Alexander, Morris – born 4th December 1877 in Czinn, East Prussia, Germany and died in Cape Town on 24th January 1946, lawyer and parliamentarian, was the eldest son of Abraham Alexander and his wife, Flora Lewin; he had four brothers and two sisters. In 1881 the family settled in South Africa. Alexander’s education at private schools in Cape Town was interrupted in 1891, when he joined his parents in Johannesburg. Owing to his parents’ straitened circumstances, he was compelled to work, first as a clerk at the National bank and later as an employee of the Cape government railways.He succeeded in saving a little money, which enabled him to resume his schooling. In 1893 he enrolled at the South African college, Cape Town, where he won the gold medal for arts in 1896. He graduated at the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1897, gaining a Porter scholarship; read law at St John’s College, Cambridge; and joined the Inner Temple, London. He obtained first-class honours in 1899 in the first part of the law tripos, and was awarded a Foundation scholarship. On 15 th November 900 he was called to the bar in Cape Town and rapidly established himself as a leading criminal lawyer, taking silk in 1919.

From his early youth Alexander showed a keen interest in public affairs. He served on the Cape Town city council (1905-43) and, except for the years 1929 to 1931, he was a member of the Cape and the Union parliaments from 1908 to 1946.

Throughout his life he remained true to his liberal creed of ‘equal rights for all civilized men, whatever their race, colour or creed’, and his sympathies were ever with the underprivileged. Elected to the Cape legislative assembly as a Progressive (later Unionist), he resigned from the party on account of ideological differences on 27th November 1920, and in 1921 he founded the Constitutional Democrat Party, of which he was the leader and sole parliamentary representative in the Union house of assembly for the following ten years. In 1931 he joined the South African party, remaining a follower of Gen. J.C. Smuts to the end.

He served the Jewish community for over forty years. He founded the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Cape Colony (4th September 1904) and was a leader of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, of which it formed part after 1912. He was primarily responsible for the recognition of Yiddish as a European language in terms of the Immigration act of 1906. He had been a vigorous supporter of the Zionist movement ever since 1904, and throughout his life he continued to resist attempts such as the Immigration Restriction act and the Immigration Quota act of 1930 – to discriminate against Jewish immigration.

For forty years he was president of the New Hebrew congregation, Cape Town, and often preached there. Alexander befriended all sections of the population. In parliament he was the recognized spokesman of the Public Service association and of the postal and telegraph employees. Opposed to the colour-bar, he attacked every measure designed to restrict non-European rights. He was a friend of M.K. Gandhi and invariably championed the cause of the Indians. He was also a staunch supporter of the franchise for women.

He was active in many welfare organizations; humble people with wrongs to be righted continually sought his assistance. He was an inveterate letter-writer, fifty letters a day being his minimum quota; the number sometimes swelled to one hundred letters, all written by hand.

In June 1907 Alexander married Ruth Schechter, the daughter of Solomon Schechter, the Hebraist; they had three children, a son and two daughters. After a divorce in 1935, Alexander’s second marriage (15.8.1935) was to Enid Asenath Baumberg, of Sydney, who subsequently wrote his biography.

His portrait by J.H. Amshewitz is in the National art gallery, Cape Town. In 1963 his voluminous papers, some 14,000 items in all, including material on Judaism in South Africa, and the Coloured and other minority groups (1905-45), were presented by his widow to the Jagger library, University of Cape Town.

Source: Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa – copyright Media24 Digital

Image: National Archives

Morris Alexander

Saul Solomon – Statesman, printer and newspaper proprietor. Born in St. Helena on the 25th May 1817, he was of Jewish parents, Joseph and Hannah Solomon, of Kent who joined Joseph’s brother Saul, who was the leading merchant in the then flourishing island of St. Helena. Saul Solomon died in Kilcreggan (Scotland) on the 16th October 1892.

Young Saul was sent to England in 1822 to be educated with his elder brother Henry, under the care of a Jewish schoolmaster. (In later life he joined the Congregational Church, but did not sever all ties with the Jewish faith.) When the South African College was inaugurated in Cape Town in 1829, Saul, who had returned from Europe, was sent to Cape Town to become one of the college’s first students, and he was the principal prizeman at the first public examination.

His parents’ circumstances obliging him to end his formal education in 1831, he was apprenticed to the bookseller and printer George Greig. Saul rose to a partnership and about 1847, with his brother Henry, who had also been employed by Greig, acquired the proprietorship of the firm, since then called Saul Solomon & Co. The brothers printed the Government Gazette and, from its foundation in 1857, the Cape Argus, of which Saul became owner in 1863. For many years he did the bulk of all printing work at the Cape.

Saul Solomon played a leading part in the commer­cial progress of the Colony and accelerated the move­ment for the construction of the Cape Town docks and breakwater. In his day he was reproached for having been chiefly instrumental in ‘originating the railways, the docks and the telegraphs’. He played a great part in the Anti-Convict Agitation of 1849 and was among the founders of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company, the Cape of Good Hope Gas Company, the Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank, and the Equitable Fire Office.

In 1854 Solomon was elected to represent Cape Town in the first Cape parliament, and he remained the member for Cape Town for 28 years. He declared himself opposed to ‘all legislation tending to introduce distinctions either of class, colour or creed’. From the first he became a leading figure in the House of Assembly, although he was so short that he had to stand on a footstool when addressing Parliament. His trunk was of normal size, but his legs were distorted and very short, as a result of inadequate treatment for rheumatic fever, followed by rickets, when he was a child. He could walk, but had to be assisted when boarding a cab. In one of his rare public references to his disability he said he had `the aspirations and passions of a man in the frame of a child’.

Solomon played a major part in securing responsible government for the Colony and when in 1872 it was achieved he was invited to form the first ministry, but declined because his physical handicap would have precluded much traveling, which he regarded as essential for a prime minister.

As early as 1854 he expressed himself in favor of an ultimate federation in South Africa. His Voluntary Bill to abolish State aid to churches and thus to extend equality of treatment to all religious denominations, first introduced in 1854 and repeatedly rejected over many years, was carried in 1875. He assiduously opposed unjust treatment of Natives and successfully opposed the sepa­ratist movement that emanated from the Eastern Province. Although he never took office, he was said to have made and unmade ministries. In Parliament he was the bench-mate of ‘Onze Jan’ Hofmeyr and evidently influenced him. ‘I believe that it would have been hardly possible’ , wrote Anthony Trollope, ‘to pass any measure of importance through the Cape legislature to which Solomon offered a strenuous opposition’; and the historian Froude found Solomon to be ‘the one politician at the Cape who never had an object in view except what he believed to be right and just’. In 1883 he retired from Parliament on account of ill health, and in 1888 went to live at Bedford in England, later in a village on Clydeside. His personal letters were presented to the South African Library by his 92-year old daughter Daisy in December 1972.

When Saul Solomon was 56 years of age, he married the 29-year-old Georgiana Margaret Thomson from Abbotsford, Scotland, who had taught in Liverpool until she was persuaded, in 1873, by Dr. Charles Murray of Edinburgh to accept the post of principal of the newly founded Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town. She married Solomon the next year. A highly intelligent woman, she was a fine public speaker and after her husband’s death, took part in the women’s suffrage movement in England and, with her youngest daughter, was rewarded with a month in Holloway prison.
The plight of Boer families ruined by the war in South Africa brought her back to further the interests of Boer women and children in the Transvaal in 1904. She wrote eloquent articles ap­pealing for funds and founded the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie, which is still in existence. Mrs. Solomon died at Eastbourne on 24 June 1933. Of the Solomons’ five children, Margaret (Maggie) was drowned at the age of five; George died as a child; Saul became a judge of the Transvaal Supreme Court; W. E. Gladstone, who entered the Indian civil service, became a Cape landscape and portrait painter and wrote his father’s biography; and Daisy Dorothea, who did not marry, played a prominent part in women’s organisations in England.

P113L. W.E.G. Solomon: Saul Solomon, the member for Cape Town (1948); John Noble: South Africa past and present (1877); R.W. Murray: South African reminiscences (1904); P.A. Molteno: The life and times of Sir John Charles Molteno (1900); Ralph Kilpin: The romance of a colonial parliament (1930).

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa) Electronic Copyright Ancestry24

Cetshwayo, son of Mpande - Source: Cape Archives, E3248

What were our ancestors doing in 1882?

Who was making the headlines and What did they talk about around the supper table?

Here is a look at some of the people, places and events that made the news in 1882.

Huguenot Memorial School

The Huguenot Memorial School (Gedenkschool der Hugenoten) was opened on the 1st February 1882 on the farm Kleinbosch in Daljosafat, near Paarl. It was a private Christian school and the first school with Afrikaans as teaching medium.

The school was under the auspices of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners. Past pupils included the writers Andries Gerhardus VISSER, Daniël François MALHERBE and Jakob Daniël DU TOIT (Totius). The first classes were given in a small room but soon an old wine cellar was converted into a two-storey building which housed two classrooms downstairs and the boarding school upstairs. The first Afrikaans newspaper, Die Patriot, as well as the first Afrikaans magazine, Ons Klyntji, came from this school.

