He then joined Commandant Linde's Swellendam Commando
as a field cornet in the First Division and remained with them until they were
recalled. Thereafter he served as a field commandant in the Second Division
under Colonel Somerset.
Meanwhile Uys and the Moolman brothers were accused of having stated
that they intended quitting the Colony and returning to Natal. On 5 June Uys
swore before the Uitenhage magistrate that he had never expressed any
unfriendly feeling towards the government, but admitted that on more than
one occasion he had said that if the British government should take possession
of that country, he would have no objection to residing there. His intention
would be solely in assisting to civilize the savagesP3 During the military sweep
of September 1835, Uys was commended for his bravery at the Keiskamma
River when he and 22 men attacked and defeated a party of raiding Xhosa,
killing eighteen. 14 On 4 August Uys wrote from Grahamstown to Governor
D'Urban, complaining about the insubordination of indentured labourers in
the Uitenhage area during the absence of the men on commando. The
following month he wrote to the civil commissioner of Albany requesting the
grant of farms in the Klaas Smits district to himself and members of his
family. IS
On his return from commando in late October, Uys was told at the Gamtoos
River ferry that his wife had been arrested and had passed there as a prisoner.
She had been accused by an indentured,servant, Rosina, of having slapped
her. Uys was furious at the treatment meted out to Alida. He turned back and
intercepted his wife and Special Constable Tee near Uitenhage, then
accompanied her to her trial in Port Elizabeth. Alida was tried by Special
Justice Thomas Sherwin, a former marine officer, and found innocent of all
charges. Rosina, on the other hand, was jailed for perjury. Uys returned to
Petrus Lafras Uys 33

Uitenhage where he wrote to the governor, accusing Sherwin of 'cruel and

oppressive conduct' and requested 'redress and reparation'. D'Urban had the
charge investigated and replied at the end of November, clearing Sherwin, but
adding ,It is an obnoxious law ... '16
In January 1836 Uys held a meeting of cattle-farmers at Uitenhage, with
D'Urban's permission, where they discussed the problems of indentured
labourers. Uys then laid a civil charge on behalf of Alida against the
unpopular Justice Sherwin. He demanded £100 compensation for her
wrongful arrest and forcible removal, when she had to leave a crippled child
behind despite her husband's absence on commando. Sherwin contested the
charges but in March 1836 was overruled by the Circuit Court and his costs
were paid by the district treasury. When he heard of this Uys exploded:
What! My complaint is as just as any - if I get sentence in my favour the
costs are paid out of the district treasury - if I fail in the proof of my
case, I must pay treble costs; do you call that equally protecting all
parties? - I prefer living amongst barbarians, where my life depends
upon the strength of my arms ... 17
While the case against Sherwin dragged on Uys decided to trek. He sold his
farm Brakfontein to Hermanus Swart,18 then spent the next few months
organizing the large party who would be trekking with him. Uys then travelled
to Cape Town to see D'Urban and obtain permission to leave the Colony.19
His journey over the Hottentots Holland Mountains near Cape Town was
eased by using the new Sir Lowry's Pass.
The nominal leader of the Uys trek party was his father, Jacobus Uys, 66,
though Petrus was the actual leader. They left from Uitenhage and on
reaching Grahamstown encamped on the heights north-west of the town. The
Grahamstown Journal reported on 20 April:
We regret to find that Mr Peter Uys, who so greatly distinguished
himself by his gallantry during the recent Kaffir War, is now in the
vicinity of Graham's Town on his way to join the emigrant farmers. He
had with him a party of 23 wagons, and upwards of 100 souls, and he is
accompanied by his father, who, at a very advanced age, is about to
abandon forever the land of his birth. 20
The English settlers then presented them with a large copy of the Bible, the
only trekker party to be so honoured. * This was mainly due to the popularity
and charisma ofUys.
Pieter Uys was one of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa.
He had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good
school education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from
every source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could
write a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch,
and he was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. His upright
conduct, his religious convictions, and his kindly disposition caused him
to be held in general esteem, not only by his Dutch-speaking neighbours,

* On 17 December 1962 the State President of South Africa, Mr CR. Swart, unveiled a
monument in the shape of a Bible on the site of the Bible presentation.
34 Petrus Lafras Uys

The mural in the Voortrekker Monument depicting the presentation of a bible to

J acobus Uys by Thomas Pringle on behalf of the settlers.
(Photograph: Voortrekker Monument Council)

but by the English settlers of Albany, with whom he was brought into
close contact during the Kaffir War of 1835. 21
In his reply Uys said, Thank you to the deputation for the very kind manner
in which you expressed yourselves. I feel deep regret at parting from so many
kind friends, but hope that as long as we all remain on this side of the grave,
although parted by distance, we should remain united in heart'.
They remained there for a week provisioning themselves for the arduous
journey which lay ahead. Uys decided to follow the other Trekkers through
the territory beyond the Orange River and thus avoid all the rivers which lay
across the coastal route to Natal. They crossed the Orange and reached the
main Trekker laagers on 29 June. When Uys heard of Retief's accession to the
governorship of all Trekkers, he summarily declared his opposition to it.
Uys had remained on good terms with Sir Benjamin D'Urban and had been
the only Trekker leader to visit the governor in Cape Town and obtain his
permission to leave. D'Urban possibly asked Uys to ascertain from other
emigrants what their principal reasons were for quitting the Colony, for on
meeting with the main group of Trekkers, Uys had lengthy discussions with
them, then wrote to D'Urban summarising their grievances. Unlike Retief's
manifesto, this was not published in the Grahamstown Journal, as Uys
Pctrus Lafras Uys 35

probably did not wish to embarrass D'Urban. 22 A long statement of Trekker

grievances concluded:
If I can be of any use to your Excellency, or any report of mine be of
service to a governor whom I so much esteem, I shall spare no trouble. 22
The Uys party then formally disassociated themselves from Retief's 'Nine
Articles'. In his History ofSouth Africa G. McC. Theal wrote:
The political position, or the attitude assumed by Pieter Uys and his
party towards the emigrants who had preceded them, was one of
independence. As well, he thought, might he assert authority over Mr
Retief as Mr Retief over him. The time had not yet come for framing a
constitution, which should be deferred until the tide of emigration had
slackened, when it could be done with the consent of the whole body of
the people, and not merely of a small section of them. Accordingly on
the 14th August 1837 a series of resolutions were drawn up and signed,
placing their attitude clearly before their countrymen.
On 9 September Retief announced that the scouts he had sent out had found
at least five passes down the Drakensberg into Natal. A meeting of all
Trekkers was then held at Tafelkop on the 13th. Potgieter had welcomed Uys
as an ally when he had declared his independence from the 'United Laagers'
and had promised to assist Potgieter in a second punitive raid on the
Matabele. At the meeting Uys warned Retief about Dingane and possible
treachery and told Retief to await his and Potgieter's return before leaving for
Natal. Retief decided to ignore this well-meant advice. Henry Francis Fynn
was to note in his diary:
This appears to have irritated Retief and he may have been led to
conceive the chieftainship to be his personal right. It is therefore likely
that he thought the best way of attaining that position was by proceeding
to the Zulu chief Dingane and inducing him to cede the country of Natal
to him and emigrant Boers, the result of which is so clearly described in
the Honourable Cloete's lectures. 23
As Uys left the meeting one of the Trekkers shouted after him, 'How will
things go with the journey now?' Uys'sanswer did not please them. 'Each one
goes his own way; these go before in front, others go on the flank. None of
them will come in the rear. '24 As far as he was concerned the trek party which
reached Natal first would have no prior claim to it over those who followed.
The split between Maritz and Potgieter soon affected all the Trekkers.
Potgieter decided to set up his own government on land which he had
purchased from Mokwana, whereas Uys decided to settle somewhere in
Natal. The Uys laager, meanwhile, was situated on a tributary of the Modder
River, north of the present Dewetsdorp. The God-fearing lacobus Uys set
about building a church with poles and reeds which would be large enough for
their whole party. After completion of the church, which measured 12,2 m by
15,5 m, the Wesleyan missionary, lames Archbell, was invited to officiate at a
Communion service. Uys had struck up a lasting friendship with the American
minister, who did mission work among Maroko's people at Blesberg. Some of
the other Trekkers, especially the Retiefs who had the unordained Erasmus
Smit as their preacher, found Uys's action abhorrent. The communion service
was held during October and was the first to be held for the Trekkers north of
36 Petrus Lafras Uys

\ . .~ 7
'. erkfjP

The Uysklip, now in the Bloemfontein National Museum.

(Photograph : Author's collection)

the Orange River. After the service Jacobus Uys (Koos Bybel) had his name
carved on a memorial stone (which is today in the Bloemfontein National
Museum) and named the tributary 'Kerkspruyt'. 25Uys then visited the Basuto
chief, Mosheshwe, who ceded all the land near Kerkspruyt to him and his
descendants. Uys undertook to erect a more permanent church on the site .26
On 19 October Uys concluded a treaty of friendship with Maroko and
Archbell at Thaba Nchu, then left immediately on the punitive expedition
with Potgieter.
A newcomer, Andries Pretorius, then joined them. He was on a
reconnaissance from the Graaff-Reinet area , not yet having decided to trek.
The commando consisted of 330 mounted Trekkers in two sections,
accompanied by a number of Barolong herders. They left Pretorius and a
smalllaager at the Vet River, then proceeded to Mosega, which they found
deserted on 2 November. Then followed a campaign of nine days in which the
Trekkers outfought the Matabele in every battle. The Matabele put up a
spirited defence, which included driving maddened oxen against the mounted
Trekkers. Potgieter and Uys fought their way northwards in the Marico River
valley and to the capital at Kapain. Mzilikazi and his defeated nation then fled
from the Transvaal. 27
When Uys returned to the main Trekker laagers at Winburg he found that
Retief had descended the Drakensberg. He and Pretorius then followed and
awaited Retief at Doornkop. Retief was convinced that he had achieved a
major coup in being the first Trekker leader to negotiate with Dingane, and
was then en route to recapturing Zulu cattle taken by Sikonyela. He was no
doubt surprised to find Uys awaiting him. He had heard of the victories over
the Matabele and used them as a veiled threat against Dingane. A meeting
was held at which Retief and his party attempted to justify their actions and
Petrus Lafras Uys 37

obtain Uys's co-operation. Erasmus Smit, Retief's preacher, wrote

disparagingly:28
Friday 15 December 1837. Today the party of A. Pretorius arrived in our
camp with two horse waggons and one ox waggon, to which Pi et Uys had
added himself ...
Saturday 16 December 1837. The arrival of a certain fellow-emigrant
provided the Governor with much work and caused him to be thoughtful
and on his guard towards the man who caused much commotion and
disturbance in the camp, but most emigrants who are with us, remained
on the side of the Governor, P. Retief. In the afternoon Mr G. Maritz,
G. Rudolph and others arrived. These came at the right time for
strengthening the hand of the Governor ...
Monday 18 December 1837.... In the forenoon the Governor sent a
messenger around with a letter in which all emigrants ... are invited to
meet together at three o'clock ... The result of the meeting was that
some differences between two important persons, which had risen high
and become noticeable, had been settled to the great joy of all the
emigrants.
Tuesday 19 December 1837.... B. Liebenberg ... gave to the Governor
the following memorial, which the Governor then read aloud: 'We
citizens here are very pleased with the settlement of differences ... but it
is our earnest desire that Mr P. Uys shall now bind himself with us by an
oath of loyalty to His Excellency the Governor, P. Retief ... (Signed) B.
Liebenberg.' Mr P. Uys agreed to this, and arranged that it would be
done on a later visit to the united camp together with the party who left
with him in convoy from the Colony.
It is highly unlikely that Uys would ever have done so. He returned to his
party in Transorangia to report on his meeting and to decide on a common
strategy. The situation was extremely serious, for Retief's actions would
rebound on all Trekkers who settled in Natal. Their decision was to dissociate
themselves entirely from Retief.
Uys then dictated a letter to James Howell, an English trader from Port
Elizabeth. Howell was the stepson of Lourens Badenhorst, one of Uys's party,
and was willing to act as a go-between with the British authorities in the Cape.
Howell wrote the letter and Uys signed it. 29
To His Excellency, Sir Benjamin D 'Urban K CB
Governor and Commander in Chief
Your Excellency
I t is with feelings of the utmost regret that we, the Commandant and
principal officers of a large portion of the emigrated Burgers at present
without the boundarys of this colony, have ascertained, through the
medium of the Commercial Advertiser, that Mr P. Retief, Commandant
of a small portion of Burgers at present encamped in the 'Dongella'
River is likely, by the proclamation of his disloyal sentiments in the
above-mentioned Paper, to cause great displeasure towards Her
Majesty's Government.
We therefore, feeling it a duty incumbent on ourselves to come forward
and disclaim any participation in his [desperate 1proceedings and in the
38 Petrus Lafras Uys

voice of the people at large, not only to declare ourselves totally averse
to his proceedings, but that we will by every means in our power
frustrate any sinister designs that he may have against Her Majesty's
government.
We have also respectfully to request that your excellency will always
consider us and our whole 'Laager' as loyal and devoted subjects and
worthy of your excellency's favour & protection & that your excellency
will be pleased to make use of our services whenever they may be
required and in whatever [way] your excellency may think proper.
Any communication your excellency may think proper to make to us we
respectfully duly request may be forwarded to our agent Mr James
Howell at Port Elizabeth, who will immediately bring the same to the
place of destination, and who can also give your excellency any further
information that your excellency may require, he having lately visited us
at our encampment.
We have the honour to be, with the greatest (respect),

Your excellency's most humble and devoted servant

P.L. UIJS
Justinces Berg
24th Jan 1838

Uys could hardly have made his viewpoint clearer. As a British subject, not
given to treasonable behaviour and having loyally served King William IV, he
now transferred his loyalty to the 18-year-old Queen Victoria who had
ascended the throne six months earlier. His party was not only 'totally averse'
to Retief's actions, but added that 'we will by every means in our power
frustrate any sinister designs that he may have against Her Majesty's
government'. This probably alludes to some plot against Britain. From his
recent meeting with Retief, Uys may have gathered that it was Retief's
intention to wrest Natal not only from the Zulus but from the British settlers at
Port Natal as well. From his visit to these settlers in 1834 Uys would have
known of their yearning for recognition by the Crown. Retief's 'sinister
designs' left Uys in no doubt where his loyalties lay.
After returning from the Commission Trek he had sworn that he had no
intention of returning to Natal unless it was a Crown Colony.30 His later
problems with Sherwin may have tarnished his belief in speedy British justice,
hence his favouring of the United States Constitution. Despite his valid
criticism of the implementation of British policies and justice, at heart Uys
had tremendous respect for his friend, Governor D'Urban, who was doing his
best in very difficult times. As an honourable man Uys was not prepared to see
D'Urban and the Crown hoodwinked out of a possible Natal Colony by
Retief. He declares that his party are 'loyal and devoted subjects' and offers
their services 'whenever they may be required and in whatever way your
excellency may think proper'. As fighting men this undoubtedly includes
taking up arms on the side of the Crown. A 'Civil war' among the Trekkers
over the land of Natal with the possible intervention of Britain, would have
been likely.
D'Urban was extremely pleased at receiving Uys's letter and instructed his
staff to communicate with Howell. 31
Petrus Lafras Uys 39

Mr J as Howell
Sir
His E [excellency] the Gov [Governor] has rec [received] a letter from
Mr P.L. Uijs dated at Justinces Berg the 24th of January last, written in
the name of the expatriated farmers at present beyond the Colonial
boundaries, expressing their disapproval of the proceedings of Mr Retief
and those who accompany him, their own feelings of attachment to the
Government of this colony, and their readiness to yield their services
whenever and in whatsoever manner His Excellency shall require them.
These assurances have proved very satisfactory to His Excellency, but
before he can make any reply to Mr Uijs, he will require to be informed
by you who are named by these farmers as their agent, what is the
precise situation of Justinces Berg, whether they occupy the country
around it as permanent or temporary possession and in the latter case,
whither it is their intention to proceed after quitting it.
(Illegible signature)
In the interim Retief had tricked Sikonyela into donning handcuffs, then
confiscated or stolen his cattle, some of which were returned to Dingane. He
ignored the warnings of Uys, Gert Maritz,32 the Revd George Champion and
others not to take many men with him on his return visit to Dingane. Retief
and over 70 men were murdered, then over 500 Trekkers and their servants
massacred at Blaaukrans and in the Bushman's River laagers. Gert Maritz,
though dying of illness, rallied the survivors and beat off further Zulu attacks.
He then sent urgent messages to Uys and Potgieter for assistance. Uys put
aside all thoughts of co-operation with the Crown and hurried to the Natal
Trekkers, who were in desperate straits.
Potgieter and Uys led a combined command of 347 men, which was
ambushed in the hills near Dingane's chief kraal on 8 April. Uys rode to the
rescue of two impetuous Malan brothers and was mortally wounded by an
assegai in his back. He was supported in his saddle but kept fainting and
eventually ordered his men to leave him. His 15-year-old son, Dirkie, then
achieved immortality. The boy looked back to see his dying father raise his
head and watch him ride to safety, while Zulus swarmed towards him. Dirkie
swung his horse around and rode back to fight and die with his father. Piet Uys
was the only Trekker leader to die on the battlefield. 33
History has not forgotten the spontaneous heroism of Dirkie, but has
largely overlooked the tremendous charisma of the man which inspired it. The
boy's love for his father was the natural consequence of the respect and
adulation his family and friends bore for a morally and physically courageous
man.
Piet Uys's vision of a United States of South Africa, based on the American
constitution and in co-operation with Her Majesty's Government, would have
been difficult to realise. Nevertheless, had he survived Italeni perhaps he
would have brought peace to Natal. Together with Potgieter's Transorangia
and Transvaal Trekkers a confederation could have evolved, which would
perhaps have prevented the carnage of two Anglo-Boer Wars and led to a
more peaceful solution to our sub-continent's problems.
40 Petrus Lafras Uys

REFERENCES
1 Ian S. Uys, Die Un Geskiedenis, 1704-1974 (Heidelberg, 1974), p. 66.
Letter from Scn. ].]. Uys to the Natal Ajrikaner, 16.4.1897.
3 Carel Potgietcr and N.H. Theunissen. Kommandant-Generaal Hendrik Potgieter (Afrikaanse
Pers), pp. 59-00.
4 Oliver Ransford. The Great Trek (London. 1972), pp. 78--80.
5 Ibid, pp. 97-99.
6 Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis, pp. 20-22.
7 Ibid, p. 214.
S Cape Archives, CO 3967 8111, Letter from P.L. Uys to Col. Wade, 25 October 1833.
Y Cape Archives, CC 3975/2, Memorial from P.L. Uys,]. and P.]. Moolman and G. Rudolph to
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, 19July 1834.
10 CF.]. Muller, Die Oorsprong van die Groat Trek, p. 270 quoting P.L. Uys's son Jacobus in a
lettcr to The Friend editor, 4 September 1879, and p. 292 quoting a memorial of 24 June 1835
by P.L. Uys, Cape Archives, CO 3955/84.
11 Ibid, p. 280.
12 The Friend, 14 August 1879, letterfrom Jacobus Uys to the editor.
l' Cape Archives, CO 2755/84, sworn declaration by P.L. Uys.
14 CF.J. Muller, [,eiers na die Noorde: Studies oar die Groat Trek (Tafelbcrg), pp. 117-118
quoting Godlonton, A narrative uf the Irruption of the Kaffir Hordes (1965 cd.), pp. 222-223
and G.E. Cory. The Rise ofSouth Ajrica (London, 1919), pp. 216--17.
15 Cape Archives. GH 34/0 320. mcmorial from P.L. Uys to the Civil Commissioncrof Alhany.
16 Cape Archives, CO 3'Ji\3i04.lctter from P.L. Uys to D'Urban, 2 November 1835.
17 Muller, Leiers na die Noorde. p. 124. quoting Natal Papers of ].C. Chase.
IS CG.S. de Villiers. Die Familie Swan in SlIid-Afrika (Pretoria, 1977), p. 23.
19 Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis. p. 4R.letter from P.L. Uys to D'Urban, 7 August 1837.
2" The Grahamstownlournal, 20 April 1837.
21 G. McC Theal, History ofSouth Africa (published 19(4).
-- Ibid.
23 Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis, p. 52.
24 H.F. Schoon, The Diary of Erasmus Smit(Cape Town. 1972), p. 52.
25 Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis, pp. 53-4.
26 The Friend, 14 August 1879, letter from Jacobus Uys to the editor.
27 Ransford, The Great Trek, pp. 79--86.
2S Schoon, The Diary of Era~mlls Smit. p. 73.
29 Cape Archives. CO 3999/103.
3" Cape Archives. CO 2755/84.
31 Cape Archives. CO 3999/]03.
32 R. U. Kenney, Piet Retiefthe Duhious Hero (Cape Town, 1976), pp. 161-2.
33 Uys, Die Uys Geskiedenis, pp. 0S-1-il. Pages 100-115 of the same work relate the story of the
death of the vounger Piet Uvs. who was killed at the Battle of Hlobane. 28 March 1879.
fighting on th~ side "Of the Briti~h.

IAN S. UYS
 41

Commercial Coal-mining in
Natal: A CentennialAppraisal1
Origins
The large-scale commercial exploitation of northern Natal's coal deposits was
initiated by the formation in January 1889 of the Dundee (Natal) Coal
Company under the chairmanship of the highly-successful Durban
businessman and civic leader, Benjamin Greenacre. For half a century
following the arrival of the Voortrekkers in the late 1830s numerous outcrops
of coal had been haphazardly exploited for domestic consumption by the
white farming community of the region and, from the 1840s, small
consignments had been transported for sale as far afield as Pietermaritzburg.
Deposits had been found on several properties in the Newcastle vicinity, along
the Biggarsberg, near Ladysmith and, in limited quantities, in the Msinga
district, on the Mvoti and Thukela rivers, and at Compensation on the
coastline north of Durban. 2
By the 1880s Klip River County, in the Newcastle magisterial division, had
emerged as that part of Natal with the most obvious mining potential and
Dundee,3 where Peter Smith had initiated mining activity on the eastern slope
of Talana hill, was already recognised as the Colony's coal capital, being
geographically central to the Klip River coalfield in which, prior to the 1930s,
most of Natal's coal-mining took place. The full potential of that coalfield
could still only be guessed at, and the Colony's rudimentary wagon roads
made it impossible to contemplate the transportation of any commodity in
bulk except during the dry winter months.
Two events facilitated the development of commercial mining operations in
the region. In September 1881 Frederick W. North, the British geological
expert who had been appointed by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Henry Bulwer to
investigate Natal's coal resources, attracted much attention to the region by
reporting that Klip River County was endowed with a workable coalfield
which was no less than 1350 square miles (3 496,5 square kilometres) in extent
and contained 2073 million tons of coal, much of it suitable for generating
steam in locomotives. Then, in 1889, the railway from Durban through
Pietermaritzburg and Ladysmith at last advanced through Glencoe and
Newcastle en route towards the Transvaal border. It was not the confirmed
potential of the Klip River coalfield which promoted railway construction into
the northern reaches of the Colony but the discovery in 1886 of the main
Witwatersrand goldreef and a determination to ensure for Natal a reasonable
share of the trade bonanza that was expected to ensue from the anticipated
development of a major gold-mining industry.
 -"'"
N

COALFIELDS OF NATAL

NAMIBIA

~
~
~
'";:s
[
~
;::,

1111111111111111111 Coalf"'lds Is·

-+---+- Railwa)'s
~.
!--..:!!.­
0,=
kilometres
lO 40 !Ill
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I!MA"!I",
§:
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 43

Greenacre's consortium of Durban merchants and shipowners was quick to

invest in a private railway-line which linked their mining properties Coalfields
and, subsequently, Talana at Dundee to the main line at Glencoe but the
Company soon found itself in competition with others who were similarly alert
to the commercial possibilities of the region. In November 1889 Frederick
North re-appeared in the Colony to secure several coal-bearing properties in
the Newcastle vicinity on behalf of an unidentified English syndicate, and
others followed in his wake. The Hon. F. Reynolds, member for Alexandra
County in Natal's Legislative Assembly, and S. Mitchell- Innes, who farmed in
the Ladysmith district, established the Elandslaagte Colliery Company at the
southern end of the Klip River coalfield, where they substantially reduced the
cost of transporting coal to the port by acquiring a 45-year lease on good
mining property which lay within 300 yards of the railway line.
While the Dundee and Elandslaagte Companies proved to be two of Natal's
more enduring mining enterprises, over half of the 60-odd collieries that were
opened during the colonial era had closed by 1910 as a result of inexperience
or of 'extravagant and unskilled management'. Coal-mining attracted
investors from a variety of occupations and initially very few of them had any
appropriate expertise to apply. For example, the unsuccessful Lennoxton
Colliery Company which mined in the vicinity of Newcastle was controlled by
a syndicate that included a farmer, a local doctor, a commission agent and a
storekeeper, while the neighbouring West Lennoxton Collieries Ltd also went
downhill when one of its guarantors, the Durban tailor W.H. Simons, became
insolvent. 4
Some of the Colony's mining companies did enjoy the advantage of being
financially well connected. The Natal Cambrian Collieries Ltd was controlled
by 'an influential Directorate' which included W.E. Butcher, the senior
partner in S. Butcher and Sons of Durban, as well as the wealthy sugar
magnate c.G. Smith, and c.P. Reynolds who owned extensive property on
the Natal coast. The South African Collieries Ltd was uniquely fortunate in
being closely connected to and financially sustained by the De Beers
Consolidated Mines Ltd, which subsequently took over its Northfield
Colliery. Other enterprises, like the Natal Navigation Collieries and Estate
Company Ltd, Hattingspruit Collieries Ltd, and New Campbell Collieries
Ltd, were either floated with Witwatersrand capital or taken over and
managed by Johannesburg-based companies. One mining company, the
Enyati Colliery Ltd, was floated in Mauritius and some, including the Vryheid
(Natal) Railway Coal and Iron Company which developed the Hlobane
Colliery, were financed and directed from London. While many of Natal's
early colliery companies sought listings on the London Stock Exchange and
attracted British investment capital, with varying degrees of success, most of
them were financed and controlled by local entrepreneurs based in Durban.
The Dundee (Natal) Coal Company was therefore not unique in this
respect, and although its board of directors was initially also lacking in mining
expertise their prominence in the economic and political life of the Colony and
their collective experience in commerce and shipping did offer some
reassurance to prospective investors. George Payne, J.W. Leuchars and the
Hon. A. Mitchell Campbell were all, like their chairman Benjamin
Greenacre, prosperous Durban merchants and civic leaders. Two other
directors, Charles Hitchins and (from 1903) Otto Siedle were involved in
shipping businesses while one, G .M. Sutton, owner through marriage of the
44 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

property Coalfields, had an agricultural background and subsequently became

Prime Minister of Natal between August 1903 and May 1905.
These influential commercial and political connections doubtless helped the
Company to maintain its initial pre-eminence in the Natal coal industry but
did not insulate it from the financial anxieties and fierce market competition
to which its rivals were exposed.

