Blog - Knysna Museums

Knysna gallery celebrates 25th anniversary

2023-09-26T00:00:00+02:00

One of Knysna’s iconic institutions will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

Knysna Fine Art was established by Trent Read in 1998 in a converted woodworker’s shop on the corner of Gray and Gordon Streets. This brought a new concept to Knysna: the finest contemporary art shown at its best in bright, light-filled rooms designed specifically for their purpose.

From the beginning, the new gallery offered space to young people who were passionate about making art, and the gallery’s numerous exhibitions and one-person shows quickly gained a reputation for their quality and variety.

NEW PREMISES

When the building’s owners sold the property for development, Knysna Fine Art moved to new premises – also in Gray Street – but they weren’t a good fit so, when an exciting space became available in Thesen House, the gallery moved again into its present position.

Mr Read - who is considered one of the foremost authorities on art in South Africa - now runs the business with curator Corli de Kock, who is herself an artist, and who, Mr Read says, has a “particular empathy for creative people.”

“Making progress in the art world is difficult for artists,” said Ms de Kock. “You can’t get anywhere unless you have a resume and a list of exhibitions behind you, and you can’t get an exhibition unless you have a resume.

“So it’s a privilege and a pleasure for us to be able to provide the space when we find someone who has the talent.”

BUOYANT MARKET

Mr Read said that the art market is currently “surprisingly buoyant.” He ascribes this to the rand-dollar exchange rate, and to the fact that the gallery deals with many overseas clients.

“We’re exporting enormous amounts at the moment – particularly sculptures. South African artists punch way above their weight in the quality of their work, and with South African foundries producing similarly outstanding work, our bronzes are in especial demand.”

Mr Read said, however, that the art market in Knysna remains challenging. “I opened the gallery here because I live here, not because it’s a good place for a gallery to be – and that’s why the real highlight of our 25 years in Knysna is the fact that we’ve survived and thrived.”

Besides their work in Knysna, both Mr Read and Ms de Kock consult to other galleries and to museums in South Africa and abroad, as well as to designers and architects, offering expert advice on selection and display of art pieces, and the design of the spaces in which they are exhibited. They also conduct valuations for insurance and probate.

NEW HORIZONS

Mr Read said that the gallery - which has recently expanded its retail space to 900 square metres – will soon be hosting a series of installations on loan from a major collector.

“In this way the gallery will take on the role that museums play in the larger centres.”

The first such installation, which will open in October, will be Willem Boshoff’s ‘Blind Alphabet’ – a piece that’s part of the art syllabus. In it, the captions on the artefacts are made in Braille – rather than in plain text – which for once allows the blind to interpret the exhibition for the sighted, rather than the other way round.

Following this, Knysna Fine Art will open a “major exhibition” on 25 and 26 November in celebration of its birthday.

More information: www.finearts.co.za

Leisure Isle Boat Club: the founding story

2022-03-07T00:00:00+02:00

Way back in the 1960s and 70s a number of Leisure Isle boaters and fishermen, including my own late father, moored their boats at Lands End and in the Kingfisher Creek area at the north-western tip of Leisure Isle. The little basin at Kingfisher Creek must have been established around the time of the original development of Leisure Isle because by the time my parents had their honeymoon on the Island in December 1940, it was well-established and obviously used as a place to moor boats. There was also a small, narrow channel created around the tip of land at the Kingfisher Creek. As time went by the basin and channel slowly silted up and the landing stage collapsed, but boats continued to be moored there.

This photo of the small mooring facility at Kingfisher Creek was taken in December 1940 and shows that the small basin there must have been part of the original development of Leisure Isle in the early 1930s.

It was a tranquil, peaceful place and I have many fond memories of setting off from Kingfisher Creek on a fishing trip with my father. Some of the names I remember him mentioning were Leo Isaac, Jenks Jones, Jimmy Janes and Arnold Jackson and there must have been a number of others. I also clearly remember discussion at that time around the need to create a storage hut for outboard motors, and boating gear because even then it was unwise to leave any equipment in a boat.