The Coat of Arms of "Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners"

The school was closed down in 1910 as by then Afrikaans was taught in government schools. In 2001 renovation work was started after a fundraising campaign brought in more than R1-million. Most of the money came from readers of the Afrikaans newspapers, Die Burger and the Volksblad. Naspers, the Stigting vir Afrikaans and KWV also made important contributions. The renovated building was opened in March 2002. It has an Afrikaans training centre upstairs and guest rooms downstairs.

The main people behind the renovation project were writer Dr. Willem Abraham DE KLERK (1917 – 1996) and Fanie THERON (chairman of the Simon van der Stel Foundation and the Huguenot Society, deceased 1989). Others who were also very involved included Sr. C.F. ALBERTYN (Naspers director), Van der Spuy UYS and Dr. Eduard BEUKKMAN. In 1985 they launched the Hugenote Gedenkskool Board of Trustees and with a R10 000 donation from the Helpmekaarfonds, a servitude on the building and land was bought. De Klerk’s wife, Finnie, and Theron’s wife, Anna, were at the official opening as their husbands did not live to see their dream come to fruition.

Dutch as official language

After the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806, English became the only official language. In 1856 J.A. KRUGER, the M.L.A. for Albert, asked for permission to address Parliament in Dutch. His requested was denied, and this started a campaign to get Dutch recognised as an official language in Parliament. On the 30th March 1882, Jan Hendrik HOFMEYR (1845 – 1909), also known as Onze Jan, appealed for the use of Dutch as an official language in Parliament alongside English. He was supported by Saul SOLOMON, a Jewish newspaper publisher and printer in Cape Town. On the 9th June the campaign finally got a positive result when an amendement was made to the Constitution allowing the use of Dutch in Parliament.

Official status was granted on the 1st May and the Act was later passed. On the 13th June, Jan Roeland Georg LUTTIG, the Beaufort-West M.L.A., was the first to officially deliver a speech in Dutch. There is no official record of the speech in Dutch, but the English version was published in the 14th June 1882 Cape Argus newspaper. The other version is in the Cape Parliament Hansard.

It was a short speech – “Meneer die Speaker, ons is baie dankbaar dat die opsionele gebruik van die Hollandse taal in albei huise van die parlement toegelaat is. Wanneer ek sê dankbaar, dink ek praat ek namens diegene wat die twee huise met hul petisies vir dié doel genader het. Ek put vreugde daaruit dat my Engelssprekende vriende die voorstel nie teengestaan het nie, my komplimente gaan aan hulle.

Ek hoop om die raad in die toekoms ook in Engels, in my ou Boere styl, toe te spreek. Sodoende kan dié Engelse vriende wat nie Hollands verstaan nie, die geleentheid hê om te verstaan wat ek probeer oordra. Ek vertrou ook dat alle nasionale verskille in die toekoms sal verdwyn en dat mense van alle nasionaliteite en standpunte hand aan hand sal beweeg om die welvaart en vooruitgang van die kolonie te bevorder”. According to the Hansard, the Speaker pointed out that the Act had not yet been proclaimed, so members could not yet make speeches in Dutch, but that the House would accommodate him this time.

On the 15th June, Cape school regulations were amended to allow the use of Dutch alongside English.

On the 26th and 27th June, the town of Burgersdorp celebrated the use of Dutch. The celebrations were organised by Jotham JOUBERT (M.L.A. and later a Cape Rebel ) who also proposed a monument to mark the occassion. A country-wide fundraising campaign was launched. The monument was built by S.R. OGDEN of Aliwal-North for £430. It consisted of a sandstone pedestal on which stood a life-size marble statue of a woman. She points her finger at a tablet held in her other hand on which the main inscription reads “De Overwinning de Hollandsche Taal “. The monument was unveiled on the 18th January 1893 by D.P. VAN DEN HEEVER, with Stephanus Jacobus DU TOIT (1847 – 1911) delivering the main speech.

During the Anglo-Boer war, the monument was vandalised by British soldiers who took parts of it to King William’s Town where they buried it. After the war, Lord Alfred MILNER had the rest of the statue removed from Burgersdorp. After much protesting, the British eventually provided Burgersdorp with a replica in 1907. This one was unveiled at ceremonies on the 24th and 25th May 1907 when former President M.T. STYEN and the author D.F. MALHERBE addressed the crowd. The original monument was found in 1939 and returned to Burgersdorp. In 1957 the damaged original monument was placed next to the replica.

In 1883 knowledge of Dutch was compulsory for some government positions. In 1884, it was permitted in the High Courts and in 1887 it became a compulsory subject for civil service candidates. Afrikaans only gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official language in South Africa via Act 8 of 1925. Dutch remained an official language until the 1961 Constitution stipulated the two official languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English.

Goosen and Stellaland republics

In 1882 a group of Boers established the short-lived republics of Stellaland and Het Land Goosen (aka Goshen ) to the north of Griqualand West, in contravention of the Pretoria and London conventions by which the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek had regained its independence.

On the 1st April the republic of Het Land Goosen was declared. The terms of the Pretoria Convention of August 1881 had cut away part of the Transvaal. This led to problems as local Chiefs disputed the boundaries. Britain did not help matters by acknowledging Mankoroane as Chief of the Batlapin and Montsioa as Chief of the Barolong, both beyond their traditional territories. Supporters of Moshete, under the leadership of Nicolaas Claudius GEY VAN PITTIUS (1837 – 1893), established Het Land Goosen. One of the co-founders was Hermanus Richard (Manie) LEMMER, who later became a General in the Anglo-Boer War. Het Land Goosen later merged with the Stellaland republic to form the United States of Stellaland.

Stellaland was also a short-lived republic established in 1882 by David MASSOUW and about 400 followers, who invaded a Bechuana area west of the Transvaal. They founded the town of Vryburg, making it their capital. The republic was formally created on the 26th July 1882, under the leadership of Gerrit Jacobus VAN NIEKERK (1849 – 1896). In 1885 the British sent in troops under Sir Charles WARREN, abolished the republic, and incorporated it in British Bechuanaland.

Shipping accidents

Shipping accidents (wrecks, groundings, etc…) were common along the South African coast. In 1882 there were quite a few:

January – James Gaddarn, a barque, off Durban

February – Johanna, a barque, off East London

March – Poonah, off Blaauwberg

March – Queen of Ceylon, a barque, off Durban

April – Gleam, a barque, off Port Nolloth

April – Roxburg, off East London

April – Seafield, a barque, off East London

May – Francesca, a barque, off East London

May – Louisa Dorothea, a schooner, ran aground at Mossel Bay

May – Clansman, a schooner, off East London

May 28 – two ships, the Agnes (Capt. NEEDHAM) and the Christin a (Capt. G. LOVE), run ashore at Plettenberg Bay

June – Bridgetown, a barque, off Durban

June – Louisa Schiller, a barque, off Cape Hangklip

June – Ludwig, a schooner, off Algoa Bay

June – Gloria Deo, a barque, off Quoin Point

July – Elvira, a barque, off Durban

July – Erwood, off Durban

December – Adonis, a steamer, off Portst Johns

December – Zambezi, a schooner, off Durban

Smallpox

A smallpox epidemic broke out in District Six in 1882. This led to the closure of inner city cemeteries, and the construction of drains and wash-houses in the city. These improvements didn’t go as planned. The cemetery closures led to riots in 1886. The cemeteries along Somerset Road were not in a good condition, so Maitland cemetery was built. As the Muslim community carried their dead for burial, Maitland was too far for them, and along with the Dutch, they protested against Maitland for two years. Once the inner city cemeteries closed, the Dutch compromised but the Muslim community did not. They buried a child in the Tanu Baru (first Muslim cemetery) in protest. About 3 000 Muslims followed the funeral procession, as police watched. After someone threw stones at the police, a riot started and volunteer regiments were called out. One of the Muslim leaders, Abdol BURNS, a cab driver, was arrested. In the end, neither the Dutch nor the Muslims used Maitland. They found a piece of ground next tost Peter’s cemetery in Mowbray and used it as their cemetery.

The smallpox threat was felt further afield. It was believed that smallpox could be beaten by whitewashing the walls of homes, and for this reason lime and carbolic acid was distributed free to residents in Beaufort West. At Modder River, about 35 km from Kimberley, the settlement was used as a quarantine station to keep smallpox away from Kimberley. Travellers enroute to Kimberley had to produce a valid vaccination certificate or be vaccinated at the station.

Zulu King in London

Cetshwayo reigned as King of the Zulus from 1873 to 1884. He made an alliance with the British in order to keep his long standing enemies, the Boers, away. The alliance collapsed when the British annexed the Transvaal and supported Boer land claims in the border dispute with Zululand. This led to the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War where the British suffered defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana and Zulus at the Battle of Ulundi. Cetshwayo was captured and taken to the Cape. In 1882 he travelled to London where he met Queen Victoria on the 14th August. On his return he was reinstated as King in a much reduced territory and with less autonomy. He died on the 8th February 1884.