The Marketing ofNatal coal: 1889-1950s. 5

The arrival of the steam locomotive in Klip River County provided the
emergent coal industry with an immediate market in the form of the Natal
Government Railways (NGR), which consumed 68 % of the 25609 tons
produced in 1889. There was soon fierce competition among the various
colliery companies for contracts to supply the NGR, whose official tests
confirmed Frederick North's opinion that much of the local product would be
suitable for use in steam locomotives. These findings were vital to the NGR,
for the availability of a steady supply of relatively cheap, locally-produced coal
henceforth relieved it of the inconvenience and expense of having to import all
its requirements through Durban. Railway contracts became an important but
uncertain source of income to those collieries whose output was preferred by
the NGR. Railway traffic has always been affected by economic fluctuations
over which the railway authorities themselves have little control and although
the NGR's consumption increased to 28978 tons in 1894 it constituted only
20,5 % of the industry's total annual output. This figure did increase to 29 % in
1903 but the NGR never regained its initial importance to the local coal
industry and by 1909 it accounted for only 14,9 % (266286 tons) of total sales.
Some producers, like the Dundee Coal Company, soon realised that railway
contracts could not provide any long-term security and turned increasingly to
the quest for bigger alternative markets.
Domestic consumption within Natal itself offered no better prospects,
amounting to only 7,2 % of total output in 1909, and thereafter it was never
sufficient to sustain the local industry. The expanding Witwatersrand market,
based upon gold-mining, initially seemed to be much more promising.
However, Natal's railway line to Johannesburg was only completed in 1895,"
after protracted negotiations with President Kruger's republican government,
and Natal's producers soon found that they were not able to compete
satisfactorily with the emergent Transvaal coal industry. Its product was of an
inferior quality but it was able to supply the gold-mining and other burgeoning
industries of the Reef much more cheaply because of its more advantageous
geographical location, its more plentiful labour supply based on more
effective recruitment methods, and the geologically more favourable mining
conditions which it enjoyed. By 1909 Natal's collieries had largely, though not
entirely, abandoned the inland market, which by then accounted for only
8,5 % of total sales compared with the 22,6 % exported by sea through
Durban and the 46,8 % bunkered there during the course of that year.
As this suggests, by the time of Union the Natal coal industry had focused
its attention primarily upon the shipment trade through Durban. It was an
alternative market which presented yet another daunting range of challenges.
Not the least of these was the provision of adequate and inexpensive access to
the increasing volume of steam-shipping which was plying the Cape sea-route
to and from the Far East during the latter decades of the nineteenth century.
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 45

There were various aspects to the problem of transportation, including

fluctuating railway rates and rebates which, at short notice, could effect
dramatic changes to the market price of coal at the port and render it
uncompetitive. The inability of the railway authorities, both before and after
Union, to meet the industry's transport needs timeously and efficiently was
yet another recurring source of irritation and concern to the colliery
companies. Congested rail access to Durban was frequently aggravated by
accidents, or by rain damage during the summer months, and prevented coal
producers from taking full advantage of the occasional upswings in demand.
The electrification of Natal's main line during the 1920s and 30s did not
significantly ease their plight and the colliery companies were unanimous that
a double line to the coast would have been more immediately effective.
Inadequate carrying capacity was attributable not only to single line
congestion but also, in part, to the distances and terrain that had to be
covered, to limited traction power and an inadequate supply of rolling-stock.
In particular, the shortage of railway trucks became a perennial problem
which, like main-line congestion, was suffered at different times by all the
Natal collieries but particularly during periods of seasonal competition with
more perishable agricultural freight that was invariably given priority by the
railway authorities. They did not seem to take sufficient cognisance of the
friable nature of Natal coal, which made it unsuitable for stockpiling at the
mines and necessitated the practice of working directly from coal-seam to
truck. When trucks were not available the mines stood idle, many hours of
work and the sale of tons of coal were lost, and costs escalated. Main-line
congestion and truck shortages were aggravated by higher winter demand and
the failure of some domestic consumers to stockpile, and also by bunching of
ships at the port due to unscheduled arrivals and over-strained harbour
equipment.
As early as 1891 it was recognized that improved facilities for the storage
and handling of coal on the quayside were essential in order to avoid
deterioration through exposure to the elements and the danger of
spontaneous combustion. However, the process of loading vessels by means of
baskets continued until 1907 when, in response to improvements effected at
Delagoa Bay, a mechanical coal-loading plant was installed. Additional
facilities were added to the Bluff Coaling Wharf during the 1920s and 1940s,
though the success of the shipment trade was strongly influenced by the
overall development of Durban harbour in so far as it was largely dependent
upon the volume of sea-traffic making use of the port. Harbour development,
like railway construction, only really gathered momentum during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and although by 1910 Durban was
already recognized as southern Africa's major port it continued, at least until
the 1930s, to be inadequately organized and equipped by international
standards. 7
The difficulties facing Natal's coal producers in breaking into the shipment
trade did not end at the quayside. The initial variability of the local product,
which was largely a consequence of indifferent screening and sorting rather
than inherent unsuitability, made it more difficult to gain international
recognition. The bunker trade, like railway consumption, proved to be highly
sensitive to economic fluctuations and could not therefore provide a reliable
foundation for any lasting prosperity. In 1907 the Union-Castle Company's
largest liner, the Kenilworth Castle, completed the return voyage to England
46 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

Coal-loading plant , Bluff, Durban.

(Photograph: Local History Museum)

entirely on Natal coal instead of the mixture of Natal and Welsh coal used
previously. Thereafter bunkering at Durban became a standard procedure for
all the mailships, which was an important vote of confidence in the reliability
of the local product, considering the regular schedules to which the Union­
Castle Company was committed in terms of the mail contract. Several other
steamship lines, including the Clan, Rennie, Bullard King , Holland Afrika
and Deutsche-Ost-Afrika Lines , became significant consumers of bunker coal
at Durban, while further business was generated by irregular shipping that
plied the Cape route between Europe and the Far East.
The intense competition among local colliery companies which
characterized the early years of the bunker trade was to some extent reduced
by the quota system implemented with the formation in 1913 of the Natal Coal
Owners' Association to regulate that business. However, the Association
could do nothing to prevent the unpredictable fluctuations in market demand,
or to forestall the steady increase in the number of vessels burning oil or diesel
instead of coal. By the 1930s this trend already spelt the death-knell of the
bunker trade which, by the 1950s, had clearly come to an end after virtually all
passenger ships and most cargo lines had made the transition in the interests of
easier, cleaner and speedier performance.
Natal's export (as distinct from bunker) trade in coal also virtually came to
an end during the early 1950s, though not permanently and for a different
reason . Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, the export trade was
not regulated by any lasting association of local producers such as controlled
the bunker trade from 1913, though earlier efforts were made to fix prices and
regulate output. Competition in international export markets was fierce,
particularly on the part of producers in the northern hemisphere whose output
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 47

was of an inherently superior quality owing to its lower non-combustible ash

content and the differing nature of the vegetation in its original composition.
The Natal collieries were able to establish a share in certain East African and
Far Eastern markets by means of relatively good quality and low production
costs, in competition with the expanding coal industries of Australia, Japan,
India, China and Malaya. Periodic disruptions to other coal industries created
strong temporary demands for Natal's output but, as with the bunker trade,
these fluctuations provided no security for producers and encouraged the
development of new collieries during phases of high demand which resulted in
even fiercer competition when the additional markets evaporated. 8
Unlike the bunker trade, it was not international trends but a domestic
transport crisis which terminated the Natal coal industry's export trade during
the early 1950s. By then it was already of declining importance in relation to
other aspects of the industry's business but in 1950, following a sudden
increase in the volume of shipping calling in at South African ports, the South
African Railways and Harbours proved quite unequal to the increased
demands made upon it and, in the country-wide coal shortage which followed,
the railway authorities themselves resorted to the expropriation of export coal
for their own use. In a repetition of the action taken during a similar crisis in
1937, the Government imposed a total embargo on the export of coal in order
to ensure that domestic industries and power stations were adequately
supplied. This measure, coupled with the implementation after 1950 of import
control which reduced the volume of shipping calling in at Durban, led to a
spectacular 35 % decline in export and bunker sales between 1950 and 1951.
The uncertainties and competitiveness of the coal trade, in its various
forms, induced among colliery owners and managers a penny-pinching
concern for costs which was not relaxed even during phases of upswing in
market demand and which was applied to all aspects of the industry, including
the recruitment, accommodation and treatment of employees.

Labour Recruitment9
From their inception the Natal collieries experienced great difficulty in
attracting indigenous Blacks in numbers sufficient to meet their labour
requirements. This perennial shortage was traditionally attributed to the
unscrupulous methods employed by Transvaal labour touts in luring recruits
to the gold-mines, and to the reluctance of a pastoral people to undertake
heavy manual work. However, the Committee eventually appointed in 1918
by the Minister of Native Affairs to investigate Natal's labour shortage
pointed to more fundamental causes when it urged the province's large-scale
employers to collaborate in devising more effective recruiting methods and
providing more attractive conditions of employment.
Indeed, the Natal coal industry was remarkably lethargic in forming a
centralized recruiting organization. Such an arrangement was hinted at in
1912, when the Transvaal gold-mines pooled their recruiting efforts under the
Native Recruiting Corporation, and was seriously suggested two years later
but most of the colliery companies resisted the proposal because they feared
the financial implications and were reluctant to reveal their own labour
sources to each other. Consequently, it was not until 1943 that the Natal Coal
Owners' Society, which had presided over the industry's fortunes since 1909,
at last took the initiative in forming the Natal Coal Owners' Native Labour
Association.
48 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

Prior to that the various collieries recruited labour, as best they could,
independently of each other: from neighbouring pockets of settled black
population where these existed, and through agents (many of them country
storekeepers) in Swaziland, Zululand, Mpondoland, Transkei, Lesotho, East
and West Griqualand, the Transvaal and, in one case, Botswana. The industry
was not permitted to compete with the gold-mines in recruiting labour from
Mozambique but colliery managers were not above supplementing their work­
force with the illegal trickle acquired through Swaziland and Piet Retief.
Several colliery companies owned, or partly owned, the farms upon which
they conducted their mining activities and they encouraged labourers to settle
on these properties with their families and build their own houses. Although
contrary to the 1923 Natives (Urban Areas) Act which prohibited blacks from
living permanently in urban industrial regions, the presence of these
settlements on or near the collieries became a prominent feature of the Natal
coal industry and, by stabilizing at least a part of its work-force, enabled more
blacks to become proficient in skilled tasks which had previously been
performed by Indian employees who were moving into other avenues of
employment.
Indentured Indians had already been successfully employed in Natal's sugar
industry and, despite reservations concerning their physical strength, they
were vital to the Colony's coal industry during its early years, being
considered more efficient, more dependable under their conditions of
indenture, and less prone to desertion than locally recruited black labour. By
1902 Indians constituted 44,5 % of the industry's work-force, excluding the
122 Indian women employed on the picking belts, and although they never
again constituted such a high proportion of employees, in real terms their
numbers increased from 1813 in 1902 to 3409 in 1909. By then some collieries
were employing more Indians than indigenous blacks and the industry as a
whole would probably have increased its Indian labour-force if the Indian
Government had not prohibited further indentured immigration to Natal after
30 June 1911.
All primary five-year indentures expired in 1915, so that by 1918 there were
no more than 100 indentured Indians still employed in the collieries. Initial
reluctance to work underground obliged the colliery companies to offer better
terms of indenture than the sugar plantations, including productivity
incentives in the form of ration and cash bonuses on some mines which could
earn industrious individuals as much as 20 % more pay. Nevertheless, as they
completed their indentures and other more attractive avenues of employment
became available to them, progressively fewer Indians remained in the
collieries as 'free' labourers. By 1926 they constituted 8,67 % of the industry's
labour-force and by 1965 they amounted to only 1,44 %.
The difficulties which the collieries experienced in recruiting and retaining
labour were not confined to indigenous black and Indian employees. Whites
have always constituted a small but important element in the work-force and
until the 1930s the Natal coal industry relied heavily upon British recruits to
assume supervisory roles and other positions of responsibility, for which they
were not all suitably qualified even though they did have a familiarity with
coal-mining that was still almost wholly lacking in southern Africa at the turn
of the century. While some were recruited by the British agents of Natal
colliery companies, others came out on their own initiative, induced by
unemployment and lack of opportunity in Britain, or else attracted by the
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 49

glowing prospects in southern Africa following the discovery of the main

Witwatersrand goldreef and the development there of a major gold industry.
A 'come and go' pattern soon emerged among these immigrants, which was
more pronounced on the bigger, impersonal collieries than on the smaller
closely-knit ones, as many moved from one mine to another, or were enticed
out of the industry by more attractive job opportunities in the cities. There
were also those who remained to render a lifetime of service to the industry.
ranging from the hard but canny Scots like Jock Ferguson and Robert
Campbell, who initially seemed to monopolise the managerial positions, down
to the nameless Welshmen, Cornishmen and north-country Englishmen who
filled the lower positions of responsibility. Some, like the Lanarkshireman Mr
J.R. 'Jimmy' Watson of Dundee, whose career in Natal coal-mining began in
the 1920s, rose through the ranks right up to managerial level before retiring
in their adopted land. 10
It was men such as these who provided a vital hard core of experience and
expertise when, beginning in the 1930s, the industry began to rely increasingly
upon locally-recruited whites, who were unfamiliar with coal-mining, to fill
positions of responsibility. Suitable recruits were not easily found, or retained,
and both the Natal Coal Owners' Society and the Natal Mine Managers'
Association (founded in 1903) struggled to find ways of increasing the intake
of white learner miners and of improving the training that was offered to
them. However, recruitment campaigns in the schools and through the Press.
systematic training schemes and even improved rates of pay could not obviate
the need to upgrade living and working conditions in order to persuade more
and better men to make their careers in coal-mining.

Living conditions ll
Prior to the promulgation of the Natal Mines Act of 1899 and the Public
Health Act of 1901 living conditions on the collieries were unfettered by any
form of legislative control other than the provisions outlined in the Indian
Health Regulations. Even then the implementation of such legislation was
largely dependent upon the understaffed mining inspectorate whose primary
concern was the enforcement of minimum standards of safety underground.
Particularly during the early decades of the industry, Natal's colliery owners
and their managerial staff were consequently more or less free to decide for
themselves as to what they were willing to provide in the way of
accommodation. Faced with variable market demand which made it difficult
to anticipate their future labour needs, this became an obvious area for cutting
costs. Only gradually did Natal's colliery companies perceive the need to
compete for labour with other prospective employers, most notably the
Transvaal gold-mines, by offering more attractive living conditions instead of
relying on exploitable indentured Indian labour and the protection of Natal's
anti-tout legislation to stem the efflux of black workers to other parts of
southern Africa.
Prior to the 1940s, and in some cases even later, the accommodation and
recreational facilities provided for white employees was, on most mines,
decidedly spartan and, coupled with the geographical remoteness of Natal's
coalfields, compounded the difficulty experienced in attracting and retaining
suitable recruits. Expenditure on accommodation for Indian and indigenous
black employees was traditionally accorded an even lower priority by Natal's
50 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

colliery companies. In 1903 comprehensive regulations governing sanitation

and housing facilities for both categories of worker were published but the
improvements specified, including proper roofing and flooring and the
erection of brick or stone structures in place of corrugated iron buildings, were
only gradually implemented. On some mines 'free' Indians were encouraged
to erect their own housing but on most 'family' rooms (approx. 3,6 x 2,4
metres) were provided for them in unimaginative barrack-like rows. Such
accommodation on remote collieries was doubtless one factor which
encouraged Indian employees to seek more congenial employment elsewhere.
The housing provided for indigenous black labourers, who always
constituted the majority of the work-force, was even more primitive. Apart
from the family accommodation which married employees were encouraged
to construct for themselves with whatever materials were available, Natal's
collieries were also characterized by grim compounds for the migrant males
who considerably outnumbered the married men living more or less
permanently on mine properties. The wood and iron dwellings that were
provided were stiflingly hot in summer and were seldom provided with
fireplaces to heat them in winter, the floors were usually made of earth or
roughly-laid brick and the absence of bunks encouraged overcrowding as an
alternative to the expense of constructing additional buildings. In the early
days sanitation services amounted to 'a few buckets and the veldt' or, on some
mines, to open pits which were surrounded by roofless wood and iron screens.
Black miners were usually expected to wash themselves in exposed 'plunge
baths' that were sometimes supplied from polluted catchment areas in the
vicinity of the collieries.
Kitchen facilities in the compounds were similarly rudimentary until well
into the twentieth century, with little concern shown for the hygienic
preparation of food. However, most labourers were much more concerned
with the inadequacy of the rations that were issued, their diet initially
consisting primarily of mealie meal although this was subsequently
supplemented by an increasing quantity of meat and vegetables in imitation of
the Witwatersrand gold-mines. The supply of beer soon became a cause of
dissatisfaction among black colliery workers, with some collieries providing a
free weekly ration and offering additional quantities through their own
licensed stores, while on others beer was only available to purchase from
individual license-holders or was not available at all. Several colliery
companies took to brewing their own beer, recognizing that its availability was
a means of attracting prospective recruits. Moreover, the sale of this
commodity by means of the 'token' (token money) system through colliery
beerhalls strategically situated between pit-head and compound to seduce
weary workers as they came off shift soon became an effective means of
inducing black employees to remain in colliery employment in order to payoff
their debt, until this iniquitous system was abolished in 1938.
Service contracts and wages, shifts and hours of work, and the inadequacy
of holidays and recreational facilities were also recurring sources of grievance
among white as well as black colliery workers, and in all respects Natal's coal­
mines compared unfavourably with the conditions of service offered by the
more prosperous Witwatersrand gold industry. Like so many other aspects of
the Natal coal industry, these were strongly influenced by the fluctuating and
uncertain market demand with which local colliery companies had to contend.
For many years hospitals and medical care on Natal's mines were also
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 51

decidedly rudimentary. It was accepted that sophisticated facilities could not

be provided on each and every mine but the wide geographical distribution of
Natal's collieries made it difficult to decide upon an appropriate site for a
central hospital to cater for the more serious cases of illness and injury, with
the result that many were left to lie in the bunkless compounds where they not
infrequently died for lack of adequate attention.
In view of the unsanitary living conditions, unbalanced rations and initially
inadequate medical facilities which were provided it is not surprising that life
on the Natal collieries was characterized by periodic outbreaks of various
infectious diseases among Indian and black employees, from which white
miners and their families were not immune. Occupational diseases also
showed no respect for ethnic boundaries. As late as 1952 pneumoconiosis
(black lung) was identified among Natal's miners, though nothing was really
done about it prior to 1958. So much for the earlier notion that coal-mining
was a healthy occupation to which gold-miners who were suffering the ante­
primary stage of phthisis could be transferred.
Improvements in the general standard of health on Natal's mines did
depend very heavily upon the upgrading of living and working conditions, as
well as the medical facilities, provided by the colliery companies. An
important milestone in the improvement of living conditions was the
declaration in 1924 of the two labour districts, Dundee and Vryheid, under the
provisions of the Native Labour Regulation Act (No. 15 of 1911). One ofthe
most significant requirements in terms of the Act was the appointment of
licensed compound managers in place of the unqualified and often unsuitable
appointees who had previously been entrusted with these responsible
positions. Even so, the improvements which were effected after 1924 were
only gradual and, as before, depended very much upon the conscientiousness
of hard-pressed mining inspectors in enforcing the regulations and upon the
extent to which Natal's colliery companies conceded the necessity for
providing more congenial living and service conditions in order to attract an
adequate supply of labour. This was also the case with regard to working
conditions and safety standards underground.

Working conditions 12
Mining is an inherently hazardous occupation and, in the case ofthe Natal coal
industry, the danger to life and limb has been compounded (more particularly
on the Klip River coalfield) by difficult geological conditions and by the
presence of methane gas or firedamp which, coupled with that of coal-dust,
the high sulphur content of some of the coal produced, and the constant
possibility of gob fires, 13 has resulted in several disastrous explosions for which
the industry was initially quite unprepared. This danger has been less
frequently encountered on the Vryheid, Utrecht and Zululand coalfields,
giving rise there to the additional problem of maintaining a sufficiently high
level of awareness among employees as to the need to guard against the
possibility of explosions. Indeed, while allowing for the danger inherent in
mining operations and for the particular difficulties encountered on the Natal
coalfields, most if not all of the accidents that have occurred in the local
industry were attributable to human indifference, negligence or ignorance.
Much of the blame rested with the colliery owners, who for so long were
more concerned to cut costs in the face of uncertain market conditions than to
52 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

ensure the safety of their employees. The formation of the Natal Coal
Owners' Society in 1909 was prompted by the proposed formulation of more
demanding safety regulations in the wake of the disastrous explosions at the
Glencoe and Cambrian collieries in the previous year]4 and thereafter, as
before, the coal owners exercised a restraining, cost-conscious influence upon
attempts to improve safety conditions in their collieries. When the market was
slack they tried to conserve their financial resources, while during periods of
upswing they preferred to strengthen their financial condition in anticipation
of the lean years that might follow and to maximize output for as long as the
demand lasted. Consequently, colliery employees were at greater risk of
injury or death during such phases when longer working hours and higher
output levels were demanded, resulting in greater physical weariness and
mental carelessness as well as calculated risk-taking on the part of supervisors
and even managers.
Neglect of the basic rules of safety was often due to the incompetence
and/or wilful negligence of white miners, all of whom were expected to act in a
supervisory capacity to ensure that the unskilled and semi-skilled black labour
force did not take undue risks and that the places in which they were required
to work were in a reasonably safe condition. However, it was not until 1900
that Natal mines were all controlled by properly certificated managers and
even then, because they were in such short supply, many whites were
entrusted with positions and responsibility that were above their level of
competence and usually escaped prosecution on the rare occasions when their
contraventions of the safety regulations came to light. The employment during
the 1930s of increasing numbers of South African whites, in place of the
British immigrants upon whom Natal's collieries had previously depended to
perform skilled and supervisory tasks, initially raised further difficulties
because of their unfamiliarity with mining as an occupation and with the safety
precautions that it demanded. Many mines relied upon Indian and indigenous
black miners to carry out semi-skilled and even skilled tasks which only whites
were legally supposed to undertake, by virtue of their supposedly greater
sense of responsibility, and there was little that the woefully under-staffed
mining inspectorate could do to prevent such disregard for the regulations.
Contraventions of the 'job reservation' aspect ofthe 1911 Mines and Works
Act (and of the amended Act No. 25 of 1926) were among the last of the
inspectorate's preoccupations in its attempt to maintain and improve safety
standards. The history of Natal's coal industry has been punctuated by a wide
variety of accidents, of which explosions attracted the most media attention
but were by no means the most frequent or responsible for the most casualties.
Indeed, the major cause of accidental death in local collieries, as in coal-mines
throughout the world, has been falls of roof, sides and coal itself. The shaly
roof conditions encountered on the Klip River coalfield were a constant
source of danger that was often compounded by perfunctory and infrequent
inspections of working places, excessive economising on timber props in an
effort to reduce production costs, and the use of mechanical coal-cutters which
exposed much more roof than did the process of undercutting the coal
manually.
These machines were also involved in other kinds of accidents, for they
were heavy and difficult to handle. their trailing cables were easily damaged
and, in the case of electrically-powered cutters, sometimes resulted in the
electrocution of machine operators or their assistants. Many limbs and lives
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 53

were also claimed by the lethal cutting picks attached to the revolving chains
on these machines. New recruits who had no experience of underground
conditions were usually assigned to lashing (loading) and tramming
(propelling) coal trucks by hand along the rails laid for this purpose to the
mechanical endless rope haulages which then pulled them up to the surface.
This task was by no means free from danger, particularly to those who were
ignorant of the risks involved in working amidst the gloom and din of the
tramming roads. There were many cases over the years of miners being struck
unawares by coal trucks and of extremities being crushed in the process of
tramming. The mere act of attaching trucks to the endless rope haulage and
manoeuvring them into the cages at the bottom of the shaft exposed workers
to the constant risk of being crushed between truck and truck or truck and
cage. Prior to the 1950s such dangers were compounded by the reluctance of
colliery companies to provide their black employees with any sort of formal
training before going underground and by the failure of some managers to
implement basic safety precautions, such as the installation of 'cut outs' and
other arresting mechanisms as stipulated in the regulations.
Negligence on the part of managers and supervisors played an important
part in accidents involving the storage, handling and use of explosives, the
careless use of flame safety lamps in the presence of firedamp, and the failure
to carry out correct blasting procedures, which was the initial cause of the
worst colliery disaster thus far experienced in Natal when an ignition of
firedamp and coal dust wiped out an entire night shift of 124 men at the
Durban Navigation No. 2 Colliery in October 1926. Disasters such as this did
lead to improvements in the standard of the safety regulations that were
imposed upon the Natal industry and to the organization and refinement of a
Central Rescue Station at Dundee, with properly trained teams to serve local
regions. However, progress was hampered by the reluctance of colliery
owners to increase working costs by investing in safety equipment and
training, with the result that many lives were needlessly lost before a more
enlightened attitude prevailed. Small wonder that local blacks generally
preferred to migrate to the Witwatersrand gold-mines where the living and
working conditions were not above criticism but were vastly superior to those
prevailing on Natal's collieries.

The articulation ofemployees' grievances l '

Those blacks who did take employment with the local coal industry expressed
their dissatisfaction with these circumstances in three ways: by not returning
to the collieries on the completion of their contracts, by deserting while still
under contract, and by means of strike action. White miners also indicated
their sense of grievance by not renewing their contracts but desertion was a
response confined to the black workforce and varied considerably in scale
from one mine to the next. Prior to the 1920s strike action among black
miners, to which the 1911 Native Labour Regulation Act attached criminal
liability, was rare on the Natal coalfields. It was not until 1943 that the Natal
African Coal Workers' Union was formed, followed in 1945 by the Non­
European Mine Workers' Union which represented the interests of all Indians
and Coloureds employed in the industry. Both bodies were small and
ineffective, so that it was not until August 1982 that black colliery workers at
54 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

last acquired a meaningful voice when the first black National Union of
Mineworkers was formed.
In January 1914 approximately half of the industry's white employees
participated in what has so far been the only white miners' strike on the Natal
coalfields but they were forced back to work largely on the coal owners' terms
and although they did form their own Mine Workers' Association in
September 1916 their employers continued to dominate the negotiations that
were conducted on such matters as wages, working hours and leave
conditions. The reasons for this are not clear but are possibly to be found in
the rural isolation of Natal's collieries, the strong sense of community identity
which this imposed on some of them, and the small numbers of white
employees involved in the industry - still amounting to no more than 875 in
1953. The ratio of white to black employees has been approximately 1:19 for
much of the industry's existence, clearly reflecting its labour intensive nature.

Mining methods and technological change16

Lack of sustained prosperity, due to fluctuating market demand and the highly
competitive commercial context in which local colliery companies have had to
struggle for their survival, made them extremely reluctant to undertake the
heavy expenditure involved in purchasing, installing and maintaining items of
machinery. Consequently, simple hand-got mining methods, involving the
employment of large numbers of unskilled labourers to undertake the hand­
loading and hand-tramming of broken coal between coal face and haulage,
continued to predominate until well into the 1950s. Until then, the only
prominent concession made to technological advances abroad, excluding the
use of mechanical haul ages and power drills, was the introduction of
American-manufactured coal-cutters and up-to-date screening and washing
equipment during the second decade (1899-1909) ofthe industry's existence.
The most common method of working in the Natal collieries has been the
pillar and stall (bord and pillar) system, whereby the coal areas are cut up into
pillars and, once fully developed, the pillars are extracted in a retreating line,
allowing the roof to collapse behind and thereby form goaves. Based on
mining practice in the North of England and in Scotland, this method has
traditionally achieved an extraction of 90 % to 95 %, though more effective
extraction is possible when only one seam is being mined in contrast to the two
or more encountered in Natal's collieries. In cases where the seam being
mined was less than three feet thick, the longwall method was usually
employed: the coal being worked on a long face while the mined out portion is
packed in order to maintain the roof. However, most of Natal's colliery
managers soon came to the conclusion that, as the pillar and stall system was
the most flexible and straightforward, it was usually the most suitable in mines
such as theirs which employed largely unskilled workers who would otherwise
require far too much supervision with regard to face conveyors, systematic
timbering and the construction of pack walls.
The inability of the Natal coal industry to respond adequately to increased
demand during the Second World War, when it was able to increase its output
by only 2000 tons per day instead of the 5 000 tons requested by Government,
clearly exposed the limited extent to which the province's collieries had
mechanized by that stage. However, the sustained post-war domestic demand
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 55

for Natal coal prompted a further phase of increased mechanization that

gathered increasing momentum during the 1950s and 60s.