A watercolour of boats moored at Kingfisher Creek by the artist A A Telford, a retired architect who lived at the Heads for many years. This must have been painted in the late 1960’s and is one of many scenes painted by the artist in and around Knysna thus preserving a valuable record of bygone days in the area. Kingfisher Creek was a beautiful, tranquil place cherished by the Leisure Isle fishermen who moored their boats there. The stump of that tree is stiil there.

It is at this point that the old LIBC records come in and where the story of the establishment of the Leisure Isle Boat Club begins with a letter dated 14 April 1981 from the Leisure Isle Country Club (LICC) to the Knysna Municipality in which LICC announces its intention to form a Boating Section and asks for comment from the Municipality related to the improvement of the then road leading from Links Drive to Kingfisher Creek, clearing of bush, construction of a storage facility, a jetty and a slipway and car and trailer park.

Who could have realised at the time that a single, simple letter like that would set in motion a chain of events spanning the next 13 years before those early dreams would see the establishment of our fabulous Peter Gordon Harbour!

In August 1981 representatives of the informal boating section of LICC met with the Municpality on site to explain their proposals and in December of the same year the Knysna Town Council gave approval to “improve and develop” the Kingfisher Creek area. This must have given rise to much excitement and jubilation and in March 1982 the Chairman of the LICC Boating Section, Mr L F Isaac, sent out a notice to convene a meeting in order to formalise the Boating Section with its own list of members.

And so it came to be that on 16 March 1982 the Leisure Isle Country Club Boating Section officially came into being with its own list of members and Constitution ( which was based on the LICC Constitution). The initial membership was about 45 persons.

A newspaper cutting dated 25 March 1982 announcing the formation of the Leisure Isle Country Club Boating Section and describing what was intended to be created at Kingfisher Creek.

At this point, I can well imagine that the newly formed Boating Section Committee was dying to get going with their scheme to provide “harbour” facilities at Kingfisher Creek, but they must have been frustrated by the drawn out red tape in dealing with the authorities! It is interesting to note that it would appear that at that time the intention must have been to create an extremely simple and modest facility. Space at Kingfisher Creek is very limited and there is only talk of car parking, a small storage room and re-establishing the old landing stage. There is no mention of jetties or dredging and so it must have been the intention to have a facility accessible only at high tide.

This sketch of the planned facilities at Kingfisher Creek gives an idea of what was envisaged. Eventually National Parks Board put paid to the scheme by making it clear that no form of dredging of any nature would be allowed in the area and at that point the Committee’s attention started to focus elsewhere on Leisure Isle.

The next few years from 1982 to about 1984 must have been frustrating with little progress being made, but the intrepid Leisure Isle Boating Section continued with their planning and dreams. There are some interesting sketches of a contraption that may have been envisaged as providing a launching facility related to the old landing stage at Kingfisher creek and other sketches are of a proposed LIBC flag. There is also a newspaper article reporting on problems with illegal dumping of builders rubble and illegal overnight camping at Kingfisher Creek.

An interesting sketch of what seems to be a cradle intended to lanch boats at Kingfisher Creek and possibly to be used to enable boat owners to maintain their boats.

The development of the Leisure Isle Boat Club identity must have been foremost in the minds of the club committee and I am sure these sketches of a proposed pennant and the kingfisher to appear thereon would have been lovingly created during dreary, miserable winter days dreaming of what was to come!