Sporting moments

Ottomans Cricket Club was founded in the Bo-Kaap in 1882. The Rovers Rugby Club was founded in Cradock on the 6th September 1882. The first rugby match in Mossel Bay was played on Saturday, 2nd September 1882. Mossel Bay Athletic Club played against George Athletic Club. The first bowling green was laid out in 1882 when a club was established atst George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. In 1882 the Jockey Club was founded by 10 horse-racing members at a meeting held in the Phoenix Hotel in Port Elizabeth. The first South African soccer club was Pietermaritzburg County. On the 17th June 1882, its delegates met at the London Restaurant in Durban ‘s West Street and the Natal Football Association was founded.

Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus was observed from stations in Durban, Touws River, Wellington, Aberdeen Road (a railway stop) and at Cape Town ‘s Royal Observatory.

Banking

District Bank was established in Stellenbosch in 1882. It paid between 5 to 6% on fixed deposits and 2% on current accounts, compared to the Standard Bank which paid an average of 3.5% on fixed deposits and no interest on current accounts. The District Bank did not charge cheque fees or ledger fees. It was later taken over by Boland Bank. The Natal Building Society (NBS) was also established in 1882, in Durban.

New brewery

The Old Cannon Brewery in Newlands was established in 1852. In 1882 it merged with Ohlsson’s Cape Breweries.

Steel industry

South Africa ‘s industrial development has heavy roots in its mining industry. With virtually no steel industry of its own, the country relied on imported steel. The first efforts to introduce steel production dates back to the creation of the South African Coal and Iron Company in 1882. The first successful production of pig iron occurred only in 1901, in Pietermaritzburg.

Mariannhill Monastery

The monastery near Pinetown was founded as a Trappist monastery by Father Francis PFANNER in 1882. It became a renowned missionary institute with schools, a hospital, an art centre and a retreat.

Boswell’s Circus

The BOSWELL family has been involved in the circus business since the 1800s in England. James BOSWELL was born in 1826 and went on to perform in various English circuses as a clown, horseman and equilibrist. He died in the circus ring of Cirque Napoleon in Paris in 1859 while performing a balancing ladder act. He had three 3 children, all of whom performed in circuses. His eldest son, James Clements, opened his own circus, Boswell’s Circus, in 1882 in Yorkshire.

Boswell’s Circus toured England and was very popular until it closed in 1898. James Clements and his five sons – Jim, Alfred, Walter, Sydney and Claude – continued performing in theatres and music halls, and eventually put their own show together called Boswell’s Stage Circus. Madame FILLIS, who owned Fillis’ Circus in South Africa, saw one of their performances and signed them up for a six-month contract. In 1911 James Clements, his sons, Walter and Jim’s wives, six ponies, a donkey and some dogs set sail for South Africa. The family and their animals were stranded when Fillis’ Circus closed down some months later. Fortunately for generations of South African children, this did not stop them and they went on to build a successful business that is still in existence.

Pretoria

A public sale on Church Square, Pretoria, in the 1890's

Church Square was created in 1855, on the orders of M.W. PRETORIUS. The DEVEREAUX brothers, town planners, designed a square for market and church purposes. Pretoria expanded around Church Square. During its early days the square was also used as a sports field and in 1883 the long-jumper Izak PRINSLOO set the first world record by a South African. The first church on the square was completed in 1857, but burnt down in 1882. Burgers Park was established as Pretoria ‘s first park in 1882. On the 14th June 1882, the Transvaalsche Artillerie Corps was formed under the command of Cmdt. H.J.P. PRETORIUS.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus KRUGER, later President of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek, was born on the 10th October 1825. He was so respected by his people that the first Kruger Day was celebrated on the 10th October 1882. The following year it was declared a public holiday. After the Anglo-Boer war it lost official status, until it was again declared a public holiday in 1952. In 1994 the day again lost its official status.

Kimberley

On the 2nd September Kimberley became the first town in the southern hemisphere to install electric street lighting. It was an initiative of the Cape Electric Light Company. Electric lighting was also installed in Parliament in 1882, and an arc-lighting installation was commissioned in the harbour. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Christmas 1882 saw the world’s first electrically-lit Christmas tree installed in the New York house of Thomas EDISON’s associate Edward H. JOHNSON.

The Kimberley Club was founded in August 1881 and opened its doors on the 14th August 1882. Cecil John RHODES was one of the men behind the club’s establishment. Amongst the first members were Charles D. RUDD, Dr. Leander Starr JAMESON, Lionel PHILLIPS and J.B. ROBINSON.

Knysna

The farm Melkhoutkraal was laid out in 1770. In 1808 George REX, who arrived at the Cape in 1797, bought the farm. In 1825 Lord Charles SOMERSET decided to establish a town on the lagoon, to make use of the surrounding forests for ship building. George REX donated 16 ha of land for the new village, named Melville for Viscount MELVILLE, First Sea Lord from 1812 – 1827. Knysna was formally founded in 1882 when the two villages, Melville and Newhaven (founded in 1846) amalgamated.

Muizenberg

In 1882 the railway line reached Muizenberg. The area was originally a cattle outpost for the VOC before it became a military post in 1743. It was named Muijs se Berg after the commander Sergeant Willem MUIJS. Muizenberg was a staging post between Cape Town and Simon’s Town. After the railway line was extended, the area developed fast and became a popular holiday destination.

One of Muizenberg’s prominent residents was Professor James GILL. He was born in Cornwall in 1831 and came to the Cape in 1860, where he took the post of professor of Classics at Graaff-Reinet College. In 1871 he moved to Cape Town as Classics professor at the Diocesan College. He was an opininated man who did good things throughout his career but was also involved in many controversies. He was dismissed from the College in 1882. He opened a private school in Muizenberg and became the editor of the Cape Illustrated Magazine. He died in Muizenberg on the 1st February 1904.

Villiers

The town of Villiers, on the Vaal River, was established in 1882 on the farms Pearson Valley and Grootdraai. It was named after the owner, L.B. DE VILLIERS. In 1882 the Volksraad was requested to open a post office there, and this led to Villiers being proclaimed in 1891. In 1917 it acquired municipal status.

Newcastle

The first government school in Newcastle was established in 1882 as a junior primary school with 47 boys and 30 girls.

Okiep

The Cornish Pump House was built in 1882. It was used to pump water from the mine and this pump house is the only remaining one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

East London

A view of East London in the 1880's

The prison in Lock Street was built in 1880, replacing the old one on the West Bank. It was built by James TYRRELL and comprised an officers’ quarters, administration block, hospital, kitchen and two single-storey cell blocks to hold 100 prisoners. The first execution happened in 1882, for which a drop gallows was placed in the hospital yard. St.Andrew’s Lutheran Church was established by German settlers in 1872. It is the second oldest church in East London and was dedicated on the 30th November 1882.

Grahamstown

City Hall was officially opened on the 24th May 1882 by the acting Mayor Samuel CAWOOD. The foundation stone was laid on the 28th August 1877 by Sir Henry Bartle FRERE, Governor of the Cape.

Durban

Durban Girls’ High School was established in 1882. The old theatre Royale was built in 1882 and had seating for 1 000. It was closed in 1937. The Natal Herbarium was started in 1882 by John Medley WOOD, then Curator of the Durban Botanical Gardens. It was initially known as the Colonial Herbarium but changed its name in 1910 when it was donated by the Durban Botanical Society to the Union of South Africa.

Port Elizabeth

South End Cemetery in Port Elizabeth was started. The country’s oldest art school, Port Elizabeth Art School, was founded in 1882. It later became the College for Advanced Technical Education, originally situated in Russell Road, Central. In 1974 it moved to Summerstrand and became the PE Technikon in 1979.

Kaapsehoop

In 1882 gold was discovered in the Kaapsehoop valley. When a larger deposit of gold was found near the present day Barberton, most of the prospectors moved there. The first payable gold was mined at Pioneer Reef by Auguste ROBERTE (aka French Bob) in June 1883. Barber’s Reef was the next big find in 1884. Sheba ‘s Reef, the richest of all, was discovered by Edwin BRAY in May 1885.

Port Shepstone

Port Shepstone came into being when marble was discovered near the Umzimkulu River mouth in 1867. It flourished from 1879 when William BAZLEY, one of the world’s first underwater demolition experts, blasted away rock at the mouth to form the Umzimkulu breakwater. The town was named after a Mr SHEPSTONE, one of the area’s prominent residents. Before 1901 the area depended solely on a port that was developed inside the river’s mouth. Boats were often wrecked and blocked the harbour entrance, but it provided a vital transport link for the tea, coffee and sugar cane grown by farmers along the river’s banks.

Supplies were brought in on the return voyages from Durban. With the arrval in 1882 of 246 Norwegian, 175 Briton and 112 German settlers, this shipping service became more important. The Norwegians arrived on the 29th August aboard the CHMS Lapland. The new settlers were offered 100 acre lots around the town at 7 shillings and 6 pence an acre. Port Shepstone was declared a full fiscal port in 1893 and, after Durban, became the region’s second harbour. Eventually, with the ongoing ship wreckages and the arrival of the railway, the harbour was closed down.

