We previously described the historical connection between our town and
the Langkloof in the Eastern Cape where Coenraad de Buys was born. Click HERE to access. Buyskop, approximately five kilometres
from Bela-Bela on the way to Modimolle, is named after him. In this article we
shall explore the link between Bela-Bela and Noupoort.
In 1900 Lord
Kitchener succeeded Lord Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in
South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War. He soon became the driving force
behind actions designed by Roberts to weaken Boer resistance: bur-ning their
farms, destroying their livestock and herding their women and children into
concentration camps.
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| Lord Kitchener |
By the way, the Times History of
the War observed that this policy had
“nothing to recommend it and no other measure aroused such deep and lasting
resentment. [It] was the least happy of Lord Roberts’ inspirations and must
plainly be set down as a serious error of judgment … “
Kitchener decreed
that blockhouses should also be erected from January 1901 onwards to protect
the railway lines from marauding Boer guerrilla fighters. Near important
bridges they were substantial stone-built structures, but for the most part
their walls were of double-skinned corrugated iron filled with earth and gravel
and pierced by loopholes. These were deemed sufficient as the Boer guerrillas
were only armed with rifles.
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| An example of a corrugated iron blockhouse |
The blockhouse
system, which played such a large part in the conclusion of military operations
in South Africa in 1902, is shown on the map below.
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| The blockhouse system shown here as dots on a relief map |
By the end of the war
some 8 000 blockhouses had been erected, providing the links in almost
6 000 km. of fortifications.
One of the original
stone-built blockhouses is to be found in Bela-Bela at the vehicle testing
grounds in the industrial area. Its purpose was to protect the railway station.
Our blockhouse formed
part of the line of blockhouses from Noupoort to Polokwane, a distance of
almost 1 000 km. Today it is a national monument and, until recently, regarded
as one of the best preserved in the country.
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| Map showing the distance from Noupoort to Polokwane. Our town is about 100 km north of Pretoria |
In an excellent article (see http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol106rt.html) about the blockhouse system, Richard Tomlinson describes our specimen
as a “curious hybrid”. Most of the other stone-built blockhouses were
three-storey structures. Ours was originally two-storeyed with two loopholes in
each wall on the ground floor and a first floor entrance facing the railway
line. At roof level there were crenellated pa-rapets 1,8 m high. The parapets
were later extended upwards and a pyramidical corrugated roof, as well as a
weather vane, were added.
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| Our very own blockhouse |