The advance ofthe Transvaal-based companies 17

The technological changes experienced by the Natal collieries after the Second
World War coincided with the progressively more influential role that was
then being played in the local industry by ISCOR and by the large
Witwatersrand mining and financial houses such as Anglo American, the
Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company and the General Mining
Corporation. Their substantial gold-mining interests and large capital
resources made them more resistant than the province's earlier colliery
companies to the danger of over-capitalization and insolvency which the
fluctuating nature of the coal market had established as a permanent
possibility. This new trend was first evident in certain mines such as the
Vryheid Coronation Colliery where, following its acquisition by Anglo
American in 1945, a modern coking plant was installed and by 1953 was
consuming its entire output. This reflected the fact that, although Natal's
quantitative contribution to South Africa's total coal output declined steadily
from 40 % in 1900 to only 10,9 % in 1981, it remained vital to the national
economy as the only readily accessible source of true coking coal.
For this reason ISCOR acquired the Durban Navigation Colliery near
Dannhauser in 1954 and proceeded to introduce more highly mechanized
mining techniques in order to increase output. In 1974 ISCO R em barked
upon a R29 million expansion programme at the mine which ultimately
achieved a higher extraction rate and lower production costs than the methods
used previously. The fully mechanized Ballengeich section of the JCI-owned
Natal Cambrian Colliery which was opened in 1950 was the first of its kind in
Natal but the new trend also made itself felt at the Newcastle-Platberg
Colliery and later at Indumeni (acquired by Anglo American) and Vryheid
Coronation, where new sections were fully mechanized while old ones
continued to operate with traditional hand-got methods. The General Mining
Corporation similarly invested a considerable amount in upgrading the
productive capacity of the Hlobane, Northfield and Kilbarchan collieries after
1963 when it succeeded Federale Mynbou, which in 1959 had absorbed the
Natal Navigation Group.
While Hlobane Colliery, with its valuable coking-quality deposits, later
came under the control of ISCOR, and Anglo American and General Mining
acquired further collieries in the province, other large mining and investment
companies, including Barlow Rand, also developed a stake in the Natal coal
industry. As a result, by the early 1980s the local collieries had been
thoroughly integrated in the much larger South African coal industry with
very few small independent producers still in existence. Most of the province's
mines could boast operating sections that were mechanized or at least partly
mechanized, involving the use of power loaders, shuttle cars and continually
extendable conveyer belt systems, while many were further boosting their
output by means of mechanized opencast mining methods which were first
attempted in South Africa at Hlobane No. 1 Colliery. All these developments
were accompanied by a steady improvement in the accommodation,
treatment and payment of colliery workers, and by better safety measures
underground.
56 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

The further advance of the big Transvaal-based companies into Natal coal­
mining and their substantial investment in mechanized mining methods was
largely a consequence of the commercial potential which those financial giants
recognized in the local industry. It was justified by the upswing experienced in
the domestic demand for coal during the 1950s and 1960s and in the export
trade during the 1970s.

The marketing ofNatal coal, 1950s-1980s18

For a variety of reasons, not least the total embargo on coal exports
mentioned earlier, 19 the 1950s and 1960s were a difficult transitional period for
the Natal coal industry in which it had to adjust from its traditional heavy
reliance upon the shipping trade and gear itself more to meeting the domestic
requirements of the expanding South African economy. Some of the
province's colliery companies had never entirely abandoned the inland trade
to their Transvaal counterparts and in 1931 had eventually formed the Natal
Associated Collieries (Pty) Ltd in an effort to control competition among
themselves by allocating such inland trade as they enjoyed on a quota basis
among members. This proved to be a turning point in the fortunes of certain
local companies which were further assisted by a subsequent improvement in
the commercial climate following the opening of the Orange Free State and
Far West Rand gold-mines, the ongoing railway electrification programme,
the opening of the new Van der Bijl Steel and Engineering Works at
Vereeniging, and the proposal to develop a new oil from coal cOQversion
industry.
From Natal's point of view the most significant increases were achieved in
sales to power stations, including new ones constructed at Colenso, Congella
and (later) Ingagane, and in the sale of coal to be used for coking purposes. It
was indeed the development and increasing sophistication of ESCOM and of
ISCOR from the 1920s which primarily enabled the Natal collieries to improve
their share of the inland market by supplying those varieties of small coals and
'fines' which had previously often been dumped but for which the emergence
of these major industries created a welcome outlet.
The sustained post-war demand experienced by local collieries was followed
during the 19705 by a further dramatic rise in sales which was assisted, firstly,
by a 4 % per annum increase in the power generating capacity of ESCOM and,
secondly, by a substantial revival in the export trade that had declined so
spectacularly during the 1950s and 1960s. The rise in foreign demand for
South African coal, from approximately one million tons in the early 1970s to
29 million tons in 1980, owed much to the crisis of 1973174 when OPEC
demonstrated the strength of its oil monopoly and initiated an upward spiral
of prices as well as raising uncertainty in the minds of consumers world-wide as
to the future long-term security of oil supplies. In this climate coal again
became an attractive alternative source of energy in many parts of the world
and seemed likely to remain so, at least until the end of the century. By 1982
the magnificent new terminal at Richard's Bay was already handling the bulk
of South Africa's coal exports and, after more than a decade of rising foreign
and domestic demand, local producers had reason to be optimistic about the
future of their industry.
Unfortunately this mood of confidence could not be sustained. During the
mid-1980s conditions in both foreign and domestic coal markets altered
Commercial Coal-mining in Natal 57

dramatically under the impact of recessionary economic circumstances,

including a decline in the demand for steel. The number of Natal coal-mines in
production declined from 44 to 21 by 1983 while output, and the labour force
required to maintain it, was substantially reduced at others with dire
consequences for the local communities that depended upon them for a
livelihood.

Future prospects20
It would be pleasing to conclude this centennial appraisal on a positive note
but, sadly, the colourful mining communities of northern Natal face a future
which is, at best, uncertain. While export prospects are again improving they
are clouded not only by traditional fluctuations in demand and continuing
recessionary conditions in some consumer countries but also by tightening
international sanctions which could affect coal more adversely than any other
exporting industry. Moreover. the domestic market has continued to shrink as
the decline in economic growth produces a lower demand for coal and for
electricity generated from coal. As far as the steel industry is concerned.
substitution and technological change involving the use of form coke and the
direct reduction process threaten to eliminate the need for coking coal and
with it a vital aspect of the Natal coal industry's strategic importance to the
national economy. The Competition Board's commitment to a complete
deregulation of the inland coal market confronts local producers with the
competition of cheaper Transvaal coal in Natal itself and may further
encourage the controlling mining houses in Johannesburg to concentrate on
their far larger Transvaal coal-mining operations, whose reserves positively
dwarf those of Natal.
Both in its commercial and in its mining aspects the Natal coal industry has
always required men of courage. What is left of it will certainly need them in
the future.
NOTES

I This article is a synopsis of some of the findings arising out of a major research project on the
history of the Natal coal industry which was undertaken in collaboration with my colleague Dr
D.R. Edgecombe and generously financed by the Research Fund of the University of Natal,
the Human Sciences Research Council and Rand Mines Ltd. The opinions expressed herein
are not necessarily those of the sponsors, or of Dr Edgccombe. Limitations of space make it
impossible to provide detailed footnoting but the major collections of primary evidence
consulted in the course of this project included:­
Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Mines, Natal, 1889-1909; Annual Reports of the
Department of Mines (post-Union); Archive of the Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd
(Johannesburg); Blue Books for the Colony of Natal, 1845-1909; Coal Commisson Reports,
1920/21, 1946/47, 1951 (Archives, Pretoria); Commissioner of Mines Records (Dundee);
Commissioner for Dundee, Records and for Vryheid, Records (Archives, Pietermaritzburg);
Colonial Secretary's Office Natal, (Archives, Pmb); Debates of the Natal Legislative
Assembly, 1893-1909; Dundee Coal Company Ltd Minute Books (Archives, Pmb);
Government Native Labour Bureau (Archives, Pretoria); Inspector of Mines Records, Natal
(Dundee); Inspector of Mines Natal Accident Reports (Dundee); Mines Department
Accident Files (Dundee); Mining Regulations Commission, 1925 (Archives, Pretoria);
Ministerie van Vervoer (Archives. Pretoria); Native Affairs and Naturellesake (Archives.
Pretoria); Natal Coal Owners' Society Minute Books (Talana Museum, Dundee); Natal and
South African Government Gazettes; Otto Siedle Papers (Killie Campbell Library, Durban);
Prime Minister's Office, Natal (Archives, Prnb); Secretary for Mines and Industries
(Archives, Pretoria); Secretary for Native Affairs. Natal (Archives, Pmb) and Special
Committee of Enquiry: Base Minerals Industry, 1938 (Archives, Pretoria). The notes which
58 Commercial Coal-mining in Natal

follow refer to publications which provide further details on various aspects of the Natal coal
industry.
2 The origins and early years of coal-mining in Natal are described more fully in Edgecombe,
Ruth and Guest, Bill 'An Introduction to the Pre-Union Natal Coal Industry" in Bill Guest and
John M. Sellers (Eds), Enterprise and Exploitation in a Victorian Colony: Aspects of the
Economic and Social Histon" of Colonial Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1985), pp. 308-351.
, See Henderson, Sheila, 'Colonial coalopolis: the establishment and growth of Dundee' in
Natalia, 12 (1982), pp. 14-26.
4 The early financial history of the Natal coal industry is examined more closely in Guest. Bill,
'Financing an infant coal industry: the case of the Natal collieries' in The South African Journal
of Economic History (forthcoming edition).
, For further details concerning the marketing of Natal coal prior to 1910 see Edgecombe and
Guest, 'Pre-Union Natal coal industry', pp. 321-327; for the period after Union see
Edgecombe, Ruth and Guest, Bill, 'The Natal coal industry in the South African economy,
1910-1985' in The South African Journal of Economic History, Vo!. 2 (2), September 1987,
pp. 49-70.
6 See Heydenrych, Hein, 'Railway Development in Natal to 1895' in Guest and Sellers (Eds),
Enterprise and Exploitation, pp. 46-69.
7 See Heydenrych, Lucille, 'Port Natal harbour, c. 1850-1897' in Guest and Sellers (Eds),

Enterprise and Exploitation. pp. 16--45 and Horwood, O.P.F. (Gen. Ed), The Port of Durban,
(Department of Economics, University of Natal, 1969), Natal Regional Survey. Vo!. 15.
R See Edgecombe, Ruth and Guest, Bill, 'The black heart of the beautiful mountain: Hlobane
Colliery, 1898-1953' in The South African HistoricaIJournal, 18, 1986, pp. 193--195.
9 See also Edgecombe and Guest. 'Pre-Union Natal coal industry', pp. 327-330, and
Edgecombe and Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 202,207-210.
10 Ibid, p. 221; Guest, Bill, 'Exploring Natal's coal-mining history', History News, 28, November
1986, pp. 4-6.
11 See also Edgecombe, Ruth and Guest, Bill, 'Wessel's Nek: a Natal mining community in
depression and war,' in Thomson, P.S. (Ed.) Natal, 1909--1961 (Mimeographed workshop
papers, Department Historical Studies, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1983), pp.
4-19; Edgecombe and Guest, 'Pre-Union Natal coal industry', pp. 330--331, and Edgecombe
and Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 202-207,210-212,214-221.
12 See also Edgecombe and Guest, 'Pre-Union Natal coal industry', pp. 331-336, Edgecombe
and Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 196-200, and Edgecombe, Ruth and Guest,
Bill, , "The coal miners' way of death": safety in the Natal Collieries, 1910-1953', The Journal
ofNatal and Zulu HislOrv, VIII. 1985, pp. 63--83.
D When pillars are extracted in pillar and stall mines (as in Natal), the roof falls in and closes
behind the excavation. Such an area is called a 'gob'. If a remnant of coal is left behind in the
gob, it is crushed by the weight of the strata above, heat is generated and, if oxygen is present.
a fire can result. This creates the hazard of poisonous carbon monoxide spreading through the
mine. See Lupton, A., Mining: an elementary treatise on the getting of minerals (London,
1889), p. 255.
14 See Edgecombe, Ruth and Guest, Bill, 'The Glencoe disaster of 1908 and safety in the Natal
collieries before Union' in Guest, W.R., Wright, J.B. and Thompson, P.S. (Eds), Natal in the
Colonial Period (Mimeographed workshop papers, Department Historical Studies, University
of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1985), pp. 1-21.
15 See Edgecombe and Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 201,202,212-220.
16 See Edgecombe and Guest, 'Pre-Union Natal coal industry', pp. 318-321, Edgecombe and
Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 191, 192, 196, and Edgecombe and Guest, 'Natal
Coal Industry in the South African Economy', pp. 50,51,55,58.
17 See Edgecombe and Guest, 'Hlobane Colliery, 1898-1953', pp. 220,221, and Edgecombe and
Guest, 'Natal Coal Industry in the South African Economy', pp_ 60, 64, 65.
18 Ibid., pp. 59--69.
19 See The marketing of Natal coal. 1i\89-1950s, above.
20 Coal Review, 1985 and 1986: Mining Annual Review, 1985 and 1986.

BILL GUEST
 59

The Natal Society

Museum (1851-1904):

Potentialities and Problems

The recent universal rekindling of interest in museums, their professed aims

and probable functions, has cast a new and fascinating light on the 'musty
Victorian warehouse' of popular misconception. What, in the contemporary
South African context, is the contribution (if any) of the established museums
to our conflict-ridden society? How relevant are these institutions in reality?
A new and searching look at the origins and subsequent development of South
African museums is, perhaps, both appropriate and long overdue. French
museologist H. de Varine-Bohan has stated that:
Hitherto, ... consideration has been given only to the 'heritage' of
objects, regarded as ends in themselves. The museum was there for the
objects and the public was authorised, sometimes paying a high price for
the privilege, to contemplate these objects without touching them and
often without understanding them ... Instead of being there for the
objects, museums should be there for the people. l
It seems clear that this stereotype, in the colonial context at least, requires
qualification. The Natal Museum, for example, was at its inception closely
linked with the colonial community it attempted to serve. Its formation was
intended to meet a specific need within the infant colony; and its objectives,
far from being exclusivist or irrelevant, placed the museum firmly in the
mainstream of contemporary Victorian thought.
In practice, the ideal proved rather more difficult to implement than had
originally been anticipated. However, the museum was at the outset
indispensably a part, firstly, of the Natal Society'S efforts to initiate
commercial exploitation of the resources of the district, and to supply
prospective, newly-arrived, and even established settlers with much-needed
practical information. A committee was appointed by the Council of the
Society as early as September 1851 'for the purposes of collecting materials of
a museum',2 but when the Honourable Henry Cloete was elected President
three years later, no progress had been made. Significantly, Cloete envisaged
the Natal Museum not only as a 'source ofrational amusement and interest to
the stranger and visitor',3 but also 'for the first time ... a school of practical
information and instruction'4 for the benefit of the local farmer. The emphasis
was to be on mineralogy, for it was, in Cloete's opinion, of inestimable
importance that the community should possess 'in an accessible shape'5
60 The Natal Society Museum

representative samples of the geology of the district. The agriculturalist could

then refer, whenever necessary, to the relevant section of the museum for
information 'as to the character of the soil which he is probably cultivating, in
defiance of the laws of nature, and in utter ignorance of its innate qualities'.6
As conceived by its originators, then, the Society'S museum was to indicate to
the people of Natal
which are the [sections] most conducive to agriculture; which only for
depasturing cattle; and which afford the prospect of precious minerals.
which have been the means of converting desert regions, within ten
years, into wealthy and populous countries. 7
A second and equally important function of the intended museum was to
provide for the recreational needs of the colonists. An anonymous visitor to
Durban in 1865 remarked on the meagre recreational facilities available to
colonists:
The lack of museums, libraries, theatres, concert-halls. lectures, and the
like, is a grievous drawback to a young community. I am astonished,
considering the want of these things, to find the young people of the
place so intelligent and well-behaved ... The marvel is that they can find
anything to talk about. K
In Pietermaritzburg there was some attempt to stage theatrical productions
in Robert Jones's rooms in Church Street (until St George's Garrison Theatre
was built by the military in 1864),9 and monthly musical entertainment was
provided by the Natal Society in the 1860s, with the well-defined object of
'affording an opportunity to the members and general public to meet together
and break the monotony of our isolated position'; lO but circulating reading
matter was very limited and the need of some further constructive recreational
outlet only too apparent. Cloete, therefore. in his important 1855 lecture 'On
the value and importance of a Museum in the District of Natal' advanced the
cogent argument that the museum would be a source of 'healthful and
innocent recreation']! to be visited by the inhabitants of Pietermaritzburg as a
'relaxation from the labours and toils of the day' .12 By the same token, it was
hoped that the museum, as a valuable addition to the cultural life of the
colony, would prove an attraction to visitors. 13
Entertainment was not, of course, an end in itself. 'Rational entertainment'
and 'the improvement of the mind' were to the Victorians inextricably linked.
The museum in Britain was at this time in the very vanguard of scientific
progress, and natural history was for many people more than a passionately
pursued pastime: it was a pleasurable and accessible means of self-education.
The ideal of popular education when transported to the colonies acquired, if
possible, even greater force. Cioete, in the same seminal address, expressed
concern at the limited period of schooling available to colonial children:
... how soon are these young people not taken from those studies to
enter into the drudgery of domesticity, or the requirements of field or
daily labour? How soon do such pursuits not obliterate and choke the
good seeds which may have been sown, but which have hardly had time
and opportunity to germinate ... ?14
A democratic museum in Natal would encourage the germination of these
same seeds. For 'truth' to the Victorian was an eminently graspable reality;
The Natal Society Museum 61

An old photograph of the entrance hall of the Natal Museum. The Addo elephant,
well-known to many generations of museum visitors as guardian of the entrance, is now
in the Frank Bush Mammal Hall in the new wing.
(Photograph: Natal Museum)

and no detail was considered unimportant or irrelevant in the glorious and

inevitable advancement of the frontiers of knowledge. Britain was the great
empire-builder of the nineteenth century, and, as such, was perceived to enjoy
opportunities for exploration and scientific discovery unparalleled in the
history of the civilized world . Settlers in Natal lacked neither enthusiasm nor a
suitable field in which to exercise it. Cloete dwelt at some length on natural
history in which 'the field is boundless'. 15 There were 'the quadrupeds - from
the gigantic African elephant, to the graceful blue buck'; 'the feathered
creation - from the ostrich and may-hen to the lovely colibri and red-beak ';
'our entomology and conchology' (which had at that time barely been
explored); the new and unknown 'species of fish abounding in our Bay'; and
so on . 16 Natal's museum then, was to be a thoroughly practical institution
providing for the immediate needs of the infant community , not only for
reliable information and recreation, but also for education.
62 The Natal Society Museum

Indifference on the part of the colonial authorities, however, was to

influence, either directly or indirectly, almost every aspect of the work upon
which Cloete had so sanguinely embarked. Sir William Flower, President of
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, remarked with
perspicacity in his 1889 address to the Association:

Some persons are enthusiastic enough to think that a museum is in itself

so good an object that they have only to provide a building and cases and
a certain number of specimens ... to fill them. and then the work is
done: whereas the truth is the work has only then begun.17

The permanent establishment of the Natal Museum was essentially a four­

phase process, spanning the period from 1851 to 1901 (when the government
eventually agreed to assume responsibility for the institution). At each stage
one remarks a fresh surge of interest in the museum; all too often subsiding in
the face of discouraging official unconcern and the related problems of
insufficient funds, hopelessly inadequate facilities, and (until 1896) the lack of
a properly qualified curator. The Society was dependent from the start on
members' subscriptions, with the additional support (discontinued between
1868 and 1873) of an annual grant of £50 from the Natal Legislative Council
for the maintenance of a public library. IS
Numerous petitions were addressed to the Lieutenant-Governor, the
Pietermaritzburg City Council, and even the Colonial Secretary, for a land
grant. or at least a plot of ground upon which suitable premises could be
erected. All proved unsuccessful. The Society, along with its incipient
museum, was moved from one set of inadequate premises to the next, until in
1877 its Council was finally authorized to purchase a centrally located site in
Longmarket Street on which to build. It is hardly surprising, given the
context, that frustration and a good deal of wasted effort were to accompany
the development of the Society's museum.
It was, ironically. an official communication which served initially to
galvanize the Society into action. In November 1854, a letter was received
from the Colonial Secretary informing the Society that its assistance was
required in the collection of material suitable for inclusion in the forthcoming
Paris Exhibition. 19 The response was both enthusiastic and prompt; but the
project had reluctantly to be abandoned when it was discovered that the
Exhibition was to be held in March rather than in May of the following year. 211
This left scarcely enough time for the initial collection of sufficient material,
much less its transmission to Paris by the prescribed date. The Legislative
Council was, however, persuaded to allow the transfer of its £50 to the Natal
Society proper, for the establishment of a colonial museum. The Society's
front room was set aside for this purpose, glass cases and shelving were
procured, and the Society's Annual Repot for 1857 announced:
since the last annual meeting some progress has been made with the
establishment of a Museum ... , a number of valuable specimens having,
by the kind exertions of Dr Sutherland, been arranged in glass cases in
the room adjoining the library.21
It soon became clear, however, that beyond the donation of £50 the
authorities were not prepared to support the new institution. In March 1859,
the 'museum' was dismantled, its glass cases sold, and the proceeds deposited
The Natal Society Museum 63

in a Museum Fund in anticipation of its revival at some unspecified future

date. 22
A growing dissatisfaction with the increasingly literary emphasis of the
Society resulted in the late 1860s in the initiation of a second phase in the
development of the museum. In the Annual Report for 1867, it was observed
that 'Looking over its early records, it cannot be denied that the intentions and
objects of the founders of the Society have not been carried OUt'.23 The
Council decided that £25 be allocated to the purchase of a museum specimen
cabinet which arrived in May 1869; and the Annual Report for that year
included an ambitious programme for future development. 24 Unfortunately,
however, the withdrawal in September 1868 of the vital government grant
resulted in a loss of impetus, and the revived museum suffered the same fate as
its predecessor. A revealing entry in the Council minutes for 1872 records a
request on behalf of the Council to the Museum Committee, asking that a
report be drawn up 'upon the origin and object of the Museum Fund'. 25 Its
original purpose had evidently been quite forgotten.
A third phase in the development of the proposed museum began in 1878,
by which stage the Natal Society had established itself in a building erected
through its own fund-raising efforts on Erf 20, Longmarket Street. The short­
lived Natural History Association was disbanded at this time, and it was
suggested that the efforts of the remaining natural history enthusiasts be
channelled into the resurrection of the Society'S museum. 26 Despite
opposition from those who regarded the Society as primarily a circulating
library, a separate Museum Department was created,27 an appeal made for
much-needed public support, a concert held in aid of funds 28 and museum
cases placed around the walls of the relatively capacious Committee Room. 29
Operations, however, were hampered by a dearth-'Of scientific textbooks, by
the inadequacy of the amateur assistance on which the Museum Committee
was forced to rely, and by the continued indifference of the authorities to the
fate of the little museum. In November 1882 the Committee received a letter
of encouragement written by Roland Trimen, Director of the South African
Museum in Cape Town, who suggested that the best course of action would
be:
to found a Natal Museum, not a 'Maritzburg' one ... (for) I cannot help
thinking that the Colonial Government would recognize the importance
of it in a colony so rich in its natural products and with so varied and
interesting a fauna and flora. 30
A hopeful deputation approached the Governor, Sir Arthur Havelock, with
the request that the museum be put on a proper financial footing. 3 ! This effort,
along with two subsequent deputations in 1884 and 1885 met with little more
than polite indifference. In 1885 the government did declare itself willing to
assist; but only on condition the Society agreed to invest its property in
government-nominated trustees,12 and this offer was in any case later
withdrawn. By this stage the Committee Room was full to overflowing; and an
entry in the Museum Committee's Minute Book on 8 January 1886 stated:
Owing to the want of space previously reported and the uncertainty as to
the position of the Department in consequence of the deferred decision
of the Society upon the proposed government grant, the work of the
Museum has not been extended and there has been no occasion for
regular meetings of the Committee. 33
64 The Natal Society Museum

This time, however, the museum was not altogether abandoned. Despite
numerous advertisements in the Press to the effect that no more space was
available, public donations continued to pour in and a donation of £50 from
the Colonial Secretary towards the 'colonial objects' of the Society was used to
rent additional premises for the display of museum specimens. 34 Finally it was
decided to remove the librarian from his quarters behind the library and to use
the ground for the construction of a separate museum building. 35 The
supervision of building activities was undertaken by Mr Morton Green, JP,
who in 1893 took over as Acting Honorary Curator as well as Secretary of the
Museum Committee until the appointment of E.W. Fitzsimons in March 1896,
thus ushering in a fourth and eventually successful era in the development of
the Society's museum. The collection was growing apace and had begun to
boast specimens of the spectacular and extremely popular large mammals of
Natal, including a cow buffalo, the only existing specimen of a white-tailed
gnu, and a rhinoceros. In 1897 no fewer than 17180 visitors signed their names
in the visitor's book ;1(, and MortOll Green's complaint in the Society's Annual
Report reads in consequence with great cogency. He complained, after a
personal visit to the Cape Town and Port Elizabeth museums, that these
institutions
(are) located in buildings of large dimension, suitable for the ever­
increasing zoological and other specimens crowding upon their capacity
... This result is arrived at by the fact that the Capetown Museum is a
Government department, Port Elizabeth having grants of money,
Corporate and otherwise, sufficient for the purpose; while we are in the
position of being 'cribbed, cabined, and confined', depending upon a
yearly vote from the general fund of the Society's income. 37
At Green's request, another application was made to the Legislative
Assembly for an increased grant. The response was once again polite
indifference.
The climax came in 1900, when Green wrote bitterly in his Museum Report:
Your museum is now merely a warehouse, everything so crowded and
mixed up that double the present space could, if available, be filled ...
perhaps some member will now take up my work, otherwise permit me
to suggest the closing of the Museum until the Government, the
Corporation, and the public fully wake up to the value of the institution
as an educational medium, and as an attraction to the City. 38
This report, published in the Natal Witness, gave rise to much public interest
and indignation at the treatment meted out to Morton Green and his
supporters by the Pietermaritzburg Corporation and the government. A final
deputation approached the Prime Minister on 12 November, urging what was
by now the absolute necessity of takeover;39 and an official communication
from the Principal Under-Secretary, CJ. Bird, was at last r~ceived on 9 April
1901, notifying the Council of the Natal Society that 'the Government
approves of the principle of the Museum being taken over by the Government
and controlled as a Government Institution'.4() Work was almost immediately
begun on a new museum building in Loop Street, and the Natal Museum
Incorporation Bill (providing for a government-nominated Board of Trustees
in place of a separate government department) was brought before the
Colonial Parliament in 1902 and again in 1903. The Natal Museum Act No. 11
The Natal Society Museum 65

of 1903 was closely modelled on the earlier Cape Act No. 17 of 1857, which
had provided for close government involvement in the South African
Museum, Cape Town.41 It is perhaps unfortunate that the precedent set by the
Cape authorities was not followed earlier in Natal: far more, in terms of the
fundamental aims of the museum's founders, might then have been
accomplished.
It has already been argued, however, that the Natal Society Museum, as
conceived by its more or less far-sighted originators, differed significantly from
the dusty warehouse or curiosity cabinet of popular legend. It can further, and
in conclusion, be argued that although at one level the disappointments and
frustrations outlined above retarded development, at another they in fact
facilitated the practical realization of the museum's raison d'etre: a basic
responsiveness to the needs and aspirations of its particular community.
Circumstances, by their very nature, militated against either the inclusion of
irrelevant objects in the museum collection or the development of an
exclusivist museum policy. Lacking an assured source of outside income, the
Natal Society, and by extension its museum, was dependent for its very
existence on the support of the community to which it belonged. It was
observed, for instance, in the third Annual Report of the Society that:
the increasing efficiency of the institution will be most effectually secured
by the members individually manifesting a deeper interest in its progress,
and using their best endeavours to add to the number of its supporters. 42
Both subscribers to the Society and members of the general public were
admitted free of charge to all lectures. Members of the Council regularly
canvassed the town for new subscribers. Various fund-raising projects,
including in 1876 a Grand Bazaar, in which the impressive figure of just
over £2 000 was raised,43 entailed the active participation of all sectors of
the community.
As far as the museum itself was concerned, the necessity of public support
was, if possible, even more evident. In his 1855 address, Cloete had remarked
that, although no colonist would be expected to devote all his time to the
museum, it was essential that 'we ... one and all, contribute our mite to
prepare the way for (the) institution, by collecting the materials at least'.44 This
was the first of many appeals made over the years by the Society's museum
enthusiasts. Each of the four fresh initiatives discussed above was accompanied
by its corresponding request for assistance, particularly if this were in the form
of donated specimens to swell the museum's collection. At the time ofthe Paris
Exhibition, a public meeting was held and £30 collected towards the cost of
gathering materials to send to the Exhibition; requests for aid were published
in the Natal Witness and Independent newspapers; and a circular printed and
circulated separately asked for donations of money and articles, or specimens
on loan. 45 Renewed interest in the late 1860s prompted the following inclusion
in the 1869 Museum Committee's Report:
It is almost unnecessary for your Committee to point out that a Museum
relies for its success on the number and variety of its contributions, and as
such is the case, the Council will see the advisability of calling for them
from all willing to contribute. 46
The first entry in the Minute Book of the newly-established Museum
Department, on 11 July 1879, resolved that 'an endeavour be made to attract
66 The Natal Society Museum

The Mammal Hall of the Natal Museum in former days. This space has now been
extensively altered by the closing of the well, to enlarge the upper gallery to a full floor,
with considerable increase in exhibition space.
(Photograph: Waiter Linley)

public attention to the establishment of the Museum Department' and that

'subscriptions in money or specimens be invited'. 47 This appeal met with
dramatic success. Donations continued to pour in throughout the 1890s, with
the result that the new museum building was very soon crowded to capacity.
The Natal Society Museum 67

Great care was taken, especially in the latter phases of development, to

acknowledge publicly every donation. Donated specimens were scrupulously
recorded in the Museum Committee's Minute Book until 1885, when it was
decided to publish instead monthly lists of specimens in the Natal Witness. Lists
of donations were often appended to the Society'S Annual Report. Each donor
was acknowledged in person, no matter how small or apparently insignificant
the contribution: each was assured that 'single specimens are highly
appreciated and carefully preserved, and that by such contributions alone large
collections can be made complete and perfect'. 4R The colonists could hardly
have missed the implication that this was, in a very real sense, their museum.
Further, this enforced collecting policy saw to it that the specimens in the
possession of the Society, poorly labelled and decrepit as some of them may
have been, were given an immediacy which those of a larger institution - say
the British Museum - simply did not possess. The apparently commonplace
snakes, termites, butterflies, beetles and so on which made up the bulk ofthe
contributions had the great advantage of having been gathered from the
immediate, easily accessible environment with which every colonist was
automatically familiar. The colonial context dictated that every specimen in the
Society'S museum was not only collected by the people themselves, but was
above all applicable to their everyday experience. A comment made in 1864 by
the anonymous visitor to Natal quoted earlier, although it refers to exhibits at a
volunteer bazaar held in Durban, is equally applicable to the Natal Society's
museum in Pietermaritzburg:
Some collections of curios, such as insects and stuffed birds, pleased me
most. In the British Museum I always hurried through the Natural
History Rooms, being overwhelmed by the enormous number of the
'exhibits'; but little groups like these we saw today you can spend your
time over to enjoy. Perhaps, too, the enjoyment is enhanced by the fact
that you may see any of the specimens before you in all the strength of life
and glory offreedom, by keeping your eyes at work when outside. 49
Not even the revolutionary fervour of an H. de Varine-Bohan could, surely,
have found serious fault with the community-oriented policy evolved, through
necessity, by this hard-pressed but enthusiastic colonial museum. The stripling
institution, despite - or. as has been argued, because of - its many problems,
enjoyed unsuspected advantages. Out of the exigencies of colonial
circumstances had developed a viable, people-oriented and, as such,
potentially worthwhile museum.