Harding

In 1882 the first hotel was opened in Harding. The village then consisted of three trading stores and four private homes.

Dundee

Dundee was established on the farm Fort Jones belonging to Peter SMITH, who had bought it from a Voortrekker settler, Mr DEKKER. He named the town Dundee, in memory of his original home in Scotland. By 1879, as a result of the Anglo-Zulu War, a tent town had sprung up on a portion of the farm. British soldiers attracted traders, missionaries, craftsmen and hunters but after their departure the tent town ceased to exist. With his son, William Craighead; son-in-law Dugald MACPHAIL; and Charles WILSON, Peter proclaimed the town in 1882.

Dewetsdorp

The Anglican Church was inaugurated on the 17th December 1882 by the Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein. It was named St. Bartholomew’s. Before this, Anglicans held services in the town hall. The church’s foundation stone was laid on the 18th August. It cost £395 to build and seated 60. Rev. L.A. KIRBY was the first minister. The first baptism was on the 7th January 1883, that of Arthur SKEA. The church was declared a national monument in 1996.

Fort Hare

Fort Hare was built in 1847. It was named after Lt.-Col. John HARE and remained a military post until 1882, when part was given to Lovedale and part to the town of Alice.

Kuruman

The London Missionary Society (LMS) established the Moffat Institute in Kuruman in 1882, as a memorial to Robert and Mary MOFFATT and in the hope that it would revive the mission station.

Upington

Upington’s history starts with Klaas Lukas., a Koranna chief, who asked for missionaries to teach his people to read and write. In 1871 Rev. Christiaan SCHRODER left Namaqualand for Olyvenhoudtsdrift as the Upington area was then known. He built the first church, which today houses the Kalahari-Oranje Museum. In 1879 Sir Thomas UPINGTON visited the area to establish a police post, which was later named after him.

In 1881 SCHRODER, Abraham SEPTEMBER and Japie LUTZ helped build an irrigation canal. Abraham (Holbors) SEPTEMBER, said to be a Baster and the son of a slave from West Africa, was farming in the area in 1860. He was married to Elizabeth GOOIMAN. He devised a way to draw water from the river for irrigation purposes. In 1882 he was granted land facing the river. In 1896 Abraham and Elizabeth drew up a will, bequeathing the land to the survivor and thereafter to their three sons. Abraham died in 1898. In 1909 Elizabeth appeared before the Court in Upington on a charge that squatters where living on the land. It was here that she heard that Willem DORINGS, a smous, was claiming the land as his. This claim was to have repercussions, even in 2000 when the great-great-grandchildren of Abraham were still fighting for the land in the Land Claims Court.

Elizabeth and her sons owed Willem £326, but Willem produced documents that they sold him the land for that sum. The family were under the impression that they had a debt agreement with Willem. They refused to leave the farm and Elizabeth died there in 1918. In 1920 the family were removed from the farm by the new owners who had bought it from Willem. According to Henk WILLEMSE, Abraham’s great-great-grandson, the family started action in 1921 to get their land back. He has documents dating back all these years, which also show that Willem DORINGS was William THORN. Part of their land claim was for the land on which the Prisons Department building stands in Upington’s main road. This belonged to Abraham’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who lost it when service fees were not paid. In 1997 Nelson MANDELA unveiled a memorial plaque to Abraham.

The Waterfront

A view of East London in the 1880's

The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower, situated near the site of the original Bertie’s Landing restaurant in Cape Town, has always been a feature of the old harbour. It was the original Port Captain’s office and was completed in 1882. On the second floor is a decorative mirror room, which enabled the Port Captain to have a view of all activities in the harbour. On the ground floor is a tide-gauge mechanism used to check the level of the tide. Restoration of the Clock Tower was completed in 1997. The Robinson Graving Dock was also constructed in 1882, as was the Pump House. The Breakwater Convict Station was declared a military prison in 1882. This allowed military offenders from ships and shore stations to be committed for hard labour.

Sources:

Drakenstein Heemkring

Afrikanerbakens; Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge publication

Burgersdorp: http://www.burgersdorp.za.net/burgersdorp_photos.html

Maritime Casualties: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/2216/text/MARITIME.TXT

The Will of Abraham and Elizabeth September: The Struggle for Land in Gordonia, 1898-1995; by Martin Legassick; Journal of African History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (1996)

Land Claim Case: http://www.law.wits.ac.za/lcc/wp-content/uploads/jacobs2/jacobs2.pdf

Rapport newspaper, 23 Jan 2000

Boswell’s Circus: http://www.boswell.co.za/

Article researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl, June 2007

Born on the 7th September 1857 in Graaff Reinet; died 11 February 1902 in Cape Town. Trader and amateur musician.Edward Nathan, father of Maurice, was a trader of German-Jewish extraction who emigrated to South Africa in 1850 and lived in Graaff Reinet, where he was married round about 1856. The family was very musical and probably the father personally supervised his children’s musical education. Maurice, Ellen and Johanna are often reported to have been the accompanists of the Choral Society, but Maurice had a marked talent and became prominent in the town’s music after 1881. From accompanist he advanced to become conductor of the Choral Society, accepted the training of a group of Christy Minstrels and in 1881 co-operated with the band leader James Saunders in creating a Musical and Literary Society of which he acted as the Honorary Secretary in 1883. He also opened a music shop in Caledon Street in February 1881, but after trading for only four months he sold it to J.L. Viner. After this activity in Graaff Reinet he started a Music Saloon and Musical Library in Port Elizabeth (October 1883). A characteristic of this venture was that it provided the public with the facilities of a lending library: at a subscription of R3 a year, sheet music could be borrowed for periods of 14 days. In 1885 he also relinquished the Saloon and then, apparently, left for Cape Town.

David Isroff - 7th Mounted Rifles 1916 Aberdeen

The Jewish links to South Africa are said to have originated with the Portuguese voyages of exploration around the Cape in 1452. Jews were involved in these early voyages as mapmakers, navigators and sailors.

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In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck led the first permanent settlement of Dutch colonists under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. With his group were Samuel Jacobson and David Hijlbron, the earliest recorded Jews.

The Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 – 1795 and only permitted Protestant Christians to reside at the Cape despite the significant number of Jewish shareholders in the company. Due to this, Jacobson and Hijlbron were baptized Christians on December 25, 1669, with records of these baptisms found in the registers of the Dutch Reformed Church. This was in contrast to the Dutch West India Company, which sent two hundred Jews to colonize Brazil in 1642.

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Colorful characters such as the soldier Isaac Moses, known as “old Moses the Moneychanger” and Joseph Suasso de Lima of Amsterdam, who started the first Dutch newspaper in SA, arrived. Nathaniel Isaacs, an early explorer of Natal who befriended the famous Zulu chief, Chaka, was a Jew. Early British families include De Pass, who played a major part in the establishment of the shipping, sugar and fishing industries. Saul Solomon founded the English press in Cape Town.

Increased religious freedom, permitted under the short lived Batavian Republic in 1803, continued after the British took control in 1806. In 1820, the British government gave assisted passage and land grants to people willing to settle in the wilds of the Cape Colony. The first group of settlers was known as the 1820 settlers. Early British Jewish immigration occurred with about sixteen Jews arriving amongst the 1820 Settlers. This included the Norden and Norton families who played a significant role in the early development of the Cape Colony. In the 1860′s, other European Jews started to arrive from Germany and Holland.

By 1880, there were about 4,000 Jews in South Africa. It is estimated that more than half of these were brought out from Hesse-Cassel, Germany, by the Mosenthal family, who developed extensive trading operations in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal.

Jewish Refugees en route to South Africa, in Jews' Temporary Shelter

From 1880, Jewish immigration increased rapidly. The pogroms (1881-1884) and other catastrophes – droughts, floods, deportation and fires, particularly in Kovno Gubernia, the Russian province with Kovno ( Kaunas now) were major factors in the emigration. The choice of South Africa was determined by special circumstances and not, on the whole by the attractions it offered to the general run of settlers who were not refugees. There was strong potential for success – in particular with the discovery of the diamond fields in Kimberley in 1869 and the goldfields in the Transvaal in 1886.

Sammy Marks, from Neustadt, Suwalki Gubernia (province), is regarded as the pioneer of Lithuanian emigration – he became a friend of President Paul Kruger and was highly successful as an industrialist. Barney Barnato, London born, was a partner of Cecil John Rhodes in the formation of the De Beers Diamond Company (later control passing to the German Jewish family of Ernest Oppenheimer with the assistance of the Rothschilds).

Over 47,000 Jews were enumerated in the first nationwide census of 1911. Most of these were Lithuanian (Litvaks) from the then provinces of Kovno, Vilna (Lithuania), Courland (Latvia), Northern Suwalki (East Prussia and later Poland) and Minsk, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev (Belarus).