In the meantime negotiations carried on with the municipality all aimed at getting approval to improve the access and bush clearing at Kingfisher Creek. By then, the National Parks Board (now SANParks) were taking over control of the Knysna Estuary and surrounds and there seems to have been much uncertainty about who had control over what (not much has changed in that respect!) and the authorities were not willing to allow any work to be done until new regulations for the then proposed Knysna National Lake Area had been drafted and published. This finally happened on 13 December 1985. It would appear that the LICC Boating Section ideas had evolved by then and a letter dated 2 July 1986 mentions the establishment of four “floating cat-walks with finger jetties” designed to accommodate 64 boats with room for expansion. It would appear that the intention was to construct the jetties in the Kingfisher Creek bay and it would have been essential to dredge a basin although there is no mention of this in the correspondence. At that point, in July 1986 a letter was received from National Parks Board to the LICC Boating Section which essentially states that the approval process would have to start all over again and in September 1986 a further letter from National Parks Board informed LICC that any construction of boating facilities would have to be held in abeyance until a “structure plan” for Knysna had been completed.

The fortitude of Leo Isaac and his Committee must be commended because by then most of us would have given up, and indeed, had they known what still lay ahead, I am quite sure that they would have thrown in the towel there and then. In retrospect, had it not been for all these impediments, one has to wonder what would have become of boating on Leisure Isle, and perhaps, in the long run, all the delays meant that we ended up with the best possible outcome. Who knows???

The years 1986 to 1988 seem to have been occupied largely by a lot of correspondence between various bodies, including LICC Boating Section, the Municipality and National Parks Board around various aspects of the regulations declaring the Knysna Estuary and its surrounds as a Lake Area, while in the background the LICC Boating Section continued to chip away at trying to get approval from the authorities to upgrade Kingfisher Creek. In October 1988 their plans were dealt what must have been a body blow at the time when National Parks Board finally unequivocally advised that no dredging would be allowed in the Kingfisher Creek area. In April 1989 the LICC Boating Section sent a strongly worded letter to National Parks Board and it would appear that this had the desired effect, because on 6 June 1989 a letter was sent by National Parks Board to the “Leisure Isle Boat Club” stating that while the development of any form of harbour in the Kingfisher Creek area could not be considered “for ecological reasons” they would be prepared to consider an application for a facility elsewhere on Leisure Isle.

Digressing for a moment, it is worth noting that during this time the club identity was not clear and on various occasions the club is referred to as Leisure Isle Country Club (LICC) Boating Section, LICC Boat Club or Leisure Isle Boat Club. To keep things simple, from now on we will refer to LIBC, the title that we all know!

The letter from National Parks Board was just what LIBC needed to start real planning for a harbour facility and within weeks a subcommittee was formed to take the project forward and work started in earnest. Various proposals were considered and cost estimates were prepared. There is a detailed description of three alternative locations for the harbour:

Kingfisher Creek
Walk-on jetties on the northern shore of Leisure Isle to the east of the current harbour position.
The Green Hole

How different Leisure Isle would have been had anyone of those three ideas materialised! The Kingfisher Creek and Green Hole proposals were quickly discarded and then the idea of a harbour basin north of the Bowls and Tennis Club was mooted, together the Eastern Shore jetties. The estimated costs of these two proposals were both about R300 000.00 at that time! Reading through the correspondence it appears that the subcommittee continued to pursue both options and sought approval for both from the authorities although the thinking was honing in on the Harbour Basin north of the tennis courts.

A very interesting aspect of that initial planning is that the harbour basin was to be positioned exactly where the current trailer park is located and what is now the harbour basin was to remain untouched. Access into the harbour basin was to be via the western seawall from Kingfisher Bay.

An interesting early plan of the proposed harbour basin showing it positioned where the current trailer park is and with access from the west via Kingfisher Bay. This arrangement remained the preferred option for a long time and there is even a preliminary environmental study by Prof Allanson commenting on the proposed channel route across the eelgrass beds.