List of Donations, 1879-1880

Trustees of the British
Museum An lllustrated Catalogue of SA Fossil Reptilia
Sir Henry E. Bulwer. KCMG A Wheelbarrow and Spade
Honorary Secretary A Cabinet for Entomological Specimens
Dr P.C. Sutherland Geological collections
Rev. J.D.la Touche English Silurian Fossils
E.P. Stafford Fossils and Sea Shells
Miss Wackernow American fossils
68 The Natal Society Museum

Mr A.F. Ortlepp Fourteen small Diamonds

MrW.R. Gordon Specimens of Stalactites
Mr R. Jones A Geological Specimen
Rev. Jas Turnbull Impression of a Fossil Conifer
(Donor unknown) Some Geological Specimens
Maj Furse Conchological Specimens
MrPerrin Several Snakes
MrW. Hours 2 Snakes
Mr Sanderson 2 Curious Fishes
Mr G. Gibson, jun. 1 Snake
Mr J. Franklin 1 Snake
Mr G. Lambert A Tree Lizard
MrBaxter 2 Specimens of the Hippocampus/Sea Horse
Mr Wm R. Gordon Miscellaneous Curiosities
MrVarty A Hair-ball from a Calf
MrH. Spence, jun. SkinofaBlueJay
Mr Guthrie, Butterflies, etc
Mr J. M. Wood Collection of dried Ferns and Plants
Mr Keith (through Maj Furse) Stalks of the Aloe
Mr Stanton Branch of the Mauritius Regia Palm
MrBuntin Native Assegais and Picks
Mr J. C. Wilson Model Fender, etc, made by a soldier from
Zulu Bullets
MrLoram An Old History of the Turks

REFERENCES
1 De Varine-Bohan, H., The modern museum: requirements and problems of a new approach',
Museum, 28(3),1976, p. 131.
Natal Society Minute Book, Voll: Council Meeting, 20 May 1851.
3 Natal Witness, and Agricultural and Commercial Advertiser, 9 February 1855, Speech of thc
Hon. H. Clocte, 'On the value and importance ofa Museum in thc District of Natal'.
4 Ihid.
, Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ihid.
H Robinson. J .. Life at Natal a Hundred Years Ago, Bya Lady, Cape Town. Struik, 1972: first
published in Cape Monthly Magazine, 1864-1865, p. 128.
9 Gordon, R., The Place of the Elephant: A History of Pietermaritzburg, Pietermaritzburg,
Shuter & Shooter, 1981, p. 54.

10 Natal Society Minute Book, Voll: Annual General Meeting, 28 June 1867.

11 Natal Witness, 'On the value and importance of a Museum. '

12 Ibid.

13 Ihid.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

The Natal Society Museum 69

17 Flower, W.H., Essays on Museums and other Subjects Connected with Natural History,
London, Macmillan, 1898. p. 12.
18 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 21 June 1853.
19 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Special Council Meeting, 28 November 1854.
20 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Council Meeting, 22 December 1854.
21 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 20 June 1857.
22 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Council Meeting, 1 March 1859.
23 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 28 June 1867.
24 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 30June 1869.
25 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Council Meeting, 3 May 1872.
26 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo12: Special General Meeting, 29 June 1878.
27 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo12: Special General Meeting, 26 June 1879.
28 Museum Committee Minute Book: 26 February 1880.
29 Ibid.
30 Natal Museum Library Collection: Natal Government Museum file on early history, Trimen
to Stratham, 18 October 1882.
31 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo12: Council Meeting, 18 January 1883.
32 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Special General Meeting, 27 October 1885.
33 Museum Committee Minute Book: 8 January 1886.
34 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Council Meeting, 16 March 1889.
35 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Council Meeting, 6 March 1893.
36 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Annual General Meeting, 30July 1897.
37 Ibid.
38 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Pasted-in copy of Green's Report, 30 August 1900.
39 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Council Meeting, 12 November 1900.
40 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo13: Council Meeting, 9 April 1901.
41 Unaccessioned Natal Government Museum Collection: Administration 1902-1913, Natal
Government Museum 1111903.
42 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 20 June 1854.
43 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo12: Annual General Meeting, 4 July 1876; A.F. Hattersley,
The Natal Society, 1851-1951', Quarterly Bulletin ofthe South African Library, 5(3), 1951.
44 Natal Witness, 'On the value and importance of a Museum ... '
45 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Council Meeting, 5 December 1854.
46 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo11: Annual General Meeting, 30 June 1869.
47 Museum Committee Minute Book: 11 July 1879.
48 Natal Society Minute Book, Vo12: Annual General Meeting, 30 June 1880.
49 Robinson, Life at Natal . .. , pp. 50-51.

SHIRLEY BROOKS
70

Italians in Pietermaritzburg

According to the available records, the first Italian to live in Pietermaritzburg

was Signor Faccioli, the diminutive bandmaster of the 45th Regiment, two
companies of which reached the newly-established town in 1843 and 'pitched
their tents on an eminence known as Fort N apier' . 1 After taking his discharge in
Natal, like many other members of the regiment, Faccioli supported himself by
giving music lessons.
The Italian community remained insignificant for the next nine decades. The
1903 Directory lists only two names that are recognizably Italian - Bendzulla
and Gallo. 2 Albert Bendzulla lived at 140 Church Street and was presumably
the proprietor of the firm R. Bendzulla & Sons, tailors and outfitters, whose
premises were at 169 Longmarket Street. The name is of Roman origin, though
this particular family had migrated to England and Germany during the
nineteenth century and was no longer Italian-speaking when some of its
members came to South Africa. E. Gallo lived at Leathern Court in
Commercial Road between 1903 and 1905 and may have been Italian­
speaking, though his first name was Emmanuels, not Emmanuele. The 1939
Directory contains two more Italian names - Corinaldi and Monzali. 3 The
origin of the Corinaldi family is believed to be Milan; but H. Corinaldi, who
was living at 71 Boshoff Street in 1939, came from Australia where his forbears
had been settled for at least two generations. Like the Bendzullas, he was no
longer Italian-speaking.
Guido Raphael Monzali, on the other hand, was Italian by birth. Born in
1877 in a mountain village, La Zocca di Modena, about 16km from Bologna,
he possessed exceptional self-confidence and tenacity of purpose. At the age of
fourteen, when most teenagers are still dependent on their parents for support
and guidance, he travelled alone to the United States and found work in a
colliery in the Mid-West. Intent on starting his own construction and
engineering business, he left America two years later, his travels taking him as
far as Vladivostok. In the Sudan he became proficient in dam construction. In
Switzerland he gained his first experience of railway construction.
His career was interrupted by a short period of military service. He took part
in Italy's East African campaign of 1898 and was awarded a medal. As soon as
he was discharged, he resumed railway construction, tendering for contracts in
Australia and Madagascar. Leaving the latter island for health reasons, he
arrived in Durban at the start of the South African War. His first business
venture in this country was modest - a contract to supply firewood to war
refugees. But he was soon back in the engineering field - building bridges,
embankments, viaducts, deviations and tunnels for the SAR. His name is
associated with railway development in Natal, where he was responsible for the
construction of two of the longest tunnels in South Africa at that time.
Italians in Pietermaritzburg 71

Railway construction was not the only type of work that he undertook.
Before the First World War, he mined gypsum for the Pretoria Portland
Cement Co. and was also awarded the contract to build a motor road to the
summit of the Little Berg - one of the most challenging road-building projects
ever attempted in this country. The road was completed in May 1949 but, at the
start of construction. Monzali over-turned his truck on a steep slope and broke
his back, an injury that hampered him for the rest of his life, though it did not
force him to retire or blunt his formidable energy. His growing fortune was
invested in numerous subsidiary interests, such as mines, quarries, plantations
and farms.
He lived in Durban from 1922 to 1936, then moved to Hilton where he built a
large and impressive house, which became popularly known as 'Monzali's
Castle'. Before construction began, he sent to Italy for skilled workmen and an
architect. During the Second World War, part of the house staff consisted of
Italian prisoners of war, and other POWs were employed in the adjacent
plantations. Despite his many responsibilities, he did not become over-serious
or aloof. His daughter, Mrs Marcella Ekerold, recalls his keen sense of
humour. Nor did he lose his youthful interest in geology. His idea of a holiday
was to go out into the veld and collect rock specimens. He continued to manage
his affairs until a few weeks before his death in 1952.
The Lamberti family was also established in South Africa before the Second
World War. Enrico Lamberti came from Salerno, near Naples. Accompanied
by his wife, a native of Florence, he arrived in Johannesburg in 1909 with no
assets except his skill as a tailor and the same will to succeed that animated
Monzali. According to their eldest son, Mingo, the decision to emigrate to a
strange country, where they had no friends or relatives and would be unable to
make themselves understood except by sign language, was no less courageous
than the Voortrekkers' decision to embark on the Great Trek. The habit of
working up to 16 hours a day was taken for granted, not only by the parents but
also by their sons. who were trained as artisans and encouraged to start their
own business ventures as soon as they were on their financial feet.
The name, Mingo. is a contraction of Ermengardo. The young man practised
his father's trade until he was 29 years old, then enrolled at the University of the
Witwatersrand and took a degree in engineering. After a year on the gold
mines, he was appointed manager of the SA Crushers' WestviIle quarries. In
deciding to leave the Rand, he was influenced by Professor Jeppe, who
encouraged his students to seek employment in outlying mines and plants.
After Mingo had suggested ways of improving the lay-out and production
methods at WestviIle, the quarry owners virtually gave him a free hand and he
soon became an owner himself. Assisted by friends and relatives, he purchased
a 75 % interest in the Hilton quarries and built a house next to the plant, which
was modernized and served by an extension of the railway siding.
One of his first major decisions was to buy a Von Roll crusher from the
Italian firm that had built the Kariba Dam - the largest crusher ever to be
installed in South Africa. The contract stipulated that it had to be dismantled at
Kariba and re-erected at Hilton. The side frames were so large that they were
transported only in daytime, so as to ensure that no damage was done to the
girders of railway bridges should the cargo shift in any way as a result of the
movement of the bogeys.
Hilton Quarries (Pty) Ltd became the holding company of more than a
dozen other quarry companies. One of the properties acquired in this way was
72 Italians in Pietermaritzburg

the Monzali sand plant. Mingo bought it for its sand deposits, but the
acquisition made him the owner of 'Monzali's Castle', though he never lived in
the house. In 1970 he sold his quarry holdings to a subsidiary of the Hippo
group; but, recently, after the expiry of a ten-year embargo, he started the
Maritzburg Quarries at Ashburton, and is once again active in the business of
excavating stone, sand and gravel, despite being 78 years old.
His brother, Victor, after farming for several years in the Transvaal, served
in the UDF during the Second World War, attaining the rank of captain. From
Italian prisoners employed on his farm he learnt the process of making
Parmesan cheese, which he produced after the war in the Transvaal and at
Curry's Post. For a time, both he and his younger brother, Antonio, assisted
Mingo at the quarries. Victor then moved to Newcastle where he acquired an
interest in a supermarket. His large family of seven sons and five daughters is
dispersed over the country or abroad. One of them, Reg Lamberti, is the owner
of a machine tool repair service in Pietermaritzburg.
After being limited to a few families for so many decades, the Italian
community in Pietermaritzburg increased enormously and unwillingly during
the Second World War, when thousands of POWs and a smaller number of
civilian internees were incarcerated in a camp in the Mkondeni area, close to
the old Durban road. The first batch, captured in East Africa, arrived during
1941. They lived in tents, and were guarded by members of the Cape Coloured
Corps. According to the authors of the Annals ofthe Scottsville Area, they were
docile and well-behaved, unlike the German prisoners, who dug tunnels and
tried to escape, until sent elsewhere. By 1943 the Italian inmates numbered
about5000. 4
A booklet compiled by the camp chaplain, Padre Giacomo Conte, stresses
the boredom and homesickness from which they suffered. One of the
prisoners, the opera singer, Gregorio Fiasconaro, is eloquent on the subject of
boredom. A week in the camp - he asserts - was equivalent to a month
outside. Unlike Allied POWs in Germany and Italy, the Pietermaritzburg
inmates received no study material, though the Red Cross, the Vatican and the
South African Italian community supplied books, music and play scripts at a
later stage.
Fiasconaro also complains of the heat in summer and the cold in winter - he
particularly remembers the heavy rains of 1944- but his most severe strictures
are reserved for the camp food, or lack of it. He claims that he became thin on
the POW diet and was too weak to sing in a large hall, though he praises the
prisoner-cooks for the appetizing meals that they sometimes concocted out of
their limited supplies. He also commends the Camp Commandant, Major
W.G. Lowe, for carrying out his duties in a considerate as well as dutiful
manner.
A variety of activities was organized to keep boredom at bay. The prisoners
could take part in various sports - soccer, tennis, athletics, boxing and palla a
volo (a type of handball played with a net). Another option was handicrafts.
Groups of prisoners kept themselves busy doing carpentry and tailoring, and
the Italian love of music was well provided for. After instruments had been
donated by Pietermaritzburg citizens and the inmates had built a hut-cum-hall
with a tarpaulin roof, Fiasconaro, as Director of Entertainment, produced
plays and concerts. The nucleus of his orchestra was a regimental band that had
been captured en bloc. Shows were put on in the City Hall in aid of Red Cross
funds. Fiasconaro sang solos and was sent to perform in Durban where he
Italians in Pietermaritzburg 73

became acquainted with the conductor of the Durban Orchestra, Edward

Dunn.
In the later stages of the war, Italy was no longer an enemy country but a co­
belligerent and there was an improvement in the relationship between the
prisoners and the guards. Discipline became lax. Fiasconaro describes how
inmates used to get through the barbed wire at night in order to barter for food
in neighbouring 'Indian villages'. He himself was involved in several
escapades, often with the connivance of the guards. Invaluable from the long­
term point of view were the educational classes that the chaplain organized.
Some of the prisoners had received only a minimal education, so a start was
made with literacy classes that ran for two hours each weekday evening,
except when the timetable was disrupted by the requirements of camp
administration or the need to accommodate new arrivals. Later on, advanced
classes were added with courses in language, literature, maths and science, the
motive of the students being simply the'joy of study' .
But, however beneficial such activities might be in alleviating boredom and
preparing the prisoners for their post-war civilian life, they were of a transient
character. The most impressive and lasting of the prisoners' achievements
during their four years of captivity was the building of a church. The chaplain
suggested the idea and construction started in 1943, after a ritual benediction
of the first stone on 2 February. The shale blocks were quarried two
kilometres away and hauled by human muscle power in makeshift carts to the
building site. According to the report in the booklet In Attesa, the civilian
population living in the area had no idea that this type of shale was suitable for
building.
The project might have been stillborn had it not been for the provision of
basic tools and other assistance authorized by a member of the camp staff,
Major B.C. Knight. Even so, the difficulties were formidable. Cement was in
short supply owing to the war, so the mortar was made of mud and the scanty
supply of cement, financed in part by the sale of the prisoners' cigarette
rations, was used only to 'point' the face of each wall. To quote the chaplain,
the walls grew a few centimetres each day, 'cemented more by the sweat of the
labourers than by the virtue of the mortar'.
The care with which the stone blocks were shaped and fitted together must
be seen to be appreciated. After 13 months of dedicated toil, the church was
completed. Built in a style all its own - piu vicino al dorieo ehe al eomposito
romano - it is 17,3 metres in length, 7,5 metres wide and has a tower 9,5
metres high. The cornice bears the inscription MATRI DIVINAE
GRATIAE CAPTIVI ITALICI A.D. MCMXLIV. Two lions rampant,
sculptured by the prisoners, were placed outside. The ceremony of
inauguration and consecration was performed on Sunday, 19 March 1944 by
the Apostolic Delegate, the Rt Revd Archbishop van Gijlswijk, and was
followed by a Pontifical Mass. For the remaining months of the war, services
were held regularly. There were no pews but music was provided by a small
harmonium played by Fiasconaro.
'I never hear the quiet tolling of the bell at sunset and early in the morning,'
wrote the Camp Commandant, Major Lowe, 'without thinking how grateful
(the prisoners) must be for this link with their homes, many thousands of miles
away.'5
After the war, the camp was disbanded and the church stood alone by the
roadside, forgotten and neglected. Vagrants, migrating between the Rand and
 74 Italians in Pietermaritzburg

A 1981 reunion of 35 former Italian prisoners of war in front of the church they helped
to build.
(Photograph: Natal Witness)
Italians in Pietermaritzburg 75

the coast, used it as an over-night shelter. Fires were lit in the nave and
rubbish accumulated. Vandals ripped off the doors and shattered the stained
glass windows. One of the lions was smashed beyond repair. Father Anton
Dovigo, holidaying in South Africa in 1962, was shocked by the church's
condition and started collecting funds for its restoration. Ex-prisoners in Italy
and South Africa contributed. A new bell was cast and sent free of charge to
Durban. An ex-prisoner, Mr Salvatore FardelIa, undertook the task of placing
the new bell in the tower. At an impressive ceremony held in 1963, the bell
was blessed by the Most Reverend Archbishop Denis Hurley and rung for the
first time by the Mayoress, Mrs Eva Bulman.
After its restoration. the church was looked after by an Italian immigrant.
Mr Raffaele Dalmonte, now deceased. He kept the church clean, carried out
routine repairs and provided flowers for the monthly Mass, continuing to do
so until the building was declared a National Monument and the NM
Commission took over responsibility for its upkeep. Apart from the absence
of one of the lions, it has been fully restored, though today it stands in a street
and is surrounded by suburban houses - an incongruous setting that
accentuates its uniqueness. The building is enriched by the very poverty of its
component parts, and the visitor can sense in its austere simplicity the depth of
feeling that inspired the homesick prisoners to leave behind on South African
soil such a beautiful monument to their faith.
Not all the prisoners returned home. There is a row of graves in the
Mountain Rise cemetery where those who died in captivity were buried. Some
of the prisoners chose to remain in South Africa, one of the best-known being
Gregorio Fiasconaro. Born in Sicily, he spent his youth in Genoa where he
sang in productions at the Opera House at the age of six. A baritone when
grown-up, he made his debut as an opera principal in the role of Germont in
La Traviata. His singing career was interrupted by the war. Refusing to apply
for the exemption that was usually granted to well-known singers, he
volunteered for the air force, was trained as a pilot and joined a squadron in
East Africa. Taken prisoner after being shot down and badly wounded, he was
transported first to Egypt and then to Pietermaritzburg.
When taking part in a concert in the City Hall towards the end of the war, he
met and fell in love with a South African girl, Mabel Brabant, whom he
married in 1947 (he was prevented by illness from being repatriated with the
other prisoners). While employed by a local firm, Ross & Co, he was invited
to go on tour for the SABC and moved to Cape Town. Here he embarked on a
new career as a South African singer and producer, and he has been described
as the 'father of opera' in this country. 6
Mr Salvatore Fardella was another prisoner who remained in South Africa
after the war. Born in a village in the province of Messina, he was an
infantryman in the Italian army that fought in North Africa. Like Fiasconaro,
he was taken prisoner after being wounded in action. After being treated in a
military hospital in Cairo, he was sent to the POW camp at Pietermaritzburg.
A builder by trade, he was part of the team that built the church. At a later
stage he was one of many prisoners who were sent to work on local farms. This
was a popular option as farm food was better than camp food and the worker
was more likely to be treated as an employee than as a captive. Another
advantage was the opportunity to learn English. His place of employment was
a guest farm and he continued to work there for some months after the war
76 Italians in Pietermaritzburg

ended. Eventually he started his own construction business in Howick. His

wife, whom he married in South Africa, comes from Tuscany.
The confinement of prisoners-of-war in this country was of course
paralleled in Italy, where about 10000 South Africans were held captive at the
time of the Armistice in 1943. A considerable proportion of them were
released, or escaped, to live behind the German lines and share the dangers
and discomforts to which the civilian population was subjected. A few of them
married Italian wives, as did some members of the South African units that
were attached to the Fifth and Eighth Armies.
Pietermaritzburg's Italian community was augmented to a small extent in
this way. Mr Johnny Odendaal, a journalist by profession, met his future wife
in Rome while serving with the Corps of Signals. In the post-war period he
worked for the Natal Witness and was later the Bureau Chief of the Natal
Daily News. Mr Arthur George Dawson, a member of the Pretoria Regiment,
became acquainted with his future wife at Lake Maggiore and returned to
Italy after the war in order to marry her. He was employed in the City as a post
office technician. Mrs Odendaal and Mrs Dawson are only two of many
thousands of Italians who emigrated to South Africa after the war.
Given the Italian aptitude for engineering, especially civil engineering and
building construction, it is not surprising that a considerable proportion of the
newcomers belonged to these professions. Mr Alberto Alfano's father was a
builder in Eritrea, where the family had lived for two generations. His son,
Alberto, worked for him for a brief period, then emigrated at the age of 22 to
South Africa, where he obtained a diploma in civil engineering. He was
employed by construction firms at other centres before starting his own
business and moving to Pietermaritzburg, imbued with the usual
determination to become financially independent; and we shall see the same
influence at work in other immigrants, a large number of whom have been
able to start their own concerns in the city.
The Sirilli family is associated with shoe manufacturing, the Farina brothers
with painting contracting, Desiderio Di Carlofelice with the catering trade,
Umberto Rampa with hairstyling, Mrs Marilena Aliquo runs a music shop,
while Messrs Aldo San toro and Renato Bernasconi are two more members of
the community who have established engineering firms. The examples given
are far from inclusive. The names mentioned have been taken at random, as it
were, from the list of citizens of Italian origin who have joined the ranks of the
City's entrepreneurs.
Renato Bernasconi grew up in Legnano, north-west of Milan. For ten years
he worked as a building contractor in the Sudan, mainly on dam construction.
He knew little English when he arrived in South Africa in 1965. Despite that
handicap, he succeeded in starting his own firm, the Aliber Construction Co.
Mrs Marilena Aliquo was born in Cremona. Like Gregorio Fiasconaro, she
had a love of music from an early age, and longed to have piano lessons but
her father could not afford them. In compensation, a childless great-aunt gave
her a piano accordion and paid for lessons. It was the start of a remarkable
career. After recitals in Italian cities, she joined an all-girl piano accordion
trio that travelled as far afield as Iran, where she spent a month at the Shah's
court. At the age of twenty, she made a solo tour of African countries,
including the Sudan, where she met her future husband, who was of Greek as
well as Italian descent. After marrying, the couple came to South Africa and
settled in Pietermaritzburg. Able to speak French, Greek, Arabic and Italian,
Italians in Pietermaritzburg 77

as well as make herself understood in German and Turkish, Mrs Aliquo

obviously has a gift for languages and did not take long to master English. As
soon as she could communicate, she became active in the local world of music,
giving concerts and accordion lessons. She missed Italy and persuaded
Umberto to take her back to Cremona, but the sound of an SAA air hostess's
voice making an announcement in Afrikaans convinced her that South Africa
was where she really belonged. After living for a while in Empangeni, where
she managed a shop and did her best to promote a love of music among the
white, black and Indian communities, she returned to Pietermaritzburg and
started her own retail music business.
Pescara was the birth place of Umberto Rampa, who left Italy in 1953 for
Venezuela, where he was a full-time hairstylist and a part-time sports
commentator on the radio. After six years in South America, he was
persuaded by his brother-in-law to come to this country. He started his own
salon in Pietermaritzburg and devoted most of his leisure time to his favourite
sport of soccer. He is a well-known referee and was Chairman of the local
section of the Natal Referees' Association for seven years. He is another
Italian with a love of opera and has appeared in tenor parts in amateur
productions. The community is well represented in the hairdressing trade.
Several salons in the City are owned or managed by immigrants from Italy.
Every region of the home country has contributed a quota of immigrants to
the community - Piedmont, Lombardy, central Italy, the mezzogiorno and
the islands. Giuseppi Gallus was born in Cagliari, the capital of one of
Sardinia's four provinces. After completing his military service, he came to
South Africa in 1955, without being trained for a profession. After finding a
job in the motor trade in Johannesburg, he studied English at night classes. He
was employed by Olivetti when he came to Pietermaritzburg in 1975 and
eventually started his own business. His partner is Gianni Bonaso, who was
brought from Piedmont to South Africa in childhood. Mrs Patricia Gallus is of
South African birth and has a business of her own, mushroom gathering.
Although the proportion of entrepreneurs is high in the Italian community,
a considerable number of its members belong to the salaried class, being
employed in the City and its environs as artisans, clerks and shop assistants.
Mrs D'Amico manages a restaurant in a department store. Born near Naples,
she came to South Africa with her husband, an ex-POW, 21 years ago. Filippo
Aliquo, brother-in-law of Marilena, is a diesel mechanic. Like his brother.
Umberto, he was working in the Sudan before he moved to South Africa in
1975.
One would not expect to find the professions strongly represented in the
Italian community, for obvious reasons. A lawyer trained in Italy would be
unacquainted with our law. A doctor would find it difficult to establish the
necessary rapport with patients belonging to a different community. Few
teachers and lecturers would be considered sufficiently proficient in the
official languages. Nevertheless, some members of the community have
managed to overcome these problems. Mrs P.N. W. Osborne, a native of
Modena married to a British citizen, majored in English Language and
Literature at Bologna University and now lectures in French on the local
campus of the University of Natal.
Dr P. Ronchietto is a livestock improvement officer and research worker
employed by the Animal and Dairy Science Research Institute. He is based at
Cedara where his work is primarily beef cattle performance and progeny
78 Italialls ill Pietermaritzburg

testing. Born at Pont Canavese, north of Turin, he came to South Africa 14

years ago. He obtained his degree at the University of Turin. He used to be an
active member of the local Italian Club.
The Club no longer exists. The date on which it was founded, and by whom,
is now difficult to determine. The first meeting was held either towards the
end of the 1960s or at the beginning of the 1970s, and the first venue was a hall
which formed part of the property owned by the Catholic Church in Loop
Street. Activities consisted of social get-togethers, Sunday lunches, dancing,
the showing of films and the playing of tombola. One of the original aims was
to provide lessons in Italian for children of the community and thereby
preserve their sense of italiallita. The Club had the usual committee and office
bearers and was still meeting at premises in Princess Street in 1987 before it
died out owing to lack of support.
Although it consists of about 55 families (estimates vary between 30 and 65)
the Italian community in Pietermaritzburg is not regarded by its members as
being particularly cohesive, nor should we expect it to be if we take into
account the diversity of its origin and the factors that encourage assimilation.
For the newly-arrived immigrant South Africa is a foreign country and strong
links are retained with friends and relatives in Italy. The children speak Italian
in the home but they learn English at school and find it difficult, as they grow
older, to use the home language in situations that are not familial. The third
generation uses English both at home and in the outside world. The old
language may be learnt for sentimental reasons or in order to converse with
grandparents, but the sense of Italian identity is no longer strong.
A corresponding pattern is found in attitudes towards work. The newly­
arrived immigrant feels insecure and takes whatever employment he can find,
living frugally and saving money in order to become financially independent.
Mr Desiderio Di Carlofelice, for example, came to South Africa from a small
village in Abruzzi in 1961, knowing no English and without relatives in this
country. He was employed by catering firms in Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg
before he was in a position to open his own restaurant.
The second generation may also show a preference for self-employment,
but their children - the third generation - are more likely to be students at
technikons and universities, aiming at salaried jobs and a life-style no different
from that of their locally-born contemporaries. The work ethic is less
conspicuous. They are becoming indistinguisable from other South African
whites in comfortable circumstances, and a high proportion are married to
non-Italians.
There have been several references in this article to immigration and its
corollary, emigration, about which there are two diametrically opposite
opinions. Some people, including many South African whites, disapprove
when neighbours decide to emigrate. Whatever the reason for the choice ­
safety, better job prospects, greater political freedom - it is condemned as
disloyal and even cowardly. But is such a point of view tenable in people who
are themselves the descendants of emigrants?
General George Patton, in 1943, circulated the following message to the
American troops who were about to invade Sicily:
Many of your have in your veins German and Italian blood, but
remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave
up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. (Those who
Italians in Pietermaritzburg 79

stayed behind) lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and

continued as slaves. 7
The hyperbole may be overdone, yet it is a reasonable assumption that real
courage is required before the average person will relinquish the security of a
familiar environment in order to start a new life in a strange land.
The Italian immigrants who chose to settle in Pietermaritzburg certainly
possessed that kind of courage. They have proved to be a hard-working
community with an unusual degree of initiative. Their enterprise has increased
the City's material wealth and enriched its cultural life.