Louis Noick, Ostrich feather dealer

As an undeveloped country, South Africa offered opportunities to early immigrants that were far better than anything they could have had in Eastern Europe. The travelling hawker or “smous” became an institution in the remote rural areas. Many settled in small towns as shopkeepers and tradesmen. A number of very efficient entrepreneurial farmers were founders of the wool industry, ostrich feather industry and the citrus industry.

The Contemporary Community

The distinctive characteristics of this community as compared to other new world communities are:

The predominance of Litvaks (Jews from Lithuania, Latvia and portions of Belarus), hence the unusually homogenous composition of the community.

The very strong influence of Zionism in the South African community.

The amalgam of Anglo-Jewish form and Lithuanian spirit which characterizes the institutions, both lay and religious of the community. The Jewish day school movement is a powerful educational presence and its pupils consistently get excellent scholastic results.

The distinctive situation where Jews had formed part of a privileged minority dominating a multiracial society. This has also led to Jews becoming prominent in the anti-apartheid and liberation movements.

In the past 30 years, there has been a large emigration of Jews to the USA, Canada, Australia, Britain and Israel. Political and economic change has led to an influx of Zimbaweans, Israelis and Russian Jews.

Immigration

At various times attempts were made to limit the influx of Jews, e.g., in 1903, by excludion on the grounds that Yiddish was not a European language. This was successfully countered in the Cape Legislative Assembly.

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Jewish immigrants came by ship with the major port of entry being at Cape Town (a small number entered at Port Elizabeth and Durban). The major waves of migration occurred from 1895 onwards. Shipping agents, Knie and Co. and Spiro and Co., had subagents in shtetls (small towns) who accepted bookings for passage to South Africa.

Embarking initially at the port of Libau (Latvia), a good proportion of the Jews were transported on small cargo boats under rudimentary conditions to England. A much smaller number passed through Hamburg or Bremen.
Upon arriving in England, many came first to Grimsby or London and were taken to the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter (PJTS) in Leman Street in the East End of London.

The Shelter inmates received assistance in the form of board, lodging, medical treatment and travel advice was given by the Shelter. In one year alone, from November, 1902, 3,600 out of 4,500 Shelter inmates went on the Union Castle Line to the Cape. In 1902, the fare was £10.10.0 (ten guineas) – more than the fare to America (For a more detailed discussion of these and shipping records see the article by Prof A Newman SHEMOT Vol. 1:3 1993).

Emigration Records from Great Britain

Ships’ Passenger Lists at the Public Records Office, Kew, London, are stored under reference BT 26 Passenger Lists, Inwards, 1878-1888 and 1890-1960, these lists give the names of all passengers arriving in the United Kingdom where the ship’s voyage began at a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.

Names of passengers who boarded these ships at European ports and disembarked in the UK are included in the lists. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

BT 27 Passenger Lists, Outwards, 1890-1960, give the names of all passengers leaving the UK where the ship’s eventual destination was a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

The Cape Town Archives also houses immigration records of Jewish people which are held in the CCP collections.

Jewish Sources

The Johannesburg Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha). The majority of Jews have been buried in large cities. Johannesburg probably accounts for over 75% of all burials. The earliest record is that of Albert Rosetenstein in May 1887. Burials commenced in 1887 for Braamfontein cemetery, Brixton in 1914 and West Park in 1942).
Specific information about individuals or communities may often be obtained from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Synagogues and communal records include:

Marriages: Marriage authorization certificates and copy Ketubot marriage certificates) and ‘Gets’ (religious divorce)

Religious Institutions:

Orthodox : The Office of the Chief Rabbi can give copies of marriage and divorce certificates. (United Hebrew Congregation). The vast majority of Jews in South Africa are Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazim. These are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. There is also a strong Lubavich (Chabad branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi ) movement and smaller Sephardi (Sephardim are those Jews associated with the Iberian peninsula and whose traditional language is Ladino.The name comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location that may have been Sardes, but identified by later Jews as the Iberian Peninsula (and southern France). In the vernacular of modern-day Israel , Sephardi has also come to be used as an umbrella term for any Jewish person who is not Ashkenaz) and Masorti congregations. There are 48 Orthodox Religious groups listed in Johannesburg.

Reform communities keep separate records (United Progressive Jewish Congregation of Johannesburg). Many Jews remain with a strong identity but outside the religious net. Intermarriage is very common, but emigration is the main limiting factor to population growth. (Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. All human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam – repairing the world – is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people).

South African Online Jewish Genealogy

The Southern Africa SIG (special interest group) was founded in 1998.The SIG publishes a quarterly newsletter. General information about the SA Community and genealogical research is on

The SA-SIG has an electronic discussion group with a free subscription on JewishGen WebForm Centre for Jewish Migration & Genealogy Studies
Our intention is to create a comprehensive database of records and information relating to Jewish immigration to South Africa.
The thinking behind the inception of the Jewish Migration and Genealogy Project is twofold:
to map the entire history of Jewish migration to South Africa with the aim of providing authoritative and definitive data for the Discovery Centre at the South African Jewish Museum (SAJM).
To integrate the genealogical data in multi-disciplinary research initiatives under the auspices of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town.
The primary aim of the project is to research the estimated 15,000 core families who migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.
In broad terms, the research will focus on the locations where the families originated, patterns of migration to South Africa, where families first settled, communities they established, growth of families, and subsequent movements and emigration. As such, aspects such as passenger arrival lists, naturalization lists, community records, records of marriages, births and deaths, family trees, etc., will be looked at.
The centre is under the umbrella of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town and will also have a public access section located at the South African Jewish Museum.
South African Jewish Rootsweb
South African Jewish Museum South Africa Jewish History Virtual Tour
S. A. Special Interest Group for Jewish Genealogy
Jewishgen – Jewish genealogy main site
Witbank Jewish Genealogy site
Jewish South Africa – the South African Jewish community on the Web. Beyachad South Africa Board of Deputies
African Jewish Congress
Telfed – the website for the Southern African Jewish Community in Israel

Notable Personalities, Civic affairs, charities:

Morris Alexander
Bertha Solomon
Dr Henry Gluckman
Helen Suzman

Medicine
Sydney Brenner
Aaron Klug
Sir Raymond Hoffenberg Philip V. Tobias

Law
Issie Maizels
Arthur Chaskelson
Albie Sachs

Arts
Irma Stern
Sir Anthony Sher
Ronald Harwood

Commerce and Industry
Mosenthal family
Oppenheimers

Agriculture
Esreal Lazarus – potato king
Ostrich industry
Citrus- Schlensinger
Motion Pictures- Schlezinger

Insurance
Schlezinger
Doanald Gordon
Sir Mark Wienberg

Acknowledgements and Source: Saul Isroff

Are you looking for marriage records ? Search our records

Are you looking for divorce records ? The National Archives of South Africa keeps them

Marriage Laws Pre 1972

Since the days of Roman law marriage in the Western world has been defined as the legally recognised union of one man and one woman, to the exclusion, while the marriage lasts, of all others. Polygamous unions, being fundamentally opposed to our conception of matrimony, are not recognised as valid marriages. Thus, Bantu customary unions, though by no means without legal effect (see Bantu law), are not marriages in the eyes of South African law. The same is true of a 'marriage' according to Moslem or Hindu rites, even though contracted in India or Arabia, where such marriages are legally recognised. The crucial test in each case is whether the union is potentially polygamous, in other words, whether, according to the rules of the law in question, the 'husband' is permitted to take unto himself another wife while the 'marriage' subsists. Whether or not he has in fact availed himself of this opportunity does not affect the issue.

As marriage is the foundation of the family, which is the basic unit of society, the institution of marriage has always enjoyed the special favour and protection of the law. Covenants calculated to restrain marriage or to lead to the break-up of an existing marriage by divorce or separation are invalid, as being opposed to public policy. On the same ground, conditions in general restraint of marriage in a last will are struck out. Exceptions apply in respect of restraints on the remarriage of widows and widowers and of partial restraints on marriage, such as marriage out of a particular race, religion or nationality (for instance, 'Jewish faith and race' clauses).

Espousals

In the nature of things, marriage is preceded by a contract of engagement – a contract to marry, a betrothal, espousals. Espousals do not require any formalities and may be contracted in any way: orally or by letter, by telegram or on the telephone. Minors require the consent of their parents or legal guardians. Espousals may be cancelled at any time by mutual consent. Either party may terminate the contract unilaterally on the ground of fraud or for any other good reason, e.g., the man discovers after the engagement that the woman has led a dissolute life. Impotence and serious hereditary disease are also grounds for the repudiation of espousals. The sanction for unjustified breach of promise is an action for damages. The wronged party recovers compensation for his or her pecuniary loss as well as for the hurt to his or her feelings. A promise of marriage by a married person is invalid. The mere fact that it is made conditionally upon the existing marriage being dissolved does not redeem it. The promise will, however, give rise to an action for damages if the plaintiff was ignorant of the subsisting marriage of the defendant.