Then, early in 1990, the LIBC committee became aware that a developer was proposing a development of the old Leisure Isle Hotel on the site of the present Island Cove and this severely disrupted planning of the proposed LIBC harbour. Most of 1990 was taken up with negotiation and correspondence between the hotel developer, the Knysna Municipality and LIBC. It is not clear what the intended hotel development included but it would seem that much of it would have taken place where the Bowls, Tennis and Boat Clubs are now located. At first it seemed there might be some synergy between the two developments and negotiations started between the parties with a view to undertaking a joint development. Everything was harmonious for a while but the relationship did not last long and in September 1990 the Boat Club undertook a survey of Leisure Island ratepayers to establish the feelings of the Leisure Isle residents. The results of the survey were 196 against the hotel development and 2 in favour! Eventually by the end of May 1991 things came to a head and there is no further correspondence in the file.

In the meantime on 23 October 1990 a letter from National Parks Board gave conditional approval for the harbour development subject to a number of conditions and once the matter of the hotel development had been resolved planning for the new harbour development moved ahead in a positive manner and the files include various items of correspondence between LIBC, the Knysna Municipality and National Parks Board.

Incredibly during this period there were two further distractions that must have diverted our intrepid committee’s attention away from the harbour project. The first was a proposal for LIBC to amalgamate with KADA (Knysna Angling and Diving Association) and although it is not clear where the motivation for this idea originated or who proposed it, the idea was rejected at a Special General Meeting held on 11 October 1991.

The other disruption actually only happened much later in August 1992 when LIBC learned that National Parks Board was considering a possible withdrawal from the Knysna Lake Area, but that decision was firstly delayed and obviously at some stage the idea was reversed because certainly SANParks have remained the active custodians of the Knysna Estuary ever since.

Unfortunately at this point there seems to be a gap in the records we have at the club and there is very little in the files for the critical period between May 1991 and November 1991 during which time much detailed planning for the harbour must have taken place. Most sadly there is no record of what became of Mr Leo Isaac for whom all of us at LIBC owes a huge debt. His name appears as LIBC Chairman on all the correspondence and minutes I have unearthed until about April 1991 and the next set of minutes in our file is for a Committee Meeting held on 11 October 1991 at which time the Chairman was Peter Gordon and Leo Isaac’s name does not appear except as an attendee at various meetings. If anyone can shed any light on what happened to this fine gentleman, please contact the Club and let us know, because without him I sincerely doubt whether LIBC would ever have come into being. The fortitude he showed and the obstacles and frustrations he overcame during the ten years from when the idea of a Boat Club and Harbour were first mooted until approval was finally obtained and detailed planning could go ahead would have caused most of us to give up but somehow Leo Isaac kept soldiering on and never gave up hope. Most of all he inspired those around him to keep going as well.

The above story was pieced together from various bits of information, odd minutes and correspondence in the old club records and perhaps more accurate information exists somewhere, but I felt there was enough to provide an accurate and interesting account about the early days of the formation of LIBC. The story becomes easy to tell after 11 October 1991 because from that day on we have minutes of every meeting held by LIBC. As mentioned above the October 1991 meeting was chaired by Peter Gordon who would carry on in the position of Chairman to see the harbour project come to fruition over the next two years. Other committee members present included Prof Brian Allanson, George Vincent, Hugh Mackenzie, Basset Le Lean, Don Ramsay and M Halliday. It was reported at the meeting that payment had been received for 80 berths, the environmental impact study was being drawn up by Prof Allanson, and the harbour detailed design was underway and being done by Colin Mathiesen and Warren Francis.

At the December 1991 meeting it was reported that the Knysna Municipality had approved the lease of the land in the name of LIBC and this must have been a huge relief after all the negotiations over such a long period and especially after the possible interference by the hotel site developer. The engineers submitted an estimate of R840 000.00 for the harbour construction and berths were selling like hot cakes with one member wanting 18 berths!! The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been completed and submitted to National Parks Board before the December meeting. Most importantly at the December meeting a detailed discussion took place around the need to formally break away from LICC and to become fully independent with a completely separate Constitution. It was decided to hold a Special General Meeting early the following year to obtain approval from the Members.