NOTES

1 Hattersiey, Alan F. Portrait ofa City. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter & Shooter, 1951, p.18.
2 Natal Almanac & Diary 1903, Pietermaritzburg section. Published by P. Davis & Sons,
Pietermaritzburg.
3 Braby's Natal Directory, 1939, Pietermaritzburg Section. Published in Durban.
4 Annals of the Scottsville Area, collated and written by Edna Bartlett (except for 2 chapters),
privately produced by the Ridge Women's Institute, 1984.
5 Conte, G. In A ttesa , Numero Unico Pietermaritzburg, 1944.
6 Fiasconaro, G. /'d Do It Again. Cape Town, Books of Africa, 1982.
7 Quoted in The Americans by Geoffrey Gorer. London, Cresset press, 1948, p. 13.
The information in the article is otherwise based on:
Personal interviews with:

Mr A. Alberto, Pietermaritzburg, 30 Apr. 1988.

Mr F. Aliquo, Pietermaritzburg, 18 May 1988.

Mrs M. Aliquo, Pietermaritzburg, 10 March 1988.

Mrs D'Amico, Pietermaritzburg, 25 Apr. 1988.

Mr G. Bonaso, Pietermaritzburg, 27 Apr. 1988.

Father Paul Decock, Cedara. 4 May 1988.

Mr D. Di Carlofelice, Pietermaritzburg, 22 June 1988.

Mr S. Fardella, Merrivale, 4 May 1988.

Mr G. Gallu5, Pietermaritzburg, 27 Apr. 1988.

Mr R. Lamberti, Pietermaritzburg, 13 March 1988.

Mr E. Lamberti, Hilton, 21 Apr. 1988.

Mr J. Odendaal, Pietermaritzburg, 19 March 1988.

Mrs P. Osborne, Pietermaritzburg, 25 Apr. 1988.

Mr U. Rampa, Pietermaritzburg, 10 March 1988.

Telephone interviews with:

MrR. Bernasconi, Pietermaritzburg, 12Apr.1988.

Mrs E. Crossley, Pietermaritzburg, 28 May 1988.

Mr G. Dawson, Pietermaritzburg, 1 May 1988.

Notes supplied by:

Mrs M. Ekerold, Gillitts, 26 June 1988.

Dr P. Ronchietto, Cedara, 16 July 1988.

GEORGECANDY
80

Planning and Planners­

issues to be addressed in

the Nata1/ KwaZulu region

As the turn of the century looms little more than a decade ahead it is pertinent
to take stock of the development issues that will need to be addressed in the
Natal/KwaZulu region. This article, from the perspective of an urban and
regional planner, describes the scope of interest of planners and the approach
currently adopted in examining complex situations such as this region.
Attention is then focused on firstly, the overriding, strategic issues and
secondly, their urban and regional planning dimensions. Finally, some
suggestions are made regarding the role of planners in the coming years.

Scope ofurban and regional planning

In a universal sense, the term planning refers to the 'making of an orderly
sequence of action that will lead to the achievement of a stated goal' . 1 This is
the kind of planning undertaken by most people and organizations on a daily
basis. The more particular concerns of planning for socio-economic
development involve the following interwoven elements:
- people, where they live and how they satisfy their day-to-day
needs;
- their activities, (economic, social, cultural, recreational, political
and administra tive);
- the land, including physical resources, the natural environment,
man-made improvements and infrastructure;
- the manner in which land and resources are managed and used. 2
The field of urban and regional planning focuses attention more sharply still
on 'planning with a spatial or geographical component in which the general
objective is to provide for a spatial structure of activities (or of land uses)
which in some way is better than the pattern existing without planning'. 3
Urban and regional planning is a broad discipline which interfaces with the
full spectrum of social sciences (including geography. economics, sociology,
anthropology, psychology and public administration) as well as the disciplines
involved in the natural and built environment, such as ecology, architecture,
engineering and surveying. Urban and regional planners are therefore trained
as generalists, in order to operate at the nexus of varied and often conflicting
situations. The scale at which planners work also ranges widely from
national/regional, through sub-regional to urban and local contexts.
Planning and Planners 81

Planning methodology
Since the 1920s, planning students were taught the classic sequence: survey­
analysis-plan, based on the work of the British pioneer in planning, Patrick
Geddes. 4 During the 1960s a new planning method based on cybernetics was
introduced and widely adopted. Known as the systems approach, the new
sequence was: goals-continuous information-projection and simulation of
alternative futures-evaluation--choice-contin uous monitoring. 5
In practice the activity of planning has usually been regarded as separate
from implementation and almost invariably carried out by different
organizations or teams. The result has been that planners generally hand over
their reports to decision-makers and play little further part in the proceedings.
Obviously this arrangement has inherent problems with planners excluded
from the implementation process and therefore unable either to adjust plans
to meet changing circumstances or to learn from experience.
Partly as a response to the need for planning and implementation to be
treated as one continuous process, and partly in order to cope with
increasingly complex situations that are characterized by uncertainty and the
need for short-term decisions, planners have turned to an approach developed
by business management. This is the strategic planning methodology. In
contrast to the conventional systems method, strategic planning is issue­
based, action-orientated and participative in seeking to create an environment
within which decisions can be taken progressively from an early stage. In other
words, it integrates planning with implementation as part of a continuous
process. Strategic planning thus provides a means of 'managing limited
resources and addressing issues critical to a community's long-term health and
economic vitality'. 6
A consulting firm currently engaged in a strategic planning exercise in
NataF draws attention to the role that the strategic planning process plays in:
- providing an integrated perspective of a region's current position
and future prospects;
- identifying trends that shape the directions in which a region and its
community can develop;
- positioning the region to seize opportunities, rather than merely
react to changing circumstances;
- identifying trends that shape the directions in which a region and its
people can develop;
- allocating limited resources to the most pressing issues;
- identifying those actions, policies and investments that will have
the greatest impact on a region's future;
- ensuring that activities have a long-term direction and focus
regardless of changing leadership and intervening crises; and
- providing a mechanism for co-operation between public and
private sectors. R
It is normal planning practice to adopt an approach that matches the nature
of the problem being investigated. In the case of NatallKwaZulu's
development over the next decade, choice of an approach is influenced by the
high level of uncertainty about a number of fundamental issues, the
complexity of issues involved and their inter-relatedness, the wide range of
major participants involved and the considerable variation in their present
access to resources and negotiating power.
82 Planning and Planners

The strategic methodology copes particularly well in this type of context and
is, therefore, seen as the most suitable both for understanding and for tackling
the planning and development issues facing the region. While it is way beyond
the scope of this article to undertake a strategic analysis of the region and its
people, there is value in setting out some thoughts on one component, namely
identification of some of the main issues relating to the region's space
economy. The sections following describe the structure of the region's space
economy and the broad development issues that need to be addressed as a
background to looking at their urban and regional planning dimensions.

Structure ofthe space economy

The South African space economy reflects the continuous interaction of two
major processes - economic and political. 9 Conceptually the space economy
can be described in terms of three main elements (Fig. 1). Firstly, at the centre
is the urban core, comprising the major metropolitan areas of the PWV,
Durban-Pinetown and Cape Town together with the minor metropolitan
areas of Port Elizabeth, East London, Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein and
Kimberley. These represent the non-contiguous urban core of the country's
gross geographic product (g.g.p.). Secondly, surrounding these cores is an
outer periphery zone of primary production which comprises the rest of South
Africa in white, coloured and Asian ownership. This large region of farms,
mines and plantations generates about 30 % of the g.g.p. Thirdly, there is an
outer periphery comprising the African homelands or national states which
generates only about 3 % of South Africa's gross geographic product. \0
As this centre-periphery pattern has evolved during the last half century,
imbalances have become increasingly pronounced, as more and more wealth
and economic activity are attracted to the core at the expense of the
periphery.l1 Applying this model to the Natal/KwaZulu region it becomes
clear that the same pattern of concentration and increasing polarization
permeates every aspect of society. le The Buthulezi Commission reported that
in 1970 KwaZulu had 51 % of the region's population but, in terms of the 1975
consolidation proposals, only 36,5 % of the land. The Durban­
Pietermaritzburg core generated 72 % of the region's g.g. p. in 1972, the rest of
white Natal 23 % and KwaZulu only 5 %.13 Fair and A'Bear, submitting
evidence to the Buthulezi Commission, comment:

The polarization between Natal and KwaZulu is increased by the fact

that Durban and Pietermaritzburg, as port and capital cities of the
province respectively, are located in Natal. In other words, the
economic power associated with these large cities together with their
potential influence in South Africa as a whole, gives Natal a bargaining
advantage over KwaZulu in competing for a slice of the economic cake.
Finally the adoption of the controversial Homeland policy by the South
African Administration serves to polarise society racially and
geographically rather than to integrate the already polarized economic
core and periphery. 14

The Natal/KwaZulu space economy can thus be described in terms of the

Durban and Pietermaritzburg metropolitan core region; an inner periphery
comprising the Newcastle-Durban corridor, the productive agricultural areas,
the northern Natal coalfields and the coastal belt; while its outer periphery
Planning and Planners 83

Figure 1 Core-periphery model as applied in South Africa

(Source: Fair (19R2) Figures 5.2,5.9,5,10)
(a) Core-periphery structure. Gross geographic
product potential 1960
equi-potential surfaces in hundred

thousand rands per mile

IJ'b) 0-149,9
IB 150-249,9

.250-499,9

l1l1I 500-999,9

_ 1000+

(b) Space economy structure

Gross geography product

1955 1975
A= Core 62 66
B = Inner periphery 35 31
C = Outer periphery 3 3
South Africa 100 % 100 %
84 Planning and Planners

(c) Space economy - trends and strategy

==2
A Core

B Inner periphery Rest of white South Africa

4

C Outer periphery
'-----­
~ Hom,l"d,

1. Migration to towns
2. Urban containment
3. Decentralization
4. Endogenous self-reliance

encompasses the less productive parts of white Natal and the whole of
KwaZulu. 15

Strategic issues
Having outlined how the region's spatial economy is structured and the overall
processes in motion, attention turns to the most important or strategic issues
to be addressed in the Natal/KwaZulu region in the next decade. These issues
are pivotal in the sense that public and private sector decisions about these
issues will, cumulatively, set the parameters (limitations and potentials) for
the region's development.

Participation in the political process and in decision-making structures

All people in the region want the same opportunity to play a role in the
political process through decision-making structures they regard as
legitimate and representative. However, the existing political
dispensation and structures are acceptable to only a small minority of the
region'S people.
Economic growth
The region's economic well-being depends on growth which, in turn,
depends on the region's maintaining or increasing its share of the
national g.g.p. and on remaining competitive in international markets.
The regional economy will need to grow more rapidly than it has over
the last decade if the minimum aspirations of its residents are to be met.
Employment creation in both the formal and informal sectors
Closely linked with economic growth is the need to create jobs for the
increasing labour force. The formal sectors of the economy are unlikely
to be able to achieve this alone and a considerable proportion ~ill need
to be taken up in the informal sector.
Urbanization
Urbanization has two components. Firstly, the physical concentration of
people and economic activities in towns and cities, and secondly, the
social aspect, or way of life, whereby people become urbanized in a
Planning and Planners 85

psychological sense. 16 In purely numerical terms, the Natal/KwaZulu

region is urbanizing rapidly with Durban now established as the second
largest city in South Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world.
The land, housing, infrastructure and service implications of the rate and
scale of urbanization being experienced impose severe demands on the
region's resources and delivery systems. The social component of this
urbanization presently lags far behind the physical migration as is
revealed in the oscillating patterns of migratory behaviour. 17
Infrastructure, services and housing
The resources are not available for the public sector to provide these
services at the standards previously used. The issue is partly one of
meeting minimum requirements in all three spatial zones in the short­
term and making provision for upgrading of services in the medium and
longer terms; and partly one of involving the private sector (ranging
from large corporations to individuals and households) to an increasing
degree in the provision of these services and facilities.
Financing development
Central government sources of funding are limited and are subject to
competing priorities from other regions and for purposes other than
development. Here again, the private sector is being called upon to play
a larger role than before, but the ways and conditions upon which
private sector funds can be deployed, require considerable clarification
and room for manoeuvre if the potential is to be fully realized.
Regional integration
In order to counter the growing imbalances in the region outlined above,
and to address the political/social issues, Natal and KwaZulu need to be
viewed, planned and developed as a single, indivisble region. This has
been recognized by numerous bodies and has resulted in such initiatives
as the Buthulezi Commission, the KwaZulu-Natal Planning Council, the
Indaba and the Joint Executive Authority and the proposed Regional
Services Councils. To date, none of these is more than a small step in the
direction of regional integration.
Environmental management
The region's long-term economic development and the welfare of its
people depend to a large extent on management of natural resources
(such as water, soils, vegetation, coast etc.) in a sustainable way. The
issue is one of achieving integrated resource management based on
recognition ofthe needs of all users.

Urban and regional planning dimensions

These issues manifest themselves in different forms in the three areas of the
region's space economy; namely, the core, the inner periphery and the outer
periphery. The following sections attempt to highlight some of the most
pressing issues within each of these zones.
Urban core
The population of the Durban Metropolitan Region (DMR) is currently
estimated at 3584000 of whom 10,4 % are white, 17,1 % Asian, 1,9 %
coloured and 70,6 % black (of whom two-thirds or 1,65 million live in
86 Planning and Planners

informal settlements). 18 Looked at from another perspective, almost half

Durban's population lives in informal settlements which are mostly
located far from employment, and provide inadequate physical
infrastructure (sites, water, roads, drainage, sewerage, electricity,
telephones, refuse collection, etc.) and little security of tenure. At
present Durban is widely recognized as one of the fastest growing cities
in the world, a trend which is likely to continue beyond the turn of the
century. The metropolitan populaton is expected to nearly double to
6459000 by the turn of the century which is an alarmingly short 12 years
ahead. Longer term projections envisage DMR's population rising to
around 10 million by the year 2010. 19 The most urgent implications of
this rate and scale of urbanization from a planning perspective are those
of finding land in advance of settlement and of upgrading infrastructure
and services in informal areas already settled. Associated with these
concerns is the need to use land within the formally settled areas of
Durban and Pietermaritzburg more effectively and intensively. From an
economic perspective the crucial issue is that of employment creation at
accessible places within the metropolitan areas.
The other component of the urban core, Pietermaritzburg, has a
present metropolitan area population of almost half a million people
with land and service demands similar to those of Durban. 20
Inner periphery
The inner periphery comprises the development corridors extending
inland to northern Natal and along the coast. This zone is the region's
area of primary production - mining and agriculture. The main
development corridors are along the north and south coast; from
Durban-Pietermaritzburg to Ladysmith and Newcastle; from Richards
Bay-Empangeni to Vryheid; with other smaller potential development
corridors emerging as off-shoots of this network (e.g., Estcourt­
Winterton-Bergville-Ladysmith, Tongaat-Wartburg, Empangeni­
Nkwaleni-Eshowe). Three basic types of town are found here: service
centre towns providing for the needs of farming enterprises and
agriculture-based industry (e.g. Kokstad, Estcourt, Bergville,
Grey town, Stanger), resort towns of the coastal belt (e.g., Margate, Port
Shepstone, Scottburgh); and industrial growth points where incentives
and the development of infrastructure have stimulated industrial
development (e.g. Richards Bay, Empangeni, Newcastle, Ladysmith). 21
The most critical issue in this zone is economic development in the
sense of continued production; and this hinges on optimizing the
development of natural resources with a view to their long-term
sustain ability . The towns in this zone are characterized by small
commercial cores and slow-growing residential areas. The most critical
spatial planning issue relates to the efficient use of land and provision of
services in the towns. At present settlement in and around these towns is
strongly influenced by historical patterns of racial zoning with the result
that infrastructure and services cannot be provided on a cost-effective
basis.
Outer periphery
The outer periphery is mainly populated by the poorest people in the
region, those who have the least skills or access to resources and who
Planning and Planners 87

'Little boxes on the hillside ... ' The provision of housing is a major challenge to
planning.
(Photograph: Natal Witness)

depend, for the bulk of their income, on remittances from one or more
household members working as migrants in either urban core or inner
periphery. In this zone the primary issue is one of survival. Households
have evolved complex survival strategies that may include sending
members with the best economic bargaining power to cities for work ,
investing in the primary and sometimes secondary education of one or
two children who show the most promise in terms of future earning
capacity; using other children to tend the livestock (usually seen as an
investment); while others engage in some subsistence farming.
Strategies of this type are frequently overlaid by complex intra- and
inter-family dependency patterns. People living in these areas also
experience an almost universal need for basic services and facilities:
clean water for domestic use, gardening and building; access roads
linking rural villages to the network of government-maintained roads;
primary health care , schools, shops, telephones, public transport and
jobs. There is also a pervasive need for access to information and advice
regarding day-to-day problems such as pensions, unemployment
insurance.
To a certain extent some of these facilities can be provided at rural
service centres, which are intermediate, embryonic small towns situated
in rural areas at a level in the settlement hierarchy between rural villages
and the towns of the inner periphery. 22 But for the most part basic needs
have to be provided in and around the homestead, which depends
88 Planning and Planners

largely on the efforts of individuals . The issue here is one of assisting

individuals and communities to provide for themselves until such time as
public agencies are able to supply and maintain basic services.
There is a widely held misconception among administrators and
professionals working in the outer periphery that rural people are
incapable of expressing their needs or formulating priorities. Evidence
from projects in the region confirm that this is a fallacy23 but herein lies a
fundamental problem - that planning and implementation tend to be
prescriptive in terms of what rural people need, ignoring the needs,
preferences and capabilities of local communities. The result of this
disjunction is that what scarce resources are deployed in the outer
periphery are often used on inappropriate or unwanted projects.

A problem for planners is the provision of basic services.

(Photograph: Natal Witn ess)
Planning and Planners 89

Conclusions
What are the implications and challenges for urban and regional planners?
There can be no doubt that their conventional skills will continue to be needed
in planning land use and facilities, ensuring separation of conflicting activities
and making continuous adjustments to meet the evolving requirements of
cities, towns and rural areas. The rate of urbanization and the pressures this
places on land ensures that planners will not be idle in the decade ahead.
Just as all professional or technical fields of activity are influenced by the
environment within which they occur, so too is it incumbent on the
practitioners of a discipline to adapt to changing needs. Urban and regional
planners are currently facing the need to re-assess their roles24 in order to
contribute most effectively in the years ahead. On the basis of their training
and experience as generalists in the field of land use and development,
planners could fill a number of potential roles in addition to those outlined
above. These may be seen as challenges to planners in the closing years of this
century.
Co-ordination
This involves linking 'top-down' with 'bottom-up' initiatives; acting as an
intermediary merger between different interest groups and sectors; and
mediating at the interface between agencies that provide services
(suppliers) and those who use them (users), between local, regional and
national priorities, and between public and private sectors. To a large
extent this is a management function which planners are well placed to
undertake.
Problem-solving
The urban and regional planning context is fraught with multi-issue,
multi-level and multi-faceted problems. Planners could play a
particularly useful role in understanding the inherent conflicts and
unravelling these problems, in working out the range of feasible options
and presenting decision-makers with the basis upon which well-informed
choices can be made.
Consultation
The need to consult with people and communities as an integral part of
the development process has been widely accepted by government
departments, quasi-government agencies, private sector corporations,
professionals working in the development field, community workers and
non-governmental organizations. Yet the practice of such consultation is
still in its infancy and the implications of engaging in meaningful
consultation are seldom fully understood by the organizations promoting
the idea. Planners operate at the interface between the communities
with whom consultation is desired and those bodies wishing to consult.
Planners are thus well placed, firstly to assist in making the process of
consultation are seldom fully understood by the organizations promoting
circumstances, and secondly to help find a balance between the
aspirations of both groups.
Opportunity-space
Arising from a recognition that neither planning nor planners can
resolve all the problems of any particular situation is the notion that
planners should focus their activities more sharply on creating
90 Planning and Planners

opportunities (in both physical and organizational senses) within which

individuals and groups of people can realize their aspirations. 25 The
opportunity-space concept stands in contrast to the highly prescriptive,
blue-print approach in which the technical/professional knowledge of
planners informed the choices for people whose future was being
planned. The latter view is on the wane and, as we enter the 1990s, the
way is opening for planners to develop more feasible responses to the
needs of the region and its people.

RU'ERENCES:
I Hall, P. Urban and Re/iiona{ Planning. Harmondsworth, 1975, p. 6.
Robinson, P.S. 'An approach to spatial planning in southern Africa with particular reference
to Transkei's north-east region'. Ph.D, Natal, 1986. p. 50.
3 Hall, UrbanandRegionaIPlanning,p. 7.

4 Ibid. p. 12.

5 Ibid. p. 50.

h Arthur Andersen & Co .. Guide to pub/icsector planning. Chicago, 19R'i. p. 1.

Arthur Andersen & Co., Consultants to the Pietermaritzburg 2 000 project.
S Ibid. Arthur Andersen & Co.
') Fair, T.J.D. South Africa: spatial frameworks for development. Cape Town, 1982; pages 43-61
provide an explanation of these processes in action,
10 Ibid, pp. 57-8.
II Browett, J.J. 'The evolution of the South African space economy', Ph,D, University of the
Witwatersrand,1975.
12 Fair, T.J.D. and A'Bear, D.R. 'Settlement and Housing'. Submission to the Buthelezi
Commission, 1982. p. 2.
" ButheJezi Commission. The requirements for stability and development in KwaZulu and Natal.
Durban, 1982. p. 169.
14 Fair, T.J.D. and A'Bear, D.R. 'Settlement and Housing', p. 3.

15 Buthelezi Commission, Requirements for stability and development, pp. 196--74.

16 Fair, T.J.D. 'The urbanization process in South Africa' in Kraayenbrink, E.A. (Ed), Studies
on urbanization in South Africa. Johannesburg, 1984. p. I.
17 A'Bear, D,R. Urbanization and settlement growth in the Pietermaritzburg-Durban region of
South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, 1983.
IS Vandeverre, Apsey, Robinson and Associates in association with McCarthy, J.J. Unpublished
research report for Tongaat -Hulett Properties (Pty) Ltd., 1988.
1'1 Ibid.