In Roman law a betrothal gave no action for breach of promise, it being considered contrary to the public interest to force a person, directly or by the threat of an action for damages, to proceed to marriage if he or she no longer felt so inclined. Modern opinion is reverting to the view that breach of promise actions are, on the whole, undesirable, and they have been abolished by statute in England (1970) and several American jurisdictions, including the State of New York.

Prohibited degrees

Ascendants and descendants in the direct line – father and daughter, grandfather and granddaughter, and so forth – may not marry each other. Collaterals are prohibited from intermarrying if either of them is related to their common ancestor in the first degree of descent. Thus a man may not marry his sister, half-sister, niece or grand-niece. There is, on the other hand, no obstacle to marriage between cousins, including first cousins. As regards relations by marriage, a man may marry his deceased or divorced wife's sister, aunt or niece; but he may not marry his former wife's mother or her daughter by a previous husband. The same rules apply as between a woman and her former husband's relations.

Mixed marriages

Under the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (No. of 1949) marriage is prohibited between Whites and non-Whites-Bantu, Asiatics and Coloured persons. Before that there was no legal obstacle to intermarriage between White and non White, though no machinery for the purpose existed in the Transvaal. There is no prohibition of intermarriage between the different non-White races.

The marriage ceremony

The formalities of marriage are regulated by the Marriage Act (No. 25 of 1961) and the Marriage Amendment Act (No. 51 of 1970). In order to be valid the ceremony must be performed by a marriage officer before two witnesses. The parties must be personally present – marriage by proxy is not permitted in South African law. Magistrates and Bantu commissioners are ex officio marriage officers. Clergymen must be appointed as marriage officers by the Minister of the Interior before they may perform marriage ceremonies. The parties can choose whether they want to be married in secular form by a magistrate or in religious form by a clergyman of their faith. No preliminary formalities, such as banns, notices of intention to marry, or marriage licences are prescribed. After the ceremony the parties and the witnesses are required to sign the marriage register, but omission to do so does not affect the validity of the marriage.

Minors' marriages

In Roman-Dutch law the earliest age at which a person could marry was 14 years for boys and 12 for girls, legal age of puberty since the days of ancient Rome. Today the earliest age at which a minor can legally marry in South Africa is 18 for boys and 12 for girls. A minor desirous of marrying at an earlier age must obtain, in addition to the consent of his parents or legal guardian, permission in writing from the Minister of the Interior, which is not readily granted. Boys and girls above the ages of 18 and 15 respectively, may marry provided they obtain the consent of their parents or, if they have no parents, of their legal guardian. If parents or guardians are absent or otherwise incapable of consenting, the Commissioner of Child Welfare may authorise the marriage.

Refusal of the parents can only be overruled by the Supreme Court. Lack of parental consent renders the marriage voidable at the instance of the aggrieved parents or parent. If the parents do not avail themselves of this right, the marriage holds good, but the major spouse can at no time take any financial benefit from the estate of the erstwhile minor, be it by community of property, antenuptial contract, testament or otherwise. The whole matter is regulated exhaustively by the Marriage Act of 1961.

Invariable consequences of marriage

Marriage creates a status recognised and protected by law. Its essential consequences cannot be varied by the parties by mutual agreement. Thus they cannot effectively stipulate before the marriage that they will not live together, or that the husband shall be entitled to keep a mistress, or that either of them shall give the other a divorce on request.

The husband has the final say in all matters concerning the common life, but may not enforce his decisions by applying physical restraint to his wife, nor has he, in modern law, a right of chastisement over her. As long as the marriage subsists, she shares legally his domicile, but in modern South African law she does not automatically assume his nationality.

Spouses are under reciprocal duties to support each other in illness and health. Normally, the duty to maintain his wife and family devolves upon the husband as the main breadwinner; but if he is an invalid or, owing to no fault of his, unemployed while his wife has means or is able to work, the duty of support devolves upon her. Where the husband, though able to do so, neglects or refuses to maintain his wife and children, the magistrate's court (maintenance court) will grant her a maintenance order which will be enforced, if necessary, by deductions from his wages or, in the final resort, by imprisonment.

Another invariable consequence of marriage is the prohibition of donations between spouses. This prohibition originated in Roman law and was, at one time, fairly common on the Continent, but has disappeared from most modern systems of law, though not from the South African. Contrary to widely held views, the purpose of the prohibition is not so much to protect the creditors of the spouses against fraudulent donations – the provisions of the Insolvency Act are designed for this purpose – but to protect the spouses against their own generosity. The Roman lawyers felt, rightly or wrongly, that, if donations between spouses were fully permitted, the stronger or more rapacious spouse might be tempted to enrich himself at the expense of the other. The rule prohibiting donations is of little practical importance where the marriage is in community of property. As everything belongs to both spouses in common, there is, legally, no room for a donation. The position is otherwise where the marriage is out of community of property. If one of the spouses makes a substantial donation of money, shares or real estate to the other, the donor can at any time revoke his or her gift. The same is true of a gratuitous release from a debt. Moderate donations on proper occasions – birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas celebrations – are not touched by the rule. Statutory exceptions apply to life insurance and endowment policies. A prohibited donation becomes confirmed if the donor spouse dies before the donor spouse, without having revoked the gift. If the donor spouse dies first, the donor spouse can still revoke the gift.

Community of property and the marital power

In the absence of an antenuptial contract, marriage in South African law results in universal community of property and profit and loss. The wife becomes subject to her husband's marital power. Community of property and profit and loss, with subjection of the wife to her husband's marital power, was the matrimonial regime of Holland as early as the 13th century. Modern European legal systems do not have universal community of property on South African lines. England, Scotland, the majority of the states of the United States, Rhodesia, and the common law provinces of Canada have complete separation of goods. A number of countries, including France, and several states of the United States (so-called 'community-jurisdictions'), including California and Louisiana, have community of profit and loss. Several continental countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, have deferred community or participation systems. During the marriage each spouse owns and administers independently of the other whatever he or she has brought into the marriage or acquired thereafter. On dissolution of the marriage by death or divorce, there is sharing. Thus, in the Netherlands, the estates of the spouses are pooled and shared, substantially, as if they had been married in universal community. In Germany, only the profits made by the spouses during the marriage are pooled and shared. It will be seen that under such a system the wife retains her own property and independence during the marriage, but that there is participation in each other's estate when the marriage is dissolved, thus combining the advantages of a system of separation of goods with those of a community system.

As the words 'community of property and profit and loss' indicate, the community system of South African law is all-embracing. 'Whatever either spouse brings into the marriage or acquires during the marriage in any manner whatsoever falls into the joint estate: wages, fees and royalties; pensions and retirement benefits; gifts and inheritances; dividends and interest; lottery wins and gambling gains. A person who gives or bequeathes property to a married person may prescribe that it shall be excluded from the community and, where the wife is the donor, from the marital power. Special rules apply to life insurance and endowment policies which a husband has ceded to, or effected in favour of, his wife.

Together with the assets, the liabilities of both spouses, whether antenuptial or postnuptial, and however incurred, become common.

Nominally, the husband's marital power extends over his wife's person and property. As far as person goes, this means little today, except that the wife may not sue or be sued without her husband's assistance. The days when a husband could direct his wife's personal life or apply ‘moderate chastisement' to her are past. The proprietary aspects, on the other hand, are formidable. By virtue of his marital power the husband is the sole administrator of the joint estate. His powers of disposition at common law are practically unlimited. Without his wife's knowledge and consent and without being obliged even to render account to her, he may sell, give away or hypothecate (i.e. mortgage or pledge) any property, movable or immovable, irrespective of whether he or his wife has brought it into the community or acquired it for the community during the marriage. His contracts, however foolish or wasteful, are binding on her, without the possibility of redress, both during the marriage and after its dissolution.

The corollary of the husband's dictatorial powers over community assets is the legal incapacity of the wife, who is reduced to a legal position little better and in many ways worse than that of a minor. Without her husband's assistance, she cannot bind herself in contract. Nor can she effectively alienate or hypothecate community assets. Payment to her, unless it reaches her husband, does not release a debtor. There are two time – hallowed exceptions. First, by virtue of her position as manageress of the joint household, the wife can bind her husband's credit for food, clothing and other necessaries for the household and its members. Secondly, a woman who with her husband's consent carries on a public trade or profession can bind both her husband and herself by contracts and other transactions within the scope of that trade or profession.

Dark as the overall picture of the wife's subjection to her husband's powers in matters contractual and proprietary is, it is not, however, altogether devoid of relieving features. While the husband may freely make donations out of the joint estate to third persons, without requiring his wife's consent, she (or her heirs) may recover such donations from him or the donees if the donations were made by him in deliberate fraud of his wife (or her heirs), e.g., if he gave away large portions of the joint estate to his mistress or to children of an earlier marriage of his. And if the husband by his prodigality or poor administration threatens to reduce her to destitution, she may apply for protection to the court, which may make whatever order is appropriate in the circumstances:

interdict him from further administration; order separation of goods; restrain him from disposing of specified assets. In extreme cases, the husband may be interdicted as a prodigal and the wife appointed as his curatrix. If the husband mala fide or unreasonably refuses to assist his wife in a legal transaction or lawsuit, the court may authorise her to act on her own. In addition, there are now a number of statutory provisions restricting the husband's powers and increasing those of the wife. The main provisions of this kind are found in the Matrimonial Affairs Act (No. 37 of 1953). Result of the labours of the Women's Legal Disabilities Commission, appointed in 1946 under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice P. 5. Twentyman Jones, this Act is intended to provide enhanced legal status for the wife. It had been advocated in Parliament for many years by Mrs. Bertha Solomon.