20 Estimate based on Information Dossier for Pietermaritzburg 2 000 project (1986).

21 Buthelezi Commission, p. 172.
n Robinson, P. S. 'Spatial planning and "rural service centres" in southern Africa', Africanus, 17
(1 & 2), 1987. Pages 70--90 discuss the content and application of rural service centres in more
detail.
2~ For example, in the Maputaland and Upper Tugela areas.
24 Robinson, P.S. 'Chairman's report to the Natal Branch of the South African Institute of Town
and Regional Planners'. Unpublished, 1985. See also the current redefinition of the Institute's
goals and objectives, and its formulation of a Code of Ethics.
25 This concept is elaborated in Friedmann, J, 'Innovation, flexible response and social learning;
a problem in the theory of meta-planning' in Burchell, R.W. and Sternlieb, G. Planning
theory in the 1980s - a search for future directions. Rutgers, NJ, 1979, Also S.E.G. Horton,
'Planning and rural development'. Unpublished. 1988.
P, S, ROBINSON
 91

Obituaries
John Clark (1909-1987)
John Clark was my English master at Maritzburg College 35 years ago, and I
can still recall his reciting Tarn o'Shanter's Mare, or reading about Bathsheba
Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd, which says something not only
about the attractive Scots accent, but also about the personality of this
remarkable man.
John grew up in Paisley, Scotland. His father, a marine engineer, was often
away from home, and at an early age John had to care for his mother and
sister. He was only 14 years old when his father died. That he had a high
regard for his mother was obvious from the anecdotes about her which I
remember from those far-off classroom days.
He was educated in Glasgow, and after obtaining a BA (Hons) degree,
worked as a journalist on the Glasgow Herald. Writing, and especially
journalism, was to remain his lifelong passion, and he used to say that there
was printer's ink in his blood. Three years of teaching followed, and then the
Second World War intervened. John was in the British Army for five and a
half years, three of them being spent in Italy. Starting in the ranks, he ended
up a major. He told us boys stories of the war and its hardships, but only many
years later was he to tell me that the hardest thing of all was getting to know
his wife again after not seeing her for four years.
In 1948 John brought his family to Pietermaritzburg. First he taught at
Woodlands Indian High School, then at Maritzburg College. Later he became
senior lecturer in English at the Natal Training College, and on his retirement,
remained in the service of the Natal Education Department as editor of its
journal NEON.
Wherever John went he made friends and kept them, because he was
interesting and interested. He had, incidentally, a special and deep
appreciation for the music of Mozart. He was sensitive, shy, had a fine sense
of humour, and gave of his knowledge and time generously.
The Natal Society benefited greatly in this last regard, as John Clark served
on its Council from 1964 until 1978, and was a Vice-President of the Society
from then until his death. He was a member of the editorial board of Natalia
from its inception in 1971 until 1977 , and was editor of volumes 6 and 7.
Over a period of many years John's series of articles in the Natal Witness
made a valuable contribution to the study of local history. They were often
illustrated by photographs he had taken, photography being one of his
interests. In 1972 the University of Natal conferred a doctorate for his thesis
on John Moreland, immigration agent to J.c. Byrne. It was later published as
a book, under the title Natal Settler Agent.
92 Obituaries

John was always good for a leg-pull, and, for example, never failed to
blanch when told of a fictitious fall in the Stock Exchange. As a new Doctor of
Philosophy he apparently lost his composure when asked over the telephone
by an anonymous friend to assist with the delivery of a baby - but that was the
sort of joke he loved to tell against himself.
Much of the success of the Ancient Africa Club was due to John and his
participation in the meetings and outings of this amateur history society. The
Natal branch of the Simon van der Stel Foundation was also richer by his being
a member, and this must surely be true for other associations beyond my ken.
John would often introduce a statement with the words 'I've an idea . .. ',
which in itself is a clue to his personality - unassuming and undogmatic. I
have an idea - and John had it too - that one of his most precious
possessions was the constant support and devotion of his wife, Jenny .
BRIAN SPENCER

John Clark- enjoying a ride on the engine of the

Weenen narrow gauge train.
(Photograph: T.E. Frost)
Obituaries 93

Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu (1905-1988)

It is neither wise nor Christian-like to preach the doctrine that all men
are equal before the God of the white man, and then when the Native
has accepted his faith ... to treat him as a moral and social pariah
(Inkanyiso Yase Natal, 21June 1895. Quoted in Natalia, Nov. 1986).
We may marvel at the restraint of the men who pleaded in the pages of
Inkanyiso, and those like them who followed in their footsteps, that whites
should act in ways which were consistent with their faith and stated principles.
One may marvel also at the lack of integrity in those who would not hear.
Alphaeus Zulu more than most, lived his life where these two mindsets
crossed, and struggled to handle the conflict they represented.
I first came to know him when I was a newly ordained priest in Durban in
1947. He was then a priest on the staff of St Faith's Mission in the city. He
invited me as a young nobody to preach to the people in his care. I was
touched by his warmth and trust in me. The fruit of Alphaeus's initiative was
the setting up of a fully non-racial Youth Council for Durban.
My next lively impression of him was watching him in action in Natal
diocesan synods. He spoke fairly often to raise matters which turned on the
need to alter Church structures to enable the Church to become more
consistent with its own faith. They seemed to me then to be contentious and
sensitive issues. I wondered how my elders and betters would respond,
because he focused on the root of things with what might be described as a
restrained vigour. I thought of him as a daring man confronting those with
whom, at that time, black people were still expected simply to agree. He was
evidently, and rightly, confident in the dignity which being a Christian bestows
upon us all.
Although I was not then aware of it, his assurance and dignity were teaching
me, a liberal in principle, to accept with my heart as well as my mind the
reality of our fellowship in Christ. I, and I believe others also, responded to
him because he was not peddling an ideological position but speaking with a
mind informed by the Spirit of God. What he had to say was evidently
consistent with the Christian faith. He had the capacity also to aim his words in
more than one direction, because he frequently also exhorted his own people
to stand up and grow in self-reliance and eschew the easy way of dependence.
He could do this with authenticity because he himself had struggled out of
poverty by seizing upon every opportunity within his grasp.
There was, of course, more to it than perseverance. I believe that one of the
most important experiences in his life may well have been sharing with Philip
Mbatha in the founding of the spiritual revival movement known in the
diocese of Zululand as Iviyo. It was a fellowship of Christians moved by the
Holy Spirit. Members of Iviyo expected not only to know about God but to
have a living relationship with Him. It was not surprising that its members
developed a strong evangelistic outreach which was unusual among
Anglicans. All-night Iviyo meetings for prayer were frowned upon and firmly
discouraged by white bishops and missionaries and also some of the senior
black clergy, but produced priests and religious sisters with an unusual depth
of spiritual perception and dedication to the Lord they knew.
A remarkable feature of the tributes to Alphaeus Zulu at his funeral was
their unanimity about his remarkable gifts of wisdom. This was not simply an
94 Obituaries

innate wisdom. The scribes said of Jesus, 'How is it that this man has learning,
when He has never studied?' So Jesus answered them, 'My teaching is not
mine, but His who sent me; If any man's will is to do His will he shall know
whether the teaching is from God ... ' (J n 7: 15-17). Of course Alphaeus Zulu
had learning, but wisdom comes from another source. It is a gift of God to
those whose will is to do His will .
It is my hope to convey as much as I can of what I have seen and heard
myself of Alphaeus Zulu. We were both at different times consecrated bishops
by Archbishop Joost de Blank. We lived at a time when in South African
Anglicanism 'bishop' was spelled in two ways. One was Oxford and the other
Cambridge! We were the first of a new breed. I was a Colonial and Alphaeus
was a Native. The life of the Church is lived in a world which only too easily
seduces it with its false values, and so I, an inexperienced priest of forty,
became a diocesan bishop in 1957, and three years later the Native priest at 55
with far greater experience and natural gifts was consecrated only as a

Bishop Alphaeus Zulu.

(Photograph: Africa Enterprise)
Obituaries 95

suffragan Bishop. The important thing was, however, that Alphaeus now had
a seat on the episcopal synod. In 1968 he was elected Bishop of Zululand.
With a warm and sensitive spirit and a joyful sense of humour, Alphaeus
very soon made a contribution to decision-making. It was here that his wisdom
became evident to me. He discerned the real issue involved in a contentious
matter and with rare insight penetrated to the nub of it. But what is more, in a
homely fashion he would set before us the best way to proceed, leaving little
more to be said and an impression that a wise decision had been made. I do
not think I have known a man with greater gifts of wisdom.
He was first and foremost loyal to his Lord and because of that he was also
faithful in seeking to keep the Church obedient as a sign of the Kingdom of
God. He was not therefore in bondage to ecclesiastical systems. He was free to
serve the King wherever he was. This was why he could feel at home in
another environment, serving with distinction as Speaker of the KwaZulu
Legislative Assembly, Director of the KwaZulu Development
Corporation, and chairman of a variety of other corporations.
The Church required his resignation as a bishop when he reached 70, but for
another 13 years this man of God invested his time and energy in serving his
nation. This second vocation one must suppose to have been what was
intended for him and the Zulu people, and who am I to complain? There
nevertheless remains a sadness in me that when an Archbishop had to be
elected in 1974 the rules of the Church effectively ruled out his election. We
now know he had another dozen years to go, and what an incomparable
metropolitan he would have made!
Every church has to strive for unity in Christ. It was evident to Alphaeus
that Anglicans needed to find it. It is not altogether surprising then that he had
a strong ecumenical bent. The Kingdom of God he served has no boundaries,
and those erected by denominations are not His. Perhaps it was for this reason
that he was sent to represent South African Anglicans at the New Delhi World
Council Assembly in 1961. We shared again the WCC experience at Uppsala
in 1968. Here I saw him take his rightful place in the ecumenical movement as
he stepped into an international role as one of the presidents of the World
Council. As he did so he entered upon one of the most difficult experiences of
his life, enduring very painful pressures.
Alphaeus enjoyed a close relationship with Chief Albert Luthuli which
strengthened his conviction that the problems of our country could not be
resolved except by peaceful methods. In the meantime the WCC executive
following Uppsala resolved to proceed with a 'programme to combat racism'
which included the provision offinancial aid to liberation movements and thus
implicitly gave its support to organizations espousing violence. This was not
acceptable to him and he had no alternative but to absent himself from the
WCC Assembly in Nairobi in 1975.
Alphaeus has been criticised for his decision. The fact is it was consistent
with his stated principles, but what is more it was also consistent with the
CPSA Provincial Synod resolution of 1970 which criticized the WCC decision
'in that it fails to distinguish unambiguously between the mission of Christ,
who rejected the use of military force in establishing the Kingdom of God on
earth, and who is betrayed by His Church when it acts differently'. The
resolution goes on to say that a Christian is nevertheless free to act as his
conscience dictates, either in upholding the law and order or, in carefully
96 Obituaries

defined circumstances, in oppposing injustice (Acts and Resolutions of the

Twentieth Session ofthe Provincial Synod 1970).
Alphaeus Zulu fought a lonely battle within the WCC hierarchy against the
use of the Church as a political tool, for he saw clearly the implications of
funds being raised for liberation movements, because there were already
means through Inter-Church Aid and World Service to meet humanitarian
needs. Though he desired with all his heart and strength to see his people
restored to freedom in their own land, his ultimate loyalty was to his Lord and,
therefore, his presidential chair remained vacant at the 1975 Nairobi
Assembly, where he had been expected to play a significant role.
It is significant that he turned from the WCC and broke his relationship with
the ANC in the same year. Now he turned his energies to the struggle for the
peaceful transformation of our crippled society. He remained a godly political
pragmatist, as I believe all Christians must be, for there are no definitive
solutions to political problems. The attempt to give divine sanction to political
ideals he knew to be the way to jihad but not to the Kingdom of God.
So he accepted the national Chairmanship of Inkatha and became a
member and Speaker of the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly, and a constant
supporter of his kinsman the Chief Minister of KwaZulu.
What treasures await South Africa when her peoples are free to offer
themselves up to her in the liberty of the sons of God! This man, Alphaeus
Zulu whom my soul loved, is a sign to us to the steadfast Rock on which our
nation can be built.
B.B. BURNETT

ChristoffeZ (StoffeZ) lohannes

MichaeZ Nienaber (1918-1988)
To the profound sorrow and regret of his family, friends, colleagues and a
great many former students, Stoffel Nienaber died at his home in
Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, 3 April 1988, after a long illness.
During his more than 30 years' service at the University of Natal, Stoffel
Nienaber - first as Lecturer, then as Senior Lecturer and from 1969 to his
retirement in 1983, Professor and Head of Afrikaans and Nederlands in
Pietermaritzburg and then Professor Emeritus - was the driving force behind
a very efficient and happy department. His enthusiasm, dedication and benign
despotism will be long remembered by his former colleagues and students.
As a mercurial and spell-binding lecturer, Professor Nienaber never bored
his students. His belief that a lecturer should never think for his students, but
rather should stimulate them to think, made him the inspiring lecturer he was.
The fact that all his students called him 'Oom Stoffel' , is an indication of his
humane and personal way of relating to them. He earned their respect and
love by never judging them only abstractly in terms of marks and other
'academic' measures, but also according to their circumstances and personal
abilities. He had great sympathy for the underprivileged and otherwise
handicapped student.
He was also highly esteemed by all his colleagues as an academic, an
Obituaries 97

Professor 'Stoffel' Nienaber.

(Photograph: Natal Witness)

administrator and as a person. His humour and tactful negotiating are

remembered with affection by them.
As a community man, Stoffel Nienaber contributed enthusiastically to the
furtherance of the educational and cultural development of Pietermaritzburg.
In appreciation of his devotion in this regard, the Stoffel Nienaber-saal at
Voortrekker Primary School and the Stoffel Nienaber-Iokaal at the University
of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, were named after him.
To his friends Stoffel Nienaber was an entertaining and widely-read
conversationalist. But most of all he will be remembered for his unstinting
assistance and support to friends in need.
Because of his wide intellectual background, he was a stimulating mentor to
his two daughters , Marianne and Chrissie. At bedrock, however, he was the
typical loving and caring father who worried deeply when he thought they
were adversely affected.
With his intellectual partner, his wife Professor Miep Nienaber-Luitingh
(erstwhile colleague in his department) he had a mutually enriching
relationship. As he once jokingly said: 'She is my mistress, my wife, my
colleague , my intellectual alter-ego, my best critic and sometimes my mother
too.'
98 Obituaries

To Joseph and Beauty, his gardener and housekeeper, Stoffel was an

understanding and sympathetic employer who often lent a helping hand in
times of need. They remember him with affection. Both are still in the service
of his widow, the former having served the family for more than 20 years.
As one of the leading academics within the Afrikaans literary world, Stoffel
Nienaber distinguished himself as a researcher and literary essayist. His
critical exactness, complemented by his beautifully fluid and lucid prose, is
reflected in his numerous books, articles and essays. He also served on the
committees, councils and boards of various cultural and academic institutions.
During the years 1938 to 1941 he obtained his BA, HED and MA at the
University of Natal and in 1950 his Drs. Litt. at the Gemeentelijke
Universiteit of Amsterdam. In 1952 he received his D.Litt. at the University
of Pretoria. It is interesting to note that during the harsh depression years he
attended a farm school at Koedoesrand in the district of Fauresmith, and
completed his schooling at Boshof Secondary School.
In Stoffel Nienaber, Natal has lost one of her talented academic and cultural
leaders. We salute him for his contribution to this province, the University of
Natal and his fellow-man.
H.J. VERMEULEN
 99

Notes and Queries

Filling in the 'Missing Decades': A letter from Elizabeth Chaundy
William Bizley's 'Missing Decades' article in the last issue of Natalia has
aroused considerable interest, and indeed helped the present number of Notes
and Queries to perform its proper function as a forum for responses,
questions, and comment from readers. Elizabeth Chaundy, who was born at
Willowfountain, was educated in Pietermaritzburg and lived there in the
period 1920 to 1940, was reminded of several things which Dr Bizley might
have found interesting.
She recalls how, during the locust invasion of the 'thirties, the tram on
which she was travelling to write her Preparatory School Certificate
examination slid off the rails at the corner of New England Road and King
Edward Avenue. Trams also feature in her recollections ofMr Alexander the
blacksmith, who was mentioned in the Bizley article:
He was a great scholar and could quote Milton's Paradise Regained at
length, as well as the poems of Burns and lyrics of Waiter Scott in that
beautiful voice - he came from Inverness where it is reputed the best
English is spoken. He and his beautiful wife were great friends of my
parents and often visited us on Sunday afternoons - having walked up
from the tram stop at the corner of King Edward Avenue and Durban
Road to Ridge Road - Mr Alexander always elegant in a Fuji silk suit
and panama hat. Their good looks were inherited by their beautiful
daughter Mrs George Kirby, wife of the kind and expert optician and
jeweller who expertly prescribed as well as dispensed glasses.
Then there were the orchard parties of dear old Mr Waiter Shores at
Woodside - or was it Woodlands? (on the corner of Ridge and Durban
Roads) when he used to invite the children of his friends to help
themselves to his fruit crop ... And what about the dairies run by the
Misses Stalker at New England, Miss Cundell of Ridge Road, and Mr
D.A.Drummond at Vicdene?
Dr Bizley mentioned Prince Edward's visit, 'but not the great ga~hering of
all the Zulu clans and dancers and impis for the demonstration of the various
types of dancing when the Zulu chiefs gathered to be presented to him and do
him homage.' Elizabeth Chaundy recalls, too, how black youths and men who
had domestic employment in the town used to jog along Durban Road out to
Table Mountain 'location' on Saturday afternoons, playing all manner of
musical instruments as they went - concertinas, guitars, ukeleles, fiddles,
jews' harps and fleetjies.
The Governors General regularly visited the capital at the time of the Royal
Show before going down to Durban for the 'July'. 'Princess Alice loved the
100 Notes and Queries

Show and was an expert judge of Shorthorn cattle, and the Earl of Clarendon
opened the "New" Hall at St John's on one such visit'. And there were grand
social events:
The Administrator's Receptions and Balls in the Town Hall with
dancing to Bobby Juul's band, also the Old Collegians' Ball and the
Hilton-Michaelhouse Old Boys' Balls - the men wore white ties and
waistcoats and tails, and we wore beautiful dresses and white gloves and
had programmes with attached gilt pencils. Preparations for these balls
were the ballroom dancing classes of Miss Oaphne Arbuckle. They were
held in the Oddfellows' Hall, or the Creamery, or Buchanan's. Then
there was also the annual South African Polo Championship
Tournament, held near Bishopstowe, and the Polo Ball.
There were also tennis tournaments, both for the club players at Kershaw
Park and for the amateurs who merely played garden party tennis. Elizabeth
Chaundy wonders whether the schoolboys still go regularly every Saturday
afternoon to watch their heroes perform at Woodburn, and she will be
disappointed, perhaps, to learn that some of the great cricket clubs that she
remembers - Marist Old Boys, Old Collegians, Zingari. and Wasp
Wanderers- no longer contest the senior league championships.
In thanking Or Bizley 'for the nostalgic pleasure his collage has given me',
she suggests that the creation of the Bird Sanctuary and the establishment (on
the initiative of Mr Allison) of the King George V and Queen Mary Homes to
celebrate the king's Jubilee were worthy of mention.

Marjorie Clark
Or Bizley has himself supplied a supplement to his article: a further
investigation of the remarkable athletic exploits of Marjorie Clark. He writes
as follows:
In the article on Pietermaritzburg's 'missing decades' which appeared
in the last Natalia, I mentioned how Maritzburg was written onto the
international map by the efforts of a young girl just out of school,
Marjorie Clark. I have been prompted by the astounding nature of this
story to enquire after Marjorie Clark, and - after a little detective work
- was delighted to find myself chatting to a spry, twinkling-eyed
Marjorie Smith (as she now is) who, in her seventy-ninth year, still
knocks off a good game of tennis and can remember every detail of her
amazing career.
Marjorie represented South Africa on three remarkable world trips,
England, Amsterdam (Olympics) and Berlin in 1928, England, Los
Angeles (Olympics) and San Francisco in 1932, and the British Empire
Games in 1934, and on each occasion she either beat or equalled the
world record in hurdles and high jump. From 1933 she held, for three
years, the South African record in hurdles, high jump, and 100 yards and
220 yards sprint. In fact, if I might single out the most astonishing fact of
her career in athletics, it was that when, as a girl of eighteen, she first
arrived in Europe to represent South Africa, she had never run a hurdles
event, had never trained for hurdles or even thought that she would ever
compete in hurdles (which in any case did not at that stage feature in
women's athletics in South Africa). And yet, a few days later, she had
broken the world record in women's hurdles!
Notes and Queries 101

How did it happen? Marjorie had spent the long mailboat trip
exercising for the high jump, for which she was entered in the 1928
British Amateur Athletics meeting, the 'curtain-raiser' to the
Amsterdam Olympics. But when she got to London she found that, by
sheer administrative error, she was entered for hurdles. But then, in a
moment of inspiration, the girl who vaulted the barbed-wire fences on
her father's farm begged not to be scratched from the event. The SA
hurdler Sid Atkinson (from Durban) set up three hurdles for her to
practise, little knowing that he was thereby promoting a stunning feat. A
few days later in the heats, Marjorie broke both the world hurdling
record and the world high jump record on the same day, and indeed went
on to equal both records in the finals. Five foot three inches for the high
jump has certainly been surpassed in contemporary records, but it must
be remembered that high jump was then done in the 'scissors' style,
where the head must clear the bar higher than the posterior, and not the
modern 'cut-off' style, which, when it was eventually permitted, added
several inches to international records.
In 1928 Marjorie was so fresh out of school that she had not yet
attained her full height. When her mother heard (on one of the few
functioning wirelesses in Maritzburg) that the 'little South African girl'
had broken the world hurdling record, she confidently told fellow
listeners that that couldn't be Marjorie, as she was not even entered for
the event. The 'little South African' must have been a great favourite
with the British Empire team, being chosen to lead the procession that
was congratulated person by person by the Prince of Wales. After the
Olympics in Amsterdam (where, because she was a Natal girl, the heat
wave that Amsterdam suffered on 'high jump' day didn't affect her
triumph) she continued in winning form in the 'Empire versus the rest of
the World' athletics match in Berlin.
It seems that no one was more surprised than Marjorie herself when
she returned to Pietermaritzburg, loaded with trophies. After all, she
was entirely self-trained in high jump, and women's hurdles was, as we
have seen, over here, a 'non-event'. (In fact, it was Marjorie's success
that now brought it in as a standard item in the athletics 'menu'.) But
more than that - athletics had always been a fourth or, at best, third
string for the sport-loving Marjorie. Even the fact that the girl from the
'Commercial School' (now Russell High) had won her first athletics
contest at the age of thirteen did not really change her sporting
priorities. She was then so small that in the 3-mile race (from the Show
Ground to the polo fields) supporters shouted out to her not to go so
fast, else she would 'burn herself out' in a few hundred yards.
Fortunately, the little figure in gym dress and school stockings took no
notice. After all, she ran home from school to the farm at New England
every day, and she well knew her capacity. (To the annoyance of
brothers and sisters, Marjorie's early arrival back from school meant
that they were often accused of dawdling!) It was an astonishing win, but
athletics was not necessarily where the fun was - in fact Marjorie first
represented Maritzburg at such unlikely sports as roller-skating and
women's cricket - which seems to have been very prevalent in the
'twenties and 'thirties - before she represented it at competitive
athletics. Then the bomb burst: at the age of 17 she calmly broke the
102 Notes and Queries

world's record for high jump in Durban with a height of 5 feet H inches.
Marjorie obviously always had a very balanced view of a sporting
career, and indeed she doubts that she would have been happy with the
tortuous intensity that characterizes international athletics today. Firmly
placed in the 'British Empire' team that went to the West Coast of
America in 1932, she could watch the English squad being trained by
Harold Abrahams, of 'Chariots of Fire' fame. Even under someone as
committed as Abrahams, the 'drill' was not more than one hour a day
training, and that for not more than five days a week. This was the era of
all-rounders in sport: there was time in hand to see the sights, which
Marjorie, with friends and relatives in England, was only too pleased to
do.
The American tour was a highlight, even though she didn't book a win
at the Olympics at Los Angeles. That was amply made up for in an
Empire versus USA match in San Francisco, where Marjorie again took
the honours. But the whole trip was memorable - the team crossed the
Atlantic on the Empress of Britain and landed in Quebec. Training was
always possible on ocean voyages, but not on the arduous eight day train
trip across North America. Marjorie remembers to this day those
welcome ice-creams that, station after station (the 'special' was stopped
for every scheduled train) eased the ordeal. Athletes were given 3/9 a
day pocket money in England, but had a raise to 7/6 a day for North
America. But it was discovered that, in America, 7/6 only covered the
cost of a bath on the train, and it was a delicate matter whether to opt for
hygiene or for wealth.
Crossing the great wide world, one might well wonder how 'innocent'
international athletes were in those days. 'No drugs!' says Marjorie, but
it was an era when, before official sex-tests, gentlemanly protocol was
sometimes strained by apparent aberrations. Marjorie remembers with a
giggle a certain female athlete who subsequently made a very good
father. And she recounts the notorious case of 'Stella Walsh', who
continued under that appellation for forty years before her true sex was
discovered on the mortuary table!
The Los Angeles Olympics was the scene for a mixture of hard work
and relaxed enjoyment, and a memorable second place in the women's
hurdles. Almost as memorable as the contest was an air flip over
Hollywood at night, with Gary Cooper one of the six passengers! That
was 1932 - in 1934 she again won hurdles and high jump for the Empire
team, and it wasn't until 1936 that she forsook her globe-trotting life and
settled down to marriage (with the Natal cricketer Frank Smith, now a
sprightly 86. 'I always lost my matches' he sighs. 'She always won hers').
Marjorie is the last person to bemoan the advance in competitive
techniques, but she did nevertheless discover, as the mother of a six-year
old, that she could outpace the current South African hurdles champion
(whom she was coaching) by using one of the new concrete starting­
blocks to press against instead of the 'ash-hole' you dug for yourself
when races were still held on ash tracks. She also feels, in retrospect,
that the changed rule that permitted the 'cut-off' type of high jump might
have given an inch or more to her record. And of course the modern
light-weight hurdles would have taken some of the risk out of hurdling.
It took two men to set up one of those old-fashioned hurdles used in the
Notes and Queries 103

Marjorie Smith (nee Clark) as she is today.

(Photograph: w.H. Bizley)

'twenties and 'thirties: a misjudged leap could lead to a broken leg! No

wonder it was a 'foul' to knock one during the race, as it isn't today.
But that by the way - Marjorie still takes a great interest in the
progress of athletics, and I caught her just a few days before she was due
to watch her granddaughter doing hurdles at a school sports meeting­
'the only one there', she told me with a wink, 'who has the proper
hurdling style'. So Grandmother is still influential ...

Maritzburg College
T.B.Frost has commented in his Editorial on the unusual number of
arithmetically significant anniversaries marked during 1988, and he has
himself provided a Note on the commemorative celebrations of one of Natal's
best-known schools.
Maritzburg College was the first of Natal's government high schools to
reach its centenary in 1963. A quarter of a century later it has celebrated
the next milestone with a series of events spaced throughout the year:
the unveiling of plaques commemorating its former homes in
Longmarket and Loop Streets, a cocktail party for ex-members of staff,
a garden party, a grand ball and a Service of Thanksgiving at which the
Bishop of Natal, an Old Boy of 1951 vintage, officiated and preached.
On that occasion Alan Paton, perhaps the school's most famous Old Boy
read the lesson, taken from the Beatitudes, in a strong voice. Many were
moved by an almost eerie feeling that he was well-nigh the embodiment
104 Notes and Queries

of the words he spoke. It was to be almost his last public appearance.

Within six weeks he was dead.
August 1988 was also the centenary of the occupation of Clark House.
That occasion was marked by the unveiling of another plaque and the
presentation of a Son et Lumiere production (scripted, incidentally, by a
member of the Natalia editorial board). While the usual rugby matches
against the school's traditional rivals continued, a game against
Hermannsburg commemorated the first rugby match ever played by the
former Pieterrnaritzburg High School in 1870.
The school was also honoured by the granting of the freedom of the
city of Pietermaritzburg to its Cadet Detachment, while a splendid new
History of the school not only brought that of Kent up to date, but set
high standards in entertaining reading.
The 125th Anniversary Celebrations concluded with special
Remembrance Day ceremonies which commemorated not only the
many former pupils who gave their lives pro patria in various wars, but
also two of the early Headmasters who lie buried in the old Commercial
Road cemetery - J ames F order and R.D. Clark.

Cinnabar in Natal and Zululand

A.R. Willcox, writing from Winterton, has put together an interesting
collation of information regarding reports of cinnabar in Natal and Zululand.
Cinnabar, or mercury sulphide, is the prime source of commercial mercury
and is at once extremely rare and extraordinarily valuable. Because of its
orange-red (vermilion) colour it has been used for a pigment in both paints
and cosmetics, and during the eighteenth century it was widely used in
theatrical make-up in Europe.
It is in both these forms that cinnabar has reportedly been found and used in
Natal and Zululand. Mr WiIlcox quotes from a letter headed 'An old colonist's
yarn' written by one S. Herring to the late Dr Killie Campbell in 1942:
About seventy years ago my brother was a very well-known big game
hunter in Zululand, and was persona grata with the then chief of the
Zulus. During one of his expeditions there he found the chief was in a
very despondent frame of mind. His wives, who were many, were
suffering, at least the younger ones were, of a mysterious illness which
was causing amongst them deafness, loss of teeth, skin troubles and
death. The isanuzi had been called in, and a large number of men, and
women too, had been put to death as being the cause of the sickness; but
it continued, and injury and death were still occurring amongst his wives,
but amongst no one else. My brother made very exhaustive enquiries
and discovered as follows:
About a year previously, after a heavy rainstorm, some natives
discovered that an outcrop of a brilliant scarlet rock had been exposed
by the storm. They had taken pieces of this rock to the chief, who
showed it to his wives. They were very struck with the brilliant colour,
and they decided that it should be powdered and used as a decorative
pigment exclusively by the royal women. The chief at once gave
instructions that the rock should be used by his wives only. My brother,
no metallurgist, was curious about this pigment, and asked for a sample
of it. He brought it to Durban, and had it assayed. It was found to be
cinnabar, and very rich at that. A most poisonous substance to be
Notes and Queries 105

brought into contact with the bare skin; and one which would cause all
the ills from which the royal women were suffering.
He returned to Zululand and reported the result of his investigations
to the chief, who at once gave instructions for the use of the pigment to
be discontinued. Further that the outcrop of rock was covered up with
large quantities of stone, and that any person using it, or disclosing
where it is to be found, should suffer a most painful death. No further
illness occurred amongst the Chief's wives.
It is evident that mercury, today immensely valuable, is existent in
Zululand, but the present chief Mayeso is as reluctant as his
predecessors to disclose its position.
Mr Willcox suggests that the episode recounted by Herring in 1942 was
possibly the source of a similar account recorded by A.T. Bryant in his 1948
publication The Zulu People, but he notes that Herring's incident would have
occurred in about 1869, while Bryant has the cinnabar found during King
Shaka's reign, and in a pit.
Pit or outcrop, the rumours of cinnabar deposits in Zululand, their exact
location kept secret by royal decree, have been persistent. Mr Will cox
pursued them, and discovered that they had been of sufficient interest to the
Mining Corporation for a brief exploration to be conducted in river valleys to
the north-west of the Ntumeni Sugar Mill in 1981. The romance of the
colonials' camp fire was dampened by the industrialists' prosaic
pronouncement that 'no mercury (Hg) mineralization was found'. Even so,
some of the symptoms described by Herring's brother are amongst those
typical of mercury poisoning.

The 'Great Drakensberg Cinnabar Rush'

Mr Willcox's interest in cinnabar dates from the 1940s, when he was doing
fieldwork in the Natal Drakensberg to locate, photograph, and study
Bushman paintings. Vermilion was found in a few, very rare, paintings, and
there was a suggestion that cinnabar might be the source of the pigment. As he
writes:
The rock paintings could theoretically have been used to locate
approximately the cinnabar 'mine' by plotting all cases of the use of
vermilion on a map, and noting where they were thickest. The use of
Bushman paintings as a means of prospecting was a novel idea which
appealed to me, but the vermilion paintings were too few, and too
dispersed, to give a strong indication.
The rumours of cinnabar in the Drakensberg intrigued Mr Willcox just as
the rumours of cinnabar in Zululand fascinated others, and he has collected a
fund of information which is nearly as rare as the mineral itself. One of his
informants was the late Albert van der Riet of the Cathedral Peak Hotel, who
recalled an early expedition to find the fabled stuff.
At the time - around 1914 - Albert van der Riet was a boy of about 14.
An African had told Otto Zunckel, another well-known hotelier, that he knew
where a red pigment, greatly prized by the Zulus, was to be found in the Berg.
Although it was known that the source of the red generally used by Bushman
artists was haematite, an oxide of iron, it was assumed that the reported
pigment must be cinnabar. A syndicate, including Zunckel, Phillip van der
106 Notes and Queries

Riet, and the medical doctor, A.L. Wilson of Underberg, was formed and
given legal status by an Estcourt attorney, Mr Radcliffe.
The young Albert van der Riet accompanied the party which followed their
African guide on horseback up the valley of the Nkosisana stream, a tributary
of the Mshlwasine, about halfway between Cathedral Peak and Champagne
Castle. A large area was searched, but no cinnabar was found. Undeterred,
the syndicate arranged for a prospector to investigate further. A man named
de Vries camped near the alleged cinnabar deposit for many months. He sank
holes and claimed to have found particles of mercury.
So began the Great Drakensberg Cinnabar Rush. Mr van der Riet's
memory of the details had faded by the time he spoke to Mr Willcox in 1986,
but a report of the Department of Mines and Industries for the year 1920
stated:
Wild tales were spread of a spring of mercury in the Drakensberg in the
vicinity of Bergville, and a large number of claims were pegged on the
strength of the rumours. No cinnabar was found and, needless to say,
nothing came out of the reported discovery.
The late Dr Wilson himself told Mr Willcox that his own interest in the
syndicate had waned after he had been taken far into the Berg to be shown the
'mercury mine'. He was told to put his ear to a bank so as to 'hear the mercury
dripping', but he was a keen enough amateur archaeologist to know that this
was an impossibility, and lost all confidence in the report. In 1932, however,
excitement was rekindled when an African brought a small piece of reddish
material to Rex Stockil. It was sent to the Natal Museum, where E.C. Chubb
is said to have identified it as cinnabar, and a second 'rush' ensued. In its
Annual Report for 1936, the Office of Natal's Inspector of Mines noted:
Scarcely a year passes without some claims being pegged for cinnabar
and last year was no exception ... Twenty four claims are noted near the
foot of the Drakensberg about 7 miles South East of Cathkin Peak.
The first expedition to the new site, consisting of Arthur Stockil, B.J. van
Zuydam, Garret Mortimer and Neville Barrow, was clearly hoaxed when one
of the party (never identified) took some mercury along with him and planted
it as a practical joke. Nonetheless, a syndicate was again formed to exploit the
find, and the African and European Investment Company took an option on
the property. It was said that some 20 Ibs of cinnabar had been extracted from
three different places, but the sources were unreliable and no trace of a
'mother vein' was found. Samples of the 'mineral' were sent to the
Government Mineralogist and to a manufacturing chemist in England, and
were found to be similar to the synthetic variety readily available from
druggists in Natal. It was some time, however, before the optimistic
prospectors gave up hope.
Albert van der Riet, together with others, was meanwhile led on another
expedition, this time to a site near Empangeni. His guide was perhaps the
same African, a traditional healer described then as a 'witch doctor', who had
brought the sample to Stockil. The small quantity of 'cinnabar' which they
recovered again proved to be synthetic, and they also found a pointed stick
which they guessed had been used to make holes for the 'salting'.
Thus ended the 'Great Drakensberg Cinnabar Rush' - a flurry of activity
that was never on the scale of the gold rushes that have excited prospectors
Notes and Queries 107

elsewhere, but which left its mark in claims pegs that according to Mr Will cox
were still to be seen quite recently. Cinnabar has been mined in South Africa,
with the Murchison Range in the Transvaal yielding small quantities, ~ut it
seems highly unlikely that it ever did occur naturally in Natal or Zululand.
Perhaps the Zulu women of Mr Herring's tale had got hold of a quantity of
imported cinnabar, or perhaps there is some other explanation for their
strange sickness.
It is perhaps as well that the region has not proved rich in cinnabar. The
effects of mercury poisoning are, as Dr Joy Brain has confirmed for us,
particularly nasty: dyspepsia, anaemia, wasting, looseness of teeth, foulness
of breath, tenderness of gums, colitis, skin rashes, tremor, drowsiness, loss of
memory, and madness. Mr Willcox adds a final interesting note: those
symptoms were familiar to Victorian Britons. Mercury was widely used in the
making of felt, and felt in the making of hats. Hence the extraordinary
behaviour of the Hatter whom young Alice encountered in her wanderings
through Lewis Carroll's Wonderland.

The Natal Midlands Bird Club

The Natal Bird Club has long had a sizeable membership in the Midlands. In
recent times the Pietermaritzburg section of the Club has found itself
functioning independently of the Durban group, and early in 1988 it decided
to establish its separate identity. The Natal Midlands Bird Club was therefore
instituted as, in the words of Mr Gordon Bennet's editorial to the club's first
newsletter, 'a fully-fledged branch' of the SA Ornithological Society. The
proverbial tendency of feathered things to seek the company of their own kind
applies also to their human admirers. Membership of the two Natal clubs is
not circumscribed by geographical boundaries: Midlands people may still
choose to join the Durban-based club, just as coast-dwellers may join the
Midlanders. Indeed, members can maintain links with both branches, which
work collaboratively. The new branch may be contacted at Box 10502,
Scottsville, 3209.
An interesting comment in that same first issue of the NMBC Newsletter is
that while bird clubs know no boundaries, birds themselves apparently do.
Writing about differences in the bird life between one Pietermaritzburg
suburb and another, Jeff Huntly remarks that 'they seem to stick to certain
areas almost as though confined there by invisible barriers although the
habitat does not appear all that different'. Mr Huntly's observations seem to
have been casual rather than a matter of scientific research, and it would be
interesting to know whether the same is true of other Natal towns, and
whether suburban cliqueishness is indeed a characteristic of birds.

Trains: The Alfred County Railway

The time has not yet come (thankfully) when precocious infants inform their
doting parents that 'choo-choo' is not an appropriate synonym for 'train', but
that evil day cannot be far off. Trains today do not chuff. They whine, or hum,
or howl, or chug, or just make a deafening diesel-fumed racket. In fact, at the
rate that SATS are doing away with train services, the word that one most
readily associates with 'train' will soon be ghost. During 1988, the last
passenger train to run from Pietermaritzburg as a terminus pulled out of the
station and rumbled away into oblivion.
Fortunately for the rising generation, the steam locomotive is too resilient a
108 Notes and Queries

beast to be altogether obliterated by dull-spirited officialdom, and the

government's new readiness to privatize services hitherto run by the state has
provided opportunities for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the seemingly
endless appeal of steam power. After SATS closed the Port Shepstone to
Harding narrow gauge branch line in October 1986, the line was leased to the
Port Shepstone and Alfred County Railway Company Limited, which began
regular operations as the country's first privatized railway on 4 December
1987. Natalia's editor is a shareholder in the ACR, and the company's
souvenir booklet contains a concise synopsis of the history and present
activities of the railway.
The line was originally known as the Alfred County Railway Extension.
The broad gauge railway from Durban reached the north bank of the
Umzimkulu River in 1901 and was taken across to Port Shepstone in 1907. It
was soon realized that an extension into the interior was needed, and in 1909
the decision was taken to push a narrow gauge line through the 122km of
rugged countryside to Harding. The first section, to Murchison Flats, was
opened in 1911, with the first train arriving at the farm The Paddock at noon
on November 7th. Tzingolweni was reached in 1915 and Harding in 1917.
lzotsha, which was close to the main road, became a major staging point for
passengers heading further south. Having come down from Durban on the
broad gauge, they would take the branch line to Izotsha and there meet bus
transport to Margate and Port Edward. The line's main source of revenue,
however, was freight: timber, wattle bark, and mixed farm produce - which
included bananas - and, later, sugar cane. By the mid-1980s the Alfred
County Extension was, like many of South Africa's other branch lines,
deemed to be uneconomical and closed. At this point concerned and
interested individuals in Harding set about saving the railway. A public share
issue launched early in 1988 attracted considerable support, and the Port
Shepstone and Alfred County Railway now runs regular services.
Perhaps not surpisingly, the 'flagship' of the revived line has been named
the 'Banana Express'. Two schedules operate: a two-and-a-half hour round
trip to Izotsha and a six hour round trip for a picnic lunch at Paddock.
Originally the line was worked by 4-6-2 tank engines, but the 'Banana
Express' is hauled by an NG G16 class Garratt. Constructed by Hunslet­
Taylor in Germiston in 1968, Number 156 was the last Garratt to be built in
the world and the last steam engine to be acquired by the SAR. Rolling stock
includes three Natal Government Railways coaches dating from 1907 and a
sleeping car built in 1937 for the Tsumeb line in the then South West Africa. Tn
addition to carrying passengers, the ACR operates freight services through to
the Harding area, and the company observes proudly that it can handle the
standard modern shipping container on its historic little train. The ACR has
plans to acquire more engines and enlarge its rolling stock, as well as to
develop Paddock Station, already a national monument, as a lively museum of
narrow gauge railways in the region.

More Trains: The Shongweni Dam Railway

A second small railway to attract attention during the past year has been the
narrow gauge line built in the 1920s to transport materials to the site of the
new Vernon Hooper (or Shongweni) Dam. After a very brief working life, the
line was abandoned, and, were it not for the determined investigations of
members of the Railway Society of South Africa, might have become food for
Notes and Queries 109

No. 16129 at work on the Shongweni Line.

(Photograph: Local History Museum)

archaeology rather than history. Mr Terry Hutson, editor of the Society's

journal, has kindly given us permission to reproduce paraphrased extracts and
photographs from his own article in the March-April 1988 issue of SA Rail
(Volume 28, number 2), and has supplied some additional material and
corrections to that article.
By the end of the First World War, Durban had outgrown its water
supply, and a new dam was planned. The site chosen for the new dam
was at the confluence of the Umlaas and Sterkspruit Rivers and the
smaller Ngede Stream (this latter provides that very beautiful waterfall
between Shongweni and Delville Wood tunnels). At the time when
earthworks were started, the deviation (still referred to today as the
'new' main line) between Rossburgh and Cato Ridge via Mariannhill
and Shongweni had not yet been opened, and a farmer named Fregona
was contracted to cart materials for the dam from Hillcrest by ox-wagon.
Once the main line was in operation, goods could be brought by rail to
Delville Wood station, and the narrow gauge branch line took them
down to the dam site.
The surrounding countryside can only be described as rough, and access
to the site was one of the more difficult problems which faced the
construction crew ... A 4! mile (7 km) track of 2 ft. gauge was cut
between Delville Wood station and the dam site, following contours cut
into the mountainside. Although it hasn't been possible to obtain
gradient figures, it seems likely that 1 in 30 was the norm in places ... A
2 ft. gauge siding was built at Delville Wood station, with the track
entering the station from the south-east side. A shed was constructed for
storing materials [alum] brought to Delville Wood by the SAR, whilst a
similar shed constructed at the dam site accepted the materials brought
110 Notes and Queries

down by the narrow gauge. Beyond this shed a corrugated iron shed was
built to house the loco and for effecting repairs where necessary.
In 1923 an order was placed with John Fowler & Co for supply of a steam
locomotive, with wheel arrangement of 0-4-0WT. The locomotive, which cost
£747.17.5, arrived at Shongweni in February 1924, but before its arrival a few
trucks had been hauled by a Ford Model T car, converted to run on rails. At
least nine flatbed trucks were built, seven of them apparently using cocopan
bogies and fitted with handbrakes. Official records list the trucks as being
intended to carry cement, but photographs show that they were used also to
transport the Lamer Johnson valves and most other materials for the dam.
With driver and fireman and brake men on the trucks, the train crew would
sometimes have been as large as eight. The driver was one D. Houston (who,
Mr Hutson notes, was incorrectly identified in the original article as 'Mr
Thomson').
Since writing the S.A. Rail article , Mr Hutson has been in contact with a Mr
Herbert Leslie Dawson, who worked on the site and produced a regular
newsletter there. In it, the roadway to the dam was referred to as 'Bona Vista
Terrace'. Each Sunday evening construction staff would be brought up by the
Johannesburg mail train to Delville Wood station, and taken down to the dam
site by the narrow gauge train . At the end of the week they would travel back
to Durban in the guard's van of any convenient passing train, or possibly by
car. Mr Dawson was himself married at Shongweni Dam on New Year's Day,
1925.
The resident engineer responsible for the dam construction was
Herbert Serridge, and on one occasion he entertained General Jan
Smuts, then Leader of the Opposition together with senior members of
the Borough Engineer's department. The locomotive provided a proud
background for photographs of the visitors, and show that Smuts, in his

General Smuts (centre) on a visit to the construction site of the Shongweni Dam.
(Photograph: Local History Museum)
Notes and Queries 111

favourite khaki garb, was a deal more sensibly attired for the excursion
into the hot and humid valley than were his hosts. The visit was probably
made in 1926, and the following year the dam was completed and the
railway fell into disuse. Most of the track and rolling stock were
variously disposed of, although the Umgeni Water Board still has two
rails, a set of points, and a truck which it intends to put on show at its
historical display. Apart from the overgrown remains of trackbed,
virtually nothing is left on the site of the line.
Fortunately, however, the locomotive itself has survived, and stands outside
the James Hall Transport Museum in Johannesburg on a plinth that gives little
clue to its origins and history. Otherwise anonymous, Fowler Engine No.
16129 aroused the curiosity of the young son of Bennet Smith, a Transvaal
member of the RSSA, and persistent enquiries eventually led the Society to
the Durban City Engineer's Department, which, fortuitously, had recently
passed its record of the railway over to the Durban Local History Museum.
Coincidentally, Natal member Des Eatwell, who had some time previously
come upon the old trackbed, was shown photographs of the engine. and Mr
Hutson acquired a list of Fowler locomotives which helped to trace No. 16129.
The history of the pretty little locomotive is by no means complete. From the
closure of the Shongweni line in 1927 until the Durban Corporation offered it
for sale in 1938 the record is blank. The Natal Steel and Cast Company bought
it - for £50 - in July 1940, and sold it to Metal Smelter and Machinery
Merchants in Johannesburg in 1941. In 1943 Pioneer Crushers bought it,
apparently for a narrow gauge line that was never built, and it seems to have
stayed in storage until it was made over to the Transport Museum. The full
account of the line and its rediscovery makes fascinating reading, and Mr
Hutson speculates that there may be yet other 'forgotten' railways waiting to
be found.

Still More Trains . ..

At about the time that the last edition of Natalia was being passed to the
printers, Natal was overwhelmed by the terrible 1987 floods. In scouring the
banks of the Umgeni River at Durban, the floodwaters exposed two pieces of
colonial rolling stock - a Natal Government Railways wagon of about 1906
and a Cape Government Railways vehicle of about 1900 - as well as a set of
wooden bridge supports which seemed much older. Mr G. Miller noted the
find in his editorial to the October/November 1987 issue of the Railway
Society's Natal Newsletter, and it would be interesting to discover more about
both the origins and the destiny of the two trucks .

. . . and a Station
Provided, of course, that subscribers to Natalia are not lured away, Notes and
Queries hopes that readers have now been alerted to the interest of the
material that lies within the pages of the journals put out by the Railway
Society of South Africa. The May-June 1988 edition of SA Rail/SA Spoor
carries a concise but detailed account, again written by Terry Hutson, of the
development of Durban's old station. Ever since the Durban-Point railway
was first mooted publicly in January 1859, the station has been a subject of
dispute. The original 'station' was no more than a simple timber platform on
piles, but a good deal of acrimonious and confused debate within and between
the Natal Railway Company, the Legislative Council, the Town Council and
112 Notes and Queries

the townsfolk preceded its erection. The point at issue was whether the station
should be on the Market Square (where the Company and Legislative Council
wanted it but the townsmen would not have it) or on Pine Terrace adjacent to
St Paul's Church. In the end, the Company put its platform on Pine Terrace.
and later erected a wood-and-iron building before being taken over by the
NGR. Town and Colonial governments clashed again over the building of the,
iron-roofed Platform Building that came in 1893, and when the double­
storeyed Head Office Building (first planned in 1886) had been completed in
1898, it was immediately found to be too small. When it was finally complete
in 1904, the building known as Durban Station was four storeys tall, and
architecturally controversial.
These are the bare bones of a comprehensive and very readable article
which can be found in Volume 28 Number 3 of SA Rail (May-June 1988), and
Natalia readers might well be able to supplement the information uncovered
by the Railway Society on a variety of matters relating to Natal.

Honour to the Portuguese Explorers

The photographs of the Natal Museum elsewhere in this edition of Natalia will
doubtless remind many readers of childhood visits to that place. Returning
visitors today would find quite remarkable changes. Not least of these might
be that the capital's major museum must be almost unique in that it has been
able to couple extended hours, and more informative and personal guidance
through the exhibits, with a reduction - to nothing! - of its admission
charges. Most impressive, however, would be the extraordinary vitality and
verisimilitude of the new, very accessible, exhibits. J .M.Deane, who serves
both Natalia and the Museum, has provided this Note on an important new
display.
To coincide with the national Dias Festival in March 1988, the Natal
Museum opened a new permanent exhibition on the Portuguese
discoveries and shipwrecks of the 15th and 16th centuries. It consists of a
very striking series of displays providing the visitor with a mUlti-sensory
experience. One stands in the dim 'tween decks of a galleon, or in the
brilliant light of a Zanzibari courtyard. There are replicas of old
navigational instruments - cross-staff, quadrant and astrolabe - to be
picked up and tried out. A model of the Dias caravel pitches realistically
on a choppy sea. A diorama shows the plight of the 500 castaways from
the Sao loao. Splintered timbers, frayed ropes, and a jagged intruding
rock illustrate graphically and tangibly how fragile those craft were.
Silver coins from the Santiago are seen - behind glass, these! - fused
into the shape of the bag that held them. And behind it all, the smell of
timber, pitch, rope and spices. Two original works of art were created
specially for this exhibition. At the entrance are three panels of hand­
painted tiles illustrating the voyage of Vasco da Gama. These are the
work, and the gift to the Museum, of traditional Portuguese ceramicist
Mr Gilberto Leal of Johannesburg. In another part of the exhibition is
the commissioned life-size bronze bust of Da Gama, by the Port
Elizabeth sculptor Philip Kolbe.
The 'Portuguese Discoveries and Shipwrecks' will ultimately form
part of an ambitious series of exhibitions to depict the history of man in
south-east Africa. Judging by the quality of this newly completed
Notes and Queries 113

section, the project will add further lustre to the Natal Museum and to
Terra de Natale itself.

MACS House - An Exercise in Conservation

MACS - the Midlands Arts and Crafts Society - is a relatively new
organization whose title is descriptive of its activities. The Society presently
occupies a small house on Prince Alfred Street in the capital. Prince Alfred
Street is split by the Umsindusi River as it runs through Alexandra Park, and
the house, number 28, is on the lower side of the southern section,
overlooking Camps Drift Park. The property is owned by the city, and leased
to MACS in terms of an arrangement whereby unoccupied buildings that are
worthy of conservation are leased, for a low rental, to community
organizations that can maintain and make constructive use of them.
Interested to discover the history of the house and its unkempt formal
garden, MACS president, Jutta Faulds, asked Mr Graham Harrison to search
the Deeds Office for information. He discovered that lot 222 of the Town
Lands, a substantial property of some 24 acres fronting on Prince Alfred
Street and bounded on the east by the river, had in 1875 been transferred by
the City Council to one James Napoleon Wheeler for £182.16.3. Wheeler also
acquired the adjoining lot 218, which carried the street frontage down to West
Street, and in the same year (1875) sold both properties to Theophilus
Shepstone Jun. for £245.18.9. What Mr Wheeler paid for lot 218 is not
recorded by Mr Harrison, but the land was little more than an acre in extent,
and Wheeler must have been quite content to get back £63 and the odd half­
crown more than he had paid for lot 222 in the first place.
Theophilus Shepstone Jun. held the property for fourteen years, and Mr
Harrison speculates that it was he who built the house, since it seems unlikely
that Shepstone would have kept it for so long without improving it.
Unfortunately, however, the Deeds Office records do not indicate whether a
property has been improved, and the only indication of a change is the selling
price. In the case of Mr Shepstone, the eventual sale seems to have been an
unhappy affair. He was an advocate, and possibly in financial difficulties, for in
1889 a Mrs G.M. Peters from the Orange Free State went to court to compel
him to transfer the property to her. Mrs Peters acquired both lots for £750, and
in the same year sold them to the Postmaster, Henry Sullivan, for £800.
From 1889 until 1944 the property remained in the Sullivan family. Henry
Sullivan appears to have lived in the house until his death in 1927, by which
time the value of lots 218 and 222, together with a third five-acre property, had
increased to £1950. His widow, Amelia, passed it to her son when she died
three years later, and Reginald Sullivan finally sold it to one R.D. Turner. At
this point, the property seems to have been sub-divided, for in 1945 Mr Karl
Magni (a respected educationalist who was then Science Master at Maritzburg
College) bought Sub 1 of lot 222, a little over an acre in extent, with the house
upon it.
Mr Magni subdivided the property further, then in 1959 disposed of it
altogether. In the ensuing years, 28 Prince Alfred Street ceased to be occupied
as a residence, and when the City Council re-purchased it in 1986 - one
hundred and eleven years after lot 222 passed into private hands - the
property was derelict and decaying.
Since taking possession, the Midlands Arts and Crafts Society has cleared
the garden and refurbished the house. The whole property is in daily use as a
114 Notes and Queries

studio for art and crafts classes, and serves as both a gallery for exhibitions and
a venue for entertainments. A crafts 'winter school' was held there during July
1988. The complete renovation of the house would be beyond the means of
anything less than a wealthy corporation, but as an exercise in constructive
urban conservation, MA CS house must be counted a success.

'Listings' in Pietermaritzburg
During the year, the 'listing' of two sets of buildings in the capital aroused
considerable interest. Mr Rob Haswell of the Geography department at the
University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) has provided this note for Natalia.
The listing of architecturally and historically important buildings in
central Pietermaritzburg began in earnest during 1988. Some two
hundred buildings are earmarked for listing. Listing means that
demolitions, alterations or additions to listed buildings or properties
require the special consent of the City Council. The Special Consent
procedure, as prescribed in the Town Planning Ordinance, requires the
advertisement of plans and allows interested parties to make
representations or raise objections to them. The City Council then
makes a decision, and both the applicants and the objectors have the
right of appeal to the Town Planning Appeals Board. Clearly, then, both
the conservation and development lobbies have avenues open to them.
The City Council is, however, committed to obtaining an owner's
permission prior to listing, and so far this has been forthcoming. In
particular, the owners of properties in two of the city's oldest lanes,
Leighton Street and Deanery Lane, applied virtually en bloc to be listed,
and the listing procedure has commenced in both cases. Once the
formalities have been completed, the Council's Conservation and Urban
Design Section, in consultation with the residents, will be able to suggest
improvements to these lanes by, for example, unifying signage and
paving, and providing for street furniture. Appropriate alterations,
renovations and restorations will also be suggested. Once these have
been completed, owners will be in a position to apply for a rates rebate,
which forms an important part of a fiscal and non-fiscal incentives
package available to the owners oflisted properties and buildings.
The city's pre-eminence in conservation planning has certainly been
enhanced by these developments, and the public-spiritedness of the
Leighton Streeters and Deanery Laners is to be highly commended.

The Lady Usher Award

We are grateful to Mrs Shona Wallis, Director of the Natal Society Library,
for again providing a note on the Lady Usher Literary Award.
The award is available to a South African author and/or illustrator
and/or compiler of any original book in the English language first
published in South Africa. The purpose of the award is to promote the
use of the English language, and the administration of the award is
controlled by the Council of the Natal Society. Initially the award was
made for books that were specifically works of literature, but the Council
has latterly decided to make it more general in scope.
To date, five awards have been made, the first in 1985 to R.O.Pearse
for his book Joseph Baynes, Pioneer, published by Shuter & Shooter in
Notes and Queries 115

Pietermaritzburg in 1983. The second was granted in 1986 to

W.Steenkamp for his book Horse Thief, published by Tafelberg
Publishers, Cape Town, in 1985.
The 1987 award was divided into three and presented firstly to Gordon
Maclean for his book Ducks of Sub-Saharan Africa, secondly to Gail
Darroll for her illustrations for that same work, and thirdly to Auriol
Batten for her book Flowers ofSouthern Africa.

'Mash ea and The Barnacle'

In recent years malaria has made an unwelcome return to Zululand, but
fortunately the tsetse fly seems to have gone for good. Its eradication was
always a controversial matter, with one school of thought urging the wiping
out of the game on which it found its host, while others preferred less extreme
methods involving the use of R.H. T.P. Harris's huge fly traps, clearing of
breeding grounds, erection of game fences, and - later - spraying with
DOT.
At times tempers ran very high, but it seems that there were less serious
moments too. The following light-hearted look at the war against Glossina
was found among Selwyn MoberJy's papers and was probably written by him.
In 1920 he took part in one of the massive game-clearing operations - to his
later shame - but it is probable that these verses were written rather later: a
pencilled note on the typescript identifies 'the Doctor' in verse 11 as J.S.
Henkel who, with Adolf Bayer, was involved in tsetse research in the 1930s.
There are no clues to the identity of Mashea and the Barnacle. Perhaps
readers of Natalia can suggest who they were. And perhaps there are other
comments on, and reminiscences of, this period of Zululand's history tucked
away in diaries, letters, and other family papers. Margery Moberly, 431 Loop
Street, Pietermaritzburg, 3201, would be glad to receive such information.

MASHEAAND THE BARNACLE

Mashea and the Barnacle
Were studying their maps:
They wept like anything to see
So many empty traps!
'Hten score boys and umpteen traps
Sweated for many a year,
Do you suppose,' Mashea said,
'The fly would disappear?'
'I doubt it,' said the Barnacle,
Shedding a bitter tear.
'The time has come,' Mashea cried,
'To talk of many things:
Of densities and Garbage heaps­
Hluhluwe happenings-
And why the Brevipalpis there
Still stays outside and stings.'
'The Harristraps,' our tsetses say,
'Are really very nice­
116 Notes and Queries

The only 'scuse the' Pa/pis has

Is that of cowardice;
What's good enough to capture us
Ought surely to suffice?'
The game all gathered at a pool
The matter to discuss,
The Rhino shook his horn and cried
'Why all this blasted fuss?'
The Wildebeesten groaned aloud
'Oh Lord! Twas ever thus!'
'These Fly Boys always were our foes
And thirsty for our blood-
And now we're butchered day by day
To keep them all in food:
They say, (we're told) that when we're fat
Our flesh is very good. '
'Are we included in this game?'
Came from the Cane Rat's lips;
'Or are the lesser fly exempt
From these obnoxious tryps?'
'We'll swipe you,' said the Barnacle,
Cracking his noisy whips.
'But strafe us not,' the Settler cried,
Now seething with alarm;
'I only want the Government
To buy my lovely farm. '
'Don't worry!' said the Barnacle,
'I'll free you from all harm.'
'The trap is our salvation sure
A heaven sent implement;
So hang on to your holdings
You never will repent.'
So some remained but others sold,
They knew not what he meant.
'And what of us?' the Game Guard wailed,
'We surely count, at least,
In all this tangled policy
And at the weekly feast.'
'Oh! Tula,' snapped the Barnacle
'Shoot us another beast.'
'The time has come,' the Doctor said,
'To study all these things,
And to destroy the baby fly
Before it gets its wings.'
'Oh! Spare me,' sobbed the Barnacle
'From all these pin-prickings.'
Notes and Queries 117

Mashea and the Barnacle

Walked sadly hand in hand,
They wept like anything to find
A most efficient band
Of Rabid Game Protectionists
All powerful in the land.