As regards immovables, the Act lays down a procedure by which land and other immovable property forming part of the community which the wife has brought into the marriage, or which have been paid for out of her earnings, or which have come to her during the marriage by gift or inheritance, or which have been purchased out of the proceeds of any of the aforementioned categories, can be protected against disposition by her husband. On application by the wife or the husband, the fact that the property in question falls into one of these classes will be registered against the title – deeds. Once this has been done, the husband is no longer able to alienate, hypothecate or otherwise burden the property without his wife's written consent.

As regards movable property, the Act provides, inter alia, that the husband may not, without the written consent of his wife, collect or take earnings due to her from her employer; receive or take any compensation awarded to her in respect of personal injuries; withdraw or take any deposit standing in her name in the Post Office Savings Bank, a building society or a bank; alienate or pledge any shares held by her in a building society; receive or take any dividends on or the proceeds of building society shares; alienate or pledge any tool or implement of trade with which his wife is earning remuneration (say, her typewriter or sewing-machine). The wife's legal capacity is correspondingly enhanced. Thus, even a wife who is married to her husband in community and subject to his marital power, can, without his consent open and operate on a current or savings account with a bank, and her husband may not, without her written consent, demand from her bank particulars concerning her deposits. She still requires her husband's consent, however, before she may overdraw on her account. Though protected against the husband's dispositions, the aforementioned items nevertheless remain part of the community estate and are liable to attachment for community debts, with the sole exception of the husband's bottle-store debts.

Antenuptial contracts

By means of an antenuptial contract it is possible to exclude community of property and of profit and loss as well as the marital power, and to provide for marriage settlements. Theoretically, it is possible to insert succession clauses in an antenuptial contract, but in modern practice this is hardly ever done. It would appear that approximately a third of all marriages in South Africa are by antenuptial contract. Spouses married by the standard type of antenuptial contract are substantially in the same position as spouses married under English law – there is complete separation of goods. In order to be fully effective, an antenuptial contract must be notarially executed before the parties marry and must be tendered for registration in the Deeds Registry Office within two months of its execution. Where the marriage is contracted outside South Africa, the parties must have the contract attested by a notary or his nearest local equivalent and tender it for registration in a deeds registry in the Republic within six months of its execution. If one of the parties is a minor, the consent of his or her natural or legal guardian is required. Postnuptial contracts are not permitted in South African law. They used to be allowed in Natal, but this was changed in 1956. The court may permit the postnuptial registration of an antenuptial contract if the parties are able to satisfy it that they agreed prior to their marriage to exclude community of property and profit and loss and the marital power; that their failure to execute a formal antenuptial contract was due to excusable ignorance; and that they came to court immediately they discovered the true position.

Dissolution of the marriage by death

Where the marriage was in community of property, the surviving spouse takes half of the joint estate. The other half goes to the heirs of the first-dying spouse. Where the marriage was by antenuptial contract, the surviving spouse takes whatever marriage settlements he or she is entitled to in terms of the contract. If the first-dying spouse does not leave a will, the surviving spouse succeeds to him or her in accordance with the provisions of the Succession Act (No. 13 of 1934). There is, however, nothing to preclude a man or woman from disinheriting his or her spouse. The result may be that, unless the marriage is in community of property or there arc substantial marriage settlements, the surviving spouse is left destitute. In this event, he or she is not even entitled to maintenance out of the estate of the first-dying, however wealthy the latter may have been. The surviving spouse may remarry as soon as he or she pleases, but will normally be required to make the necessary provision for minor children of the first marriage.

Divorce

There are four grounds for divorce in South African law: adultery; malicious desertion; incurable insanity, the afflicted spouse having been detained in a mental institution in South Africa for a continuous period of not less than 7 years; imprisonment for 5 years, after a declaration of habitual criminality. Where the divorce is based on adultery, malicious desertion and, perhaps, imprisonment, the divorce court can award the innocent spouse maintenance until death or remarriage. An order of forfeiture of the financial benefits derived from the marriage may be made against the guilty spouse. In deciding to whom the custody and guardianship of minor children of the spouses is to be awarded, the courts are guided primarily by what is best for the children. Questions of innocence and guilt are of secondary importance. The burden of maintaining the minor children after the divorce falls on both spouses, in accordance with their means. After the divorce the wife, whether she be the innocent or the guilty party, is free to retain her married name or assume any surname she bore previously. Adultery used to be a crime in Roman Dutch law, but is so no longer. Nor is there anything in the law today to preclude the guilty spouse from marrying his or her paramour. The innocent spouse has, however, an action for damages against the third party with whom his or her spouse has committed adultery – often colloquially referred to as the 'co-respondent'. Normally this action is coupled with the action for divorce, but the innocent spouse may forgive his or her spouse and still bring the action for damages against the latter's paramour.

Nullity and annulment

Whereas a divorce is based on something which happened during the marriage, a decree of nullity or an annulment is granted on the ground of a defect or obstacle which existed at the time of the marriage. A decree of nullity is made in respect of a marriage which is null and void from the beginning, such as a bigamous marriage. Other examples are a marriage contracted without the prescribed formalities, a marriage contracted by an insane person, a marriage within the prohibited degrees of relationship, a mixed marriage, and a marriage contracted by a boy below the age of 18 or a girl below the age of 15 with out the consent of the Minister of the Interior having been obtained. If one party or both parties to a void marriage were bona fide – for instance, the girl did not know that the man with whom she went through a form of marriage was married – children of the union will be legitimate (so-called putative marriage).

Among the factors which render a marriage liable to annulment are lack of parental consent to a minor's marriage and duress. Mistake as to a spouse's age, name, religion, nationality, qualities or fortune, even if induced by fraud, do not render the marriage liable to annulment. Thus a man cannot have a marriage set aside if he discovers, after the marriage, that the girl who presented herself to him as a virgin was in fact a divorcee or an ex-prostitute. Nor can a woman have her marriage annulled if she finds out that the man who represented himself to her as a respectable man of means is in fact an impecunious ex-convict. A marriage may, however, be annulled at the instance of either spouse if at the time of the marriage the other party was, unknown to him or her, incurably impotent (sterility not accompanied by impotence is not sufficient); and at the instance of the husband if at the time of the marriage his wife was, unknown to him, pregnant by another man.

Separation

Separation lies somewhere between a living marriage and a divorce. In order to obtain a decree of judicial separation, the plaintiff must prove adultery or malicious desertion or show that, on account of the defendant's unlawful conduct, life together has become dangerous or intolerable to him or her. As a rule the action is based on physical or mental cruelty. A decree of judicial separation does not sever the marriage tie and does not permit adultery, but authorises the spouses to live apart. Judicial separation was taken over from the law of the medieval Church, which regarded marriage as indissoluble. Up to this day it is the only matrimonial remedy open to Roman Catholics who do not wish to offend against the canons of their creed. A voluntary deed of separation is sometimes entered into by spouses who wish to separate, but do not want to wash their dirty linen in public. Like a judicial order of separation, a deed of separation, usually (but not necessarily) entered into in notarial form, is a licence for living apart, but no more.

In the early days of the settlement at the Cape people of note were buried inside church buildings. Provision for a place of worship was at once made inside the Castle. Consequently the Rev. Joan van Arckel was laid to rest at that particular spot in the unfinished Castle in Jan. 1666. Only a fortnight earlier he himself had officiated at the laying of one of the four foundation stones of the new defence structure. A few months later the wife of Commander Zacharias Wagenaer was buried in the same ground; likewise Commander Pieter Hackius, who died on 30th November 1671. By 1678 the little wooden church inside the Castle proved too small, and when a new site was selected provision was made for a cemetery immediately outside the church, but the custom of burials inside the building continued. The whole piece of ground where the Groote Kerk and its adjacent office building now stand was enclosed by a strong wall. People were buried on this site before the completion of the church building. The first to be buried there was the Rev. Petrus Hulsenaar, who died on 15th December 1677 and was laid to rest where the church was to be built. The bodies of those who were buried in the wooden church inside the Castle were reinterred here in a common grave. After that a fee equivalent to about R12 was charged for a grave inside the church, as against R1.00 for a burial-place in the churchyard.