National Monuments in Natal

In its Annual Report Number 18, the National Monuments Council lists seven
premises in Natal as having been declared national monuments during the
year ending 31 March 1987. We quote from the report:
1. Little Chelsea at 18 Windermere Road, Durban
This Victorian double-storeyed building with its cast-iron verandahs was
designed by the architects Reid and Hurst in 1897 and built for L. Evans.
2. The Main Post Office in Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg
The corner-stone of this four-storeyed sandstone building was laid on 14
February 1903. The building, which was designed by the architect William
Lucas, is predominantly in the late Renaissance style. It is one of the most
prominent buildings in Longmarket Street and is situated opposite the old
Natal Legislative Assembly building and the old Natal Legislative Council
building.
3. The so-called Reid's Cabinet Works building at 214 Longmarket Street,
Pietermaritzburg
Reid's Cabinet Works, the oldest furniture manufacturing company in
Pietermaritzburg, was established by John Reid, who arrived in
Pietermaritzburg in 1881. He started his business in the present building at
the turn of the century. Reid was an outstanding artisan and in 1898 he
became the only wood-carver in Natal to receive the Sir Donald Currie
medal for his furniture. Hereafter Reid regularly won medals at the
Pietermaritzburg Show with his exhibitions. After Reid's retirement his
son, WaIter, followed in his father's footsteps until he sold the business in
1969. The building is at present being used for offices and has interesting
neoclassical and Victorian features.
4. The Old Residency, Eshowe
This building was established in 1894 by Messrs Ogen and Schmidtman of
the department of Public Works as housing for the local Commissioner
and Chief Magistrate, Sir Melmoth Osborne. This was after the
annexation of Zululand as part of Natal and the designation of Eshowe as
the administrative seat of the Chief Commissioner and local magistrate.
Osborne was succeeded in this post by Sir Charles Saunders. After Union
in 1910, the Residency housed various local magistrates. After this it was
also used for a while as a malaria research centre.
On the occasion of the British royal visit to South Africa in 1947 this
Victorian verandah house with its 13 bedrooms was renovated and used
by the royal family as a recreation place during their visit to Eshowe and
the surrounding country. It is at present again being used as a residence by
the local magistrate.
118 Notes and Queries

5. The portion of Consolidated Erf997 with the present tennis courts thereon,
situated between the old Carnegie Library and the Nieuwe Republiek
Museum, at Vryheid
This land forms an integral part of the historic block with the Old
Raadsaal (already declared a monument and now known as the Nieuwe
RepubJiek Museum), the Old Fort and the Carnegie Library thereon. It
was donated to the Municipality of Vryheid by the Department of Public
Works and Land Affairs for the establishment of an open-air museum.
6. The so-called Helen Bridge over the Mooi River near the Weston
Agricultural College, Mooi River
This steel bridge, which rests on concrete buttresses, was opened on 19
November 1866 by Col. 1.1. Bissett, Administrator of the Colonial
Government of Natal. The bridge was named after his second daughter
Helen, who designated it as such on the day it was opened. The
construction of this bridge at the place where the Voortrekkers and Natal
pioneers crossed the Mooi River is regarded as an important milestone
since it was the first bridge over a large river north of Pietermaritzburg
that was built by the Colonial Government. The bridge also played an
important role in the economic development of this area, as well as in
communication with Northern Natal and the Transvaal.
7. The so-called Rothman House in Church Street, Utrecht
This dwelling was erected in 1909 by 1.1. Rothman, a prominent
businessman from Utrecht. It is a good example of a Natal colonial
dwelling in the late Victorian style. Together with two adjoining houses,
Shaw house and Dirk Uys house, which have also been declared, it forms
a note-worthy late-Victorian group of buildings.
In addition to these permanent monuments, the property known as M6rewag,
at 14 Nuttall Gardens, Durban, was provisionally declared a monument for a
period of five years, during which time it is subject to the same safeguards as a
permanent monument.
Compiled by MORAY COMRIE
 119

Book Reviews and Notices

AN APPETITE FOR POWER: BUTHELEZI'S INKATHA AND THE

POLITICS OF 'LOYAL RESISTANCE'
by GERHARD MARE & GEORGINA HAMILTON
Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1987.261 pp. R24,95.
As the temperature has soared recently in the cauldron that is South African
politics, so Chief Gatsha Buthelezi has swiftly been acclaimed as an honorary
Natalian. For many Anglo-Natalians he is with them, if not quite one of them.
And Gatsha is no more. Instead, Mangosuthu is preferred. Is this Natalian
symbiosis taking effect? More significantly, though, Buthelezi certainly knows
how to pander to Anglo-Natalian sensibilities. What a fragile regional species
these Natalians are. Wedged between the Drakensberg mountain range and
the Indian Ocean, their political connection to the South Africa beyond seems
forever tenuous, giving rise to a fickle turn of mind. The South African
Nationalist regime is supposedly an ogre, treated with scorn and derision; yet
the Natalian of whom I speak is hardly reluctant to shelter under the selfsame
regime's protective mantle. Secessionary talk, then, is not uncommon but
sheer bombast nonetheless. Probing further one soon discovers that above all
the average Anglo-Natalian places a premium on the species' identity.
Ridding Natal of its pure white regional elective provincial government meant
ct:ding autonomy to Pretoria. But it also meant alienating the institutional
repository of one's being as a Natalian, or more especially, as an Anglo­
Natalian.
Buthelezi understands the Anglo-Natalian's dilemma full well. Where to
now? Scenarios emerge. The Buthelezi Commission, which reported in 1982,
offered a way out to Natalians that entailed seeking common cause with the
Chief's KwaZulu administration. Likewise, the KwaNatal Indaba translated
these premises into tentative practice by creating a negotiating forum for all
interested parties in the entire region. Moreover, the newly construed Natal
regional government and the KwaZulu authorities have initiated common
administrative procedures. Buthelezi has become a seemingly indelible
feature on the Natalian political landscape. To Anglo-Natalians he is their
political saviour. For such stalwarts Qua Natal? has become KwaNatal. Better
to compromise, to opt for a future as QuasiNatalians than to suffer the Natal
identity withering away altogether, consigned to the political scrapheap. This,
I suggest, is one dimension of the Buthelezi phenomenon. His machinations
on the podium have partly been directed towards a white, essentially Anglo­
N atalian audience. In so doing he has struck a strongly receptive chord.
On the national stage, too, Buthelezi walks tall nowadays. We have here a
second dimension. How strikingly the tide of opinion has shifted. In the early
120 Book Reviews and Notices

1970s, Chief Buthelezi assumed control of the nascent 'self-governing

homeland' designated as KwaZulu. Shortly thereafter he was castigated by the
National Party government for not playing the Verwoerdian apartheid game
according to the preordained rules. KwaZulu should have regarded self­
government as a transitional phase, a preparatory period for 'independence'
proper, a move Buthelezi has steadfastly resisted. And foes of apartheid rule
applauded the Chief precisely for his intransigence. Latterly, however,
President P.W. Botha, in seeking desperately to keep the apartheid ship
afloat, and on a course to who knows where, has sent fleeting placatory signals
to the Zulu leader. The very undertaking holds perils for them both. Mr Botha
is keenly aware that toenadering with Buthelezi yields political capital for
atavistic proponents of apartheid gathered under the banner of the
Conservative Party. On the other hand, Buthelezi cannot maintain a credible
image as an apostle for liberation should he join Botha at the helm of the
apartheid ship. Nonetheless, Chief Buthelezi's credentials as a major actor on
the South African political stage are indisputable. He and his constituency
certainly make their presence felt.
The first and second dimensions of Buthelezi the politician are crucially
linked to a third. In fact, precisely the reason why not a few Natalians and
P. W. Botha alike feel impelled to court Buthelezi, albeit for differing motives,
is because they felt seriously threatened by the turmoil that came to
characterize the political scene as this current decade has unfolded. The
proximate cause was, and continues to be, the apartheid system itself. The
immediate cause was the brouhaha surrounding the Republic's second
constitution, as it was debated, tested and then implemented in 1984, with
elections for the re-enfranchised Indians and 'Coloureds' being held that same
year. A strong, widely felt need to resist the National Party's constitutional
shenanigans gave rise to the United Democratic Front, an amorphous body
composed of myriad affiliated groups. Many such groups were rooted in
residential areas. Their presence lent substance to the UDF; and the UDF's
effervescent burst onto the country's political scene, in turn, encouraged ever
more organizations to take root in local communities.
Moreover, during the same period, anti-apartheid trade unions, catering
principally for black workers, flexed their muscle on the shopfloor. They
became fully capable, for the first time, of embarking on collective action
throughout virtually every sector of the economy once the network that is
COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, was cobbled
together in late 1985. Not only this. COSATU was launched in Durban; and
UDF activists beavered away in Natal, gnawing their way into as many black
ghettoes as they could. Buthelezi's pitch was queered. He was being
challenged vigorously where hitherto he had reigned supreme, among Zulus
at work and at home. Warfare erupted in the townships. Probably thousands
have died. Accusations were met by counter accusations. Successive
nationwide states of emergency since July 1985 have shrouded the civil
combat. Henceforth, without verifiable public information rumours have
abounded. The UDF remains anathema to most white South Africans. If they
distinguish the UDF at all from the African National Congress, the ANC, it is
by only a matter of degree, between bricks and bombs. For Anglo-Natalians,
Buthelezi is not the problem; he is the solution. For P.W. Botha, Buthelezi is
required as a collaborator in order to show the acceptable face of political
reform, particularly to audiences abroad. It has to be said though that Mr
Book Reviews and Notices 121

Botha displays little stomach for such courtship. A lack of conviction and a
penchant for political expediency have sapped his will, at least for the
moment.
From the sketch that I have outlined a three-dimensional portrait of
Buthelezi the politician is visible. Indeed, the phenomenon is kaleidoscopic.
The trick for the analyst is to keep all three dimensions in focus
simultaneously. In Appetite for Power, Gerry Mare and Georgina Hamilton,
both based in Durban, the former an academic researcher, the latter a
journalist, have wrestled to accomplish this, without quite succeeding. I
hasten to add, however, that their assiduous labour has hardly been in vain.
The book contains a treasure trove of information on which both I and others
will feed voraciously for years to come. The metaphor is apt: Appetite for
Power has a gastronomic, if not gluttonous, ring to it. And as one would guess
with a title like that, Buthelezi and his ruling apparatus, namely, the KwaZulu
government, the KwaZulu Finance Corporation, Inkatha and the attendant
trade union, going by the acronym of UWUSA, are grilled to a cinder from
cover to cover.
The author's approach will probably perturb readers with a tender
disposition. The book hinges on a single key question: are Buthelezi and
Inkatha a force for true liberation in South Africa? No, aver Mare and
Hamilton. Their view, clearly discernible throughout, is that liberation entails
a non-racial, socialist democratic order under the aegis of a unitary state. Not
only does Buthelezi eschew such beliefs, but also in actively hindering their
realization his conservative outlook and reactionary impulse blunt the rightful
thrust for radical change in South African society. This judgement serves as
both premise and conclusion in. Appetite for Power. Still, the authors' candour
is refreshing. It comes as no surprise to see their hunch confirmed in the
chapters that follow. This is not in itself unusual in the enterprise of research,
although many investigators try to kid their audience into believing otherwise.
More importantly, the real issue is whether the authors have offered us a
sound analysis. I must confess I have misgivings. A few pointers why.
Buthelezi himself is the key. His personality infuses politics in KwaZulu.
And it is Buthelezi the leader to whom Anglo-Natalians and P.W. Botha look
for comfort. This proud man is an enigma. A Janus-like figure hoves into view
in the book. Reasonable, yet extraordinarily impassioned; critical, yet unable
to counternance the same from others, in fact, to a bewildering extent. Hero
and villain are roles that come to him with equal ease. Not a flattering
impression, but the consummate politician bent on survival and power rarely
comes out any differently. As Machiavelli shrewdly advised his Prince,
appearance is everything. The real skill is in judging when to behave like a fox,
and when like a lion. While we may deplore the politician's duplicity, it must
be gauged realistically. I don't believe the authors do this, largely because
they seem unable at any stage to suspend, even temporarily, their distaste for
Buthelezi and his cause.
Similarly, Buthelezi's patent appeal to Anglo-Natalians, the first dimension
I sketched, is beyond Mare and Hamilton's ken. Because they are determined
to peer at their material through Marxian lenses, all we learn is that Buthelezi
and Inkatha flourish as promoters of capitalists' interests. To sweeten the
sugar-barons, in other words. 'Organic intellectuals' pop up too, most
noticeably, Lawrence Schlemmer, the erstwhile idol now with feet of clay.
The argument has possibilities, I grant you. But again, surely there is more
122 Book Reviews and Notices

besides? Not all anxious Anglo-Natalians are just tin soldiers in the capitalist
army. Politics is not merely the stepchild of economics; it has its own lineage
and its own imperatives.
Weakness in political explanation shows up, too, in other ways in Appetite
for Power. If Buthelezi advocates consociationalism and federalism, these
political arrangements must be fatally flawed. I could only gauge as much in
the absence of any alternative line of thought. For Mare and Hamilton are
weak at interpreting concepts. Consociationalism, especially, is treated
ineptly. The ramifications are profound. The force of the second and third
dimensions of the Buthelezi phenomenon arises from his power-base in
Ulundi and extending into Natal's townships where Africans are housed. The
vast, complex apparatus is spelt out in commendable detail in the book. But
how to make sense of it all? The authors are clearly unsure. Populism and
patronage are the explanatory variables they deploy to give explanatory shape
to the information they have unearthed. Splendid. However, once more, their
deficient grasp of the concepts themselves proves an insuperable obstacle.
Had they overcome this, they would have been prompted further to explore
power relations within and between the organizations underpinning
Buthelezi's political leadership. Rather than doing so, our intrepid
researchers place unhealthy reliance on earlier studies that have tried to depict
Inkatha's and KwaZulu's formal organizational structures. A good start. But
we need to get behind the fa~ade. Only then will how power is wielded come
to the fore. Without that, we have to content ourselves with an outside gaze at
Inkatha and kindred bodies.
Finally, from content to form. As far as I can gather, this book was never
once a dissertation. Thank heavens, you say? But it looks like one and reads
like one, which is unfortunate. Exacerbating the dense prose is the dense
print, to make matters doubly unfortunate. So beware if you find the said
artefact in your Christmas stocking. Should you encounter it, do read it. You
will be enlightened, provoked and frustrated. Shortcomings there are, but
credit where credit is due. Appetite for Power is a pioneering effort, a
strikingly bold one at that. Gerry Mare and Georgina Hamilton have staked a
valuable claim. Let us hope others will be emboldened to follow suit. All of us
can only benefit from scholarly inquiry in a country where we still have so
much to learn about ourselves and our predicament.
RALPH LAWRENCE

JOHN ROSS: THE TRUE STORY

by STEPHEN GRAY
Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1987.189 pp. R12,95.
On the face of it, this book is written as a novel, as an adventure story with
one of English-speaking Natal's well-known historical heroes as the central
figure. Every reader of Natalia will know the settler legend of how in 1827 the
boy John Ross walked all the way from Port Natal to Delagoa Bay and back to
fetch medicines and other necessities for the band of intrepid British pioneers
who had recently begun trading from their settlement at what later became
Durban. He is regarded as important enough a figure in the version of history
favoured by Natal's presently dominant classes to have had several roads, at
least one bridge, a large building in Durban, and a tugboat named after him.
Book Reviews and Notices 123

Last year a major serial about his life in Shaka's Zulu kingdom was shown on
South African TV. What hetter time for an author and a publishing firm with
an eye for a popular line to cash in on the John Ross story with a piece of
paperback fiction')
And yet the book's sub-title claims that it is written as a 'true' story, and
frequently the author breaks into the narrative to indicate to the reader that
his account is based on 'fact' and 'evidence'. Should we read it as history? But
if so, what has happened to the history that we all thought we knew? Can it be
that Francis Farewell and James King, the founders of settler Natal, were in
reality such opportunist hucksters? Was the real Nathaniel Isaacs such a
disregardable figure? Why do we hear so little of Henry Fynn? Why do we
hear so much of underlings such as the carpenter Hutton, his African wife
Domanna, and the coloured woman Rachael? Why does John Ross feature as
the main character anyway, when accounts of Natal's history actually tell us
very little about him? And above all, how does the quite ordinary figure who is
Shaka in this book square with the bloodthirsty monster that all the historical
accounts tell us about? Where does the author get these new perspectives? Is
the answer which he gives at the end of the book itself fact or fiction?
Fortunately for the reviewer, the author, who is professor of English at
Rand Afrikaans University, poet, novelist, and one of South Africa's
foremost literary critics, has elsewhere explained the making of his novel in
some detail. (S. Gray, 'South African fiction and a case history revised: an
account of research into retellings of the John Ross story of early Natal',
unpublished seminar paper, African Studies Institute, University of the
Witwatersrand, 1988.) It turns out that what he says in the book about his
sources is true. He has taken the little-known memoirs published in the 1850s
by Charles Rawden Maclean, the real-life 'John Ross', and used them as the
basis for a historical novel which deliberately sets out to overturn a host of
accumulated colonial myths ahout the first British traders in Natal and their
relations with Shaka. His prime purpose has been to produce a text which will
stand as a counter to the mythologizing text of the TV serial. By his own
account he wrote the book as a step towards establishing 'a comparative
debate which will indeed bring the categories of history, truth and fiction into
a controversial area, forcing the consumers of the two works into learning how
to assess data relatively, and to sort out new meanings from them'.
A good historical novel can tell us more about the everyday past than any
number of historical analyses. Gray's book is an important and timely
intervention in the process which has recently begun among historians of
completely recasting our understanding of the history of precolonial Natal.
And it is all the more effective for being an entertaining as well as an intriguing
read.
JOHNWRIGHT

A HISTORY OF NATAL

byEDGARH. BROOKES&COLINdeB. WEBB

Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, Second (Paperback) edition,

1987, 382pp. illus. R25.

'Brookes and Webb' has long been a household word in Natal. Just after the
last issue of Natalia went to print A History of Natal appeared for the first time
124 Book Reviews and Notices

in paperback. In addition to its attractive new cover - James Lloyd's painting

of Durban harbour and the Bluff in the 1850s - it has two other new features.
In a new Preface Colin Webb reflects on the transformation of South
African historiography in the 1970s and 1980s - though with characteristic
modesty he does not mention that much of this was wrought by his own former
pupils. He rejects what he calls 'the pious hope' expressed in the original
Preface in 1965 that one day a 'definitive' history of Natal would be written
and ends with a welcome for the forthcoming new Natal history edited by
Andrew Duminy and Bill Guest and due to be published in 1989.
The other new feature of this second edition is the updated and expanded
source list. Some 300 items published between 1965 and 1986 are included;
like the Preface these reflect the transformation of South African
historiography.

PETTICOAT PIONEERS: WOMEN OF DISTINCTION

compiled by RUTH GOROON
Federation of Women's Institutes of Natal and Zululand in association with
Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg, 1988. R29,95.
The history of Natal's pioneering men is well known, but comparatively
little research has been done into the women of the province. While
generations of schoolchildren have learned of Pi et Retief, few have heard of
his wife Lenie, whose home still stands in Church Street.
Any attempt to correct this imbalance is welcome. Petticoat Pioneers,
published to mark the diamond jubilee of the Federation of Women's
Institutes of Natal and Zululand, certainly fills part of the lacuna. Its compiler,
indefatigable Pietermaritzburg historian Or Ruth Gordon, presents thumbnail
histories of nearly 200 women, from trekkers and early missionaries to
present-day knitters and embroiderers. Or Gordon has not only collated this
material- produced by relatives and friends of the subjects and by women's
institute members and historians - but has written nearly half the articles
herself.
The book deals with many obscure but fascinating characters. There is an
interesting piece on the founder of the Dominican congregation in Newcastle,
Mother Rose Niland, as well as sketches on the wives of notables - such as
Margaret Smythe, wife of the first Administrator of Natal, Charles Smythe.
There are incredible tales of pioneer women. Such a woman was Sarah Jane
Bryant, who, as an orphan teenager in 1849, struck a deal with 10 Zulus
whereby she provided armed protection and provisions and they drove her
wagon from Port St Johns to Greytown. The book also includes potted
biographies on many modern women, such as Pamela Reid (in an article
written by Pamela Reid!), historian Sheila Henderson, pianist Renee Reznek
and floral artist Eulah Nissen.
Or Gordon arranges her material in categories such as Pioneers;
Educationalists and Academics; State Health, Nursing and Hospitals; The
Arts; and Projects, Pioneers and Notables of the Federation of Women's
Institutes of Natal and Zululand. While the first chapter on Pioneers is lively,
the quality of the succeeding chapters degenerates markedly. Towards the
end, dozens of women are given a few lines mention under headings such as:
A Miscellany of Notables; and Women of Zululand - which deals with 18
women in less than three pages. At times the compiler's classification is
Book Reviews and Notices 125

curious. Historian Sheila Henderson is found under Educationalists and

Academics; her fellow-historian Shelagh Spencer is in the chapter, Literary
Figures. Even odder is that Elizabeth Klarer, who claims to have mated with
spaceman Akon and borne his son, Ayling, is mentioned at some length in the
chapter Scientific Persons - with no apparent attempt at being facetious! The
chronological sequence of the book is also often faulty, and the proofreading
is at times inadequate.
Dr Gordon has obviously attempted to throw her net wide to include as
many women and accept as many contributions as possible. The result is that
list after list of obscure and often unremarkable women is mentioned. Very
few of the articles question or probe, and are often confined to a list of events.
Most items show little evidence of research and far too many of the
contributors, including at times Dr Gordon herself, punctuate their pieces
with statements such as: 'she was a true and gracious example of Christian
womanhood' and 'the city mourned the loss of a true and noble woman'. At
the same time, the book suffers from anglo-centricity: coverage of both black
and Afrikaans women is scant. Educationalists and social workers fare
relatively well, but Natal's sportswomen are afforded a mere one and a half
pages of print, while even less attention is given to business women. There are
glaring omissions in most chapters. Most noticable of all is the lack of an
article on Dr Gordon herself.
Petticoat Pioneers needed severe editing and more careful planning.
Perhaps the book would have been more successful had it been confined to the
early pioneers and not tackled the vast field of the remarkable women of
today. However, despite its faults, the book leaves the reader more aware of
the fine contribution of women to the history of Natal. It opens endless
possibilities for research into the province's previously ignored 'women of
distinction' of both past and present.
CLAIRE FROST
126

Select List ofRecent Natal

Pub licatio ns

BEGG, G. The distribution, extent and status of wetlands in the Mfolozi

catchment. Pietermaritzburg: The Natal Town and Regional Planning
Commission, 1988.
BELL, William. Narrative of the entrance of the 'Conch' at Port Natal with
troops, to relieve Captain Smith, when blockaded by the Boers, in June,
1842. Durban, Natal Mercury, 1869. Facsimile reprint.
Pietermaritzburg: Prontaprint, 1988.
BRISTOW, David. Drakensberg walks; 120 graded hikes and trails in the
'Berg. Cape Town: Struik, 1988.
CROMB, James, editor. The Majuba disaster: a story of Highland heroism,
told by officers of the 92nd Regiment. Edinburgh: Menzies, 1891.
Facsimile reprint, Pietermaritzburg: Prontaprint, 1988.
CUB B IN, A. E. An exposition of the clash of Anglo-Voortrekker interests at
Port Natal leading to the military conflict of 23124 May 1842. Kwa
Dlangezwa: University of Zululand, 1987.
HILLIARD, O.M. The botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg.
Kirstenbosch: National Botanic Gardens, 1987.
LAB AND , John. The battle of Ulundi. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter &
Shooter, 1988.
LINSTROM, W. The geology of the Dundee area. Department of Mineral
and Energy Affairs: Pretoria, 1987.
NICOLSON, G. Towards a plan for the Durban metropolitan open space
system. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Town and Regional Planning
Commission, 1987.
SHORTEN, Richard J. The Legion of Christ's witness; change within the
Anglican Diocese of Zululand 1948-1984. Cape Town: Centre for
African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1987.
SIMENSEN, Jarle, editor. Norwegian missions in African history. Volume 1:

South Africa, 1845-1906. Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1986.

THOMAS, R.J. The geology of the Port Shepstone area. Pretoria:

Government Printer, 1988.

TICHMANN, P. Powerlessness and poverty: a study of the nature and
function of four African local authorities in the Durban functional
region. Durban: University of Durban-Westville, 1987.
 127

Register ofResearch on Natal

This list has been compiled from individual submissions of subscribers to

Natalia and information supplied by the University of Natal's Department of
Library Science.
If you know of any current research which has not been listed, please fill in
the slip which has been provided for this purpose so that the information can
be included in the next issue.
AITCHISON, J.
Index to Mudie 's history of the Anglo-Zulu War.
COX,G.
The Point Yacht Club, 11\92-1992.
CROESER, F. and HEARNE, S
Bibliography of the St Lucia/Maputoland Marine Reserve.
HUTSON, T.R.
Narrow gauge railways and sugar tramways of Natal.
LEVY.J.
Judaism in Natal: a select bibliography of surviving documents.
LUTHULI, T.
Examination of status, tables of rulers; kings; paramount chiefs in Xhosa and Zulu history
with a view to assisting researchers in the Killie Camp bell library.
McDOUGALL, A.G. and RYCROFf, Or. D.K.
The family of W.G. Baker (11\31-1917) of Pietermaritzburg (son of 11\20 Settler Richard
Baker).
MACHIN,Ingrid.
The levying of hlack lahour and military service by the Colonial State of Natal.
MINNAAR, A de V.
The sugar industry of Zululand; 1905-191\ ... ; its problems, development and history.
The fight against Nagana in Zululand.
MSIMANGO,H.
The compositions and publications ofProf. R. T. Caluza.
PIM,l.
A history ofthe Killie Camp bell Africana Library.
RAJCOMAR, R.
The biblioculture ofIndian professional teacher-librarians in metropolitan Durban.
RAJU, R.
A hihliography of separately printed bibliographies of Natal.
RYCROFf, Or. D.K.
Thefamily of John Pearson Cato (IR31-1908) of Glenwood, Durban.
The family of John and Sarah Whitehead, 1820 settlers.
The family of John William Rycroft (11\53-1934) of Malvern, Natal.
UYS,Ian.
Uys family and Voortrekkers of the Uys party.
Natal officers who fought in Dclville Wood.
WILKINS, Mrsloy.
The Norwegian Mission Society in Natal and Zululand especially the Leisegangs,
Titlestads and Dahles.
WYLIE,C.
Bibliography of 19th century travel in Natal.
128

Notes on Contributors
SHIRLEY BROOKS is a graduate of the University of Natal.

She currently holds an Emma Smith Scholarship and is studying for a Master's

degree at Queens's University, Kingston in Canada.

BILL BURNETT is a former Archbishop of Cape Town.

GEORGE CANDY retired from the former Natal Training College as a

Senior Lecturer after a career in both education and journalism. He has
written extensively on a wide variety of topics.

CLAIRE FROST, a graduate of the University of Natal, is a former Reporter

and now Sub-Editor on the Natal Witness.

COLIN GARDNER is Professor of English at the University of Natal in

Pietermaritzburg.

BILL GUEST is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies

at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

RALPH LAWRENCE is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political

Studies at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

PETER ROBINSON, a former teacher and University lecturer, is a partner in

a firm of planners and architects in Durban. He is currently Vice-President of
the South African Institute of Town and Regional Planners.

BRIAN SPENCER is Librarian in charge of the Don Africana Library in

Durban.

IAN UYS, an accountant by profession, is the immediate past Chairman of

the South African Military History Society. He has written authoritatively on
the history of the Uys family in South Africa, and the battle of Delville
Wood.

FLEUR WEBB teaches French at Wykeham School. She has also translated
the first volume of Adulphe Delegorgue's Travels in Southern Africa,
particularly in the territory ofNatal.

JOHN WRIGHT is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies

at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.
T.B.FROST