The church building was completed in 1703, and the first governor buried inside its walls was Louis van Assenburgh, who died on Sunday, 27th December 1711. The following year ex-Governor Simon van der Stel died on 24th June and was buried inside the church; a memorial was put up behind the pulpit. He was followed by several notable persons, all buried inside the building: Governor Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes, whose death occurred on 8th September 1724; Governor Pieter Gijsbert Noodt (died 23rd April 1729); the wife of Governor Jan de la Fontaine (June 1730), Governor Adriaan van Kervel (19th September 1737) and Governor elect Pieter, Baron van Reede, who died at sea on the way out and was buried in the church on 16th April 1773. The last of the Governors to be buried in the Groote Kerk was Ryk Tulbagh. Although his death occurred on 11th August 1771, the burial was postponed 17th August to enable country folk to attend the funeral of the `Father' of the people. Some memorial tablets and escutcheons can still be seen at the Groote Kerk, but most disappeared during rebuilding operations, including that of Simon van der Stel. The escutcheon- of Baron Pieter van Reede is still to be seen on the outside wall of the enlarged building near the original steeple. Another conspicuous tablet, but of a much later date, is that of Chief Justice Sir John Truter and Lady Truter, who died in 1845 and 1849 respectively and were buried in the churchyard a few years after the reconstruction. It is believed that the first Jan Hendrik Hofineyr in South Africa, who was superintendent of De Schuur and died in 1805, lies buried in the little cemetery still preserved at Groote Schuur, but it is impossible to identify his grave.

Notable Huguenot personalities are buried in Huguenot cemeteries at French Hoek, La Motte and Dal Josafat. A historic Jewish cemetery has been preserved in Woodstock, while many notable figures lie buried in the cemeteries at Mowbray and Woltemade. The Cape Malay community at all times took a pride in the graves of their leaders who died at the Cape. Apart from the kramat at Faure where Sheik Yusuf lies buried, there are kramats on the slopes of Signal Hill, being tombs of Khordi Abdusalem, Tuan Said (Syed), Tuan Guru and Tuan Nurman. New structures were erected here in 1969.

Comdt. Tjaart van der Walt, 'the Lion-Heart', was buried in 1802 where he fell in battle against the Xhosa tribes in the hills at Cambria, a few km from the Gamtoos valley. Dr. John Philip of the London Missionary Society, who died in 1851, is buried near Hankey railway station in the Gamtoos valley, and with him his son William Enowy, who drowned on the day when his father's water scheme was officially opened. Frederik Cornelis Bezuidenhout, whose death in 1815 was the prelude to the Slachter's Nek Rebellion, lies buried on his farm on the upper reaches of the Baviaans River, near the Bedford-Tarka road. A significant number of British settlers and sons of the 1810 Settlers were killed in battle in the Frontier Wars. At least one had the place he was buried named after him – Bailie's Grave near Keiskammahoek in the Ciskei; Charles Bailie, son of Lt. John Bailie, the founder of East London, was killed here in the Sixth Frontier War. Settler cemeteries in various parts of the Eastern Province contain the graves of many leading pioneers.

At Keiskammahoek is Gaika's grave, proclaimed a national monument. He was the founder of the Gaika tribe and died in 1829. The grave of his son and successor, Sandile, killed in the Ninth Frontier War in 1878 and buried at Stutterheim, has been provided with a bronze inscription by the Historical Monuments Commission. In Durban, the cemetery of the Old Fort has been proclaimed a national monument along with the fort itself; also the grave of Lt. King on the B1uff (James Saunders King was one of the original settlers at Port Natal). The site was also proclaimed where a few Voortrekkers fell fighting against the British at Congella station.

In Zululand is Piet Retief's grave where he was buried, next to the other victims of the massacre, in 1839 in the present Babanango district by the Commando that avenged his death. Near by, on the battlefield of Italeni, European graves have been found recently by Dr. H. C. de Wet and farmers of the neighbourhood. Two graves, some distance away from the others, may possibly be those of Comdt. Piet Uys and his son Dirkie. The graves have as yet not been opened nor identified with any degree of certainty. In the immediate vicinity of Dingaan's Kraal, where Retief lies buried, the Historical Monuments Commission's bronze plaques protect several Zulu graves: Senzangakona, founder of the Zulu nation and father of Shaka, Dingaan, Mpande and Mageba – all in the district of Babanango. When Dinuzulu died near Middelburg (Tvl.) in 1913 his last wish was granted – to be buried with his fathers. His grave, like that of Senzangakona, has an inscription in the Zulu language only. The memorial to Shaka near Stanger has been proclaimed a national monument; also Mpande's kraal and grave in the Mahlabatini district. Cetewayo's kraal, also in Mahlabatini, has the Commission's plaque. Comdt. Hans de Lange's grave at Besters station near Ladysmith has been preserved.

In the Orange Free State the grave of Moroka, chief of the Seleka branch of the Barolong tribe near Thaba Nchu, has been provided with a bronze plaque. Of the Republican presidents three lie buried in Free State soil: J. P. Hoffman at Smithfield, J. H. Brand in the Old Cemetery at Bloemfontein, and M. T. Steyn at the foot of the National Women's Monument. President J. N. Boshof's grave is in the Old Cemetery at Pietermaritzburg, that of M. W. Pretorius in Potchefstroom, and F. W. Reitz at Woltemade in Cape Town. Gen. C. R. de Wet and the Rev. J. D. Kestell rest at the foot of the National Women's Monument, where the ashes of Emily Hobhouse are also preserved. Sarel Cilliers is buried at Doornkloof near Lindley.

Much of the early history of Kimberley can be read from tombstones in three old cemeteries: the Pioneers' cemetery; Du Toitspan cemetery, where the victims of the concentration camp (1901- 02) were laid to rest; and the Gladstone cemetery which contains the graves of Lt.-Col. N. Scott-Turner of the Black Watch, of George Labram, maker of `Long Cecil', and of those who fell during the siege of Kimberley at Fourteen Streams, Dronfield and Carter's Ridge.

Interest in Pretoria centres largely round the Heroes' Acre in the Old Cemetery in Church Street West where Paul Kruger was buried, and Andries Pretorius as well as President T. F. Burgers were reinterred in 1891 and 1895 respectively. The children of A. H. Potgieter refused the reinterment of their father and so he still rests where he died, at Schoemansdal in the Zoutpansberg. Of the Prime Ministers of the Union of South Africa, two lie in the Heroes' Acre, namely J. G. Strijdom and Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, while Gen. Louis Botha was buried in the same cemetery, but before a corner of it had come to be designated Heroes' Acre. Gen. J. B. M. Hertzog is buried on his farm Waterval in the Witbank district. Gen. J. C. Smuts was cremated and his ashes scattered on a koppie on his farm near Irene. Dr. Malan was laid to rest in the cemetery outside Stellenbosch, as well as the President elect, Dr. T. E. Donges. Dr. E. G. Jansen, Governor-General, was buried in the Heroes' Acre.

Of the Prime Ministers of the Cape Colony, Dr. L. S. Jameson died in-London, W: P. Schreiner in Wales, and T. C. Scanlan in Salisbury, while Cecil John Rhodes rests at World's View in the Matopos. The first Prime Minister, Sir John Molteno, lies in Claremont cemetery, Sir Thomas Upington at Maitland, Sir Gordon Sprigg at Mowbray; and John X. Merriman, though he died at Stellenbosch, was laid to rest in Maitland cemetery. J. H. Hofmeyr (`Onze Jan'), by whose grace the Prime Ministers ruled, is buried at Somerset West. Of the Prime Ministers of Natal, Sir Henry Binns, who died at Pietermaritzburg, was buried in the military cemetery, Durban. Natal's first Prime Minister, Sir John Robinson, lies in the Church of England cemetery in Durban; Sir Frederick Moor at Estcourt, Sir George Sutton at Howick, and C. J. Smythe at Nottingham Road. Sir Albert Hime died abroad. The only Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony (1907-10), Abraham Fischer, died in Cape Town and was buried at Maitland.

Of the Boer generals among the older generation, Piet Joubert was buried on his farm Rustfontein in Wakkerstroom, in accordance with his own request; Schalk Burger on his farm Goedgedacht in Lydenburg, Piet Cronje on his farm Mahemsvlei in Klerksdorp, and J. H. de la Rey in the Western Transvaal town Lichtenburg. Of the famous South African literary figures, Olive Schreiner, initially buried at Maitland, was reinterred on the summit of Buffelskop, near Cradock; Jan Lion Cachet and Totius (J. D. du Toit) at Potchefstroom, and Jan F. E. Celliers in the Old Cemetery, Pretoria; while C. Louis Leipoldt's ashes were interred on the Pakhuisberg in Clanwilliam. The co-founder of the Kruger National Park, Piet Grobler, was buried in the New Cemetery, Pretoria, and the best-known finance minister of the Union, N. C. Havenga, at his home town Fauresmith. Public-spirited communities as well as private families all over South Africa have at numerous places gone to great trouble to preserve the graves of pioneers and public figures. At Ohrigstad the tombstones of Voortrekker graves have been brought together in a concrete but in the form of an ox-wagon, the oldest stone being that of J. J. Burger, born at Stellenbosch, over 1 600 km away, in the 18th century.