Further detailed discussions about the harbour planning took place in January and one item that caught my eye was that a decision was made “that if a member sells his berth 20% of the sale would go to the club”. An interesting decision that was carried forward and incorporated into the Jetty Users’ Agreement that is still in use today, the only difference being that in the final version it was 20% of the profit that goes to the club. Another interesting decision made at that meeting was that the maximum boat dimensions which would be accommodated in the harbour would be: length 6,1m, beam 2,1m and draft 0,6m.

Finally, on 10 January 1992 a Special General Meeting of the Leisure Isle Boat Club was held in the Cearn Hall on Leisure Isle with 44 members present and chaired by Peter Gordon. Those present voted on the following two proposals:

The Leisure Isle Boat Club discontinues as a section of the Leisure Isle Country Club and becomes an independently constituted club under the management of the existing committee.Voting: For – 43, Against – 1.
Adopt a constitution for the Leisure Isle Boat Club. Voting: For – 44, Against – Nil.

On 11 January 1992, The LIBC Chairman, Peter Gordon wrote to the Chairman of the Leisure Isle Bowls Club, Mr T Bailey to advise LICC of the decision and to thank LICC for all their cooperation, support and assistance throughout the entire process. The split was concluded very amicably and the two organisations continued to enjoy a close and friendly relationship, a situation which has continued until this day.

And so it is that the Leisure Isle Boat Club can trace its formal origins back to March 1982 and finally adopted our current Constitution and became an independent body in January 1992. It matters not whether this year in 2022 we celebrate the Club’s 30th or 40th anniversary of its founding, what is important is that we remember and pay tribute to the incredible vision, hard work and perseverance of those early pioneers of our Leisure Isle Boat Club, led by two wonderful persons, namely Leo Isaacs and Peter Gordon. Without them we would not have been where we are today.

It is a fascinating story and it is well worth the effort of recording how LIBC came about.

ARTICLE AUTHOR: Craig Clarke for Leisure Isle Boat Club

www.libcknysna.co.za

William Smith: Evolution of an educator

2022-01-17T00:00:00+02:00

On the 25th of April, 2019, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa invested the country’s (and Knysna’s!) best-known teacher - William Smith - with the nation’s Order of the Baobab class 2: Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab (Silver).

This order is given to South African citizens who’ve gone “well above and beyond the ordinary call of duty” in business, the economy, science, medicine, technological innovation, or community service.

So how did Smith’s now famous teaching career evolve?

EARLY YEARS

William Macdonald Smith was born in Makhanda to Professor JLB Smith (the chemist and ichthyologist who identified and described the coelacanth), and Professor Margaret Smith (an ichthyologist and illustrator, and, after her husband’s death, founder of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, which would later become the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity).

Smith matriculated from Union High School in Graaff-Reinet in 1956, and obtained his B.Sc. and B.Sc. Hons. degrees (both with distinction) from Rhodes University, before completing his M.Sc. at the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) in 1961.

Although he then started work on his doctorate, he decided that he wouldn’t be happy with the life of an academic, and chose instead to pursue a career in business.

This came as no surprise to anyone who knew him, though: he’d shown his entrepreneurial spirit from an early age - he collected and sold earthworm specimens to his father’s university’s laboratories when he was a boy - and he’d already worked in film, having produced, shot, and starred in the 1960 full-length feature, ‘The Garden Route,’ while still a student.

Although Smith went on to work for AECI and Afrox for a number of years, this film would be seminal to his later successes, since it was funded by the businesses that featured in it - and the methods of sharing production costs that he learned in creating it would become key to his career in education.

WILLIAM SMITH: TEACHER

Smith discovered his talent for teaching during his second year at university, when he began instructing his girlfriend in first-year chemistry. His clear, wry style was apparent from the start, and other students soon joined his classes - and they were prepared to pay for it, too: so much so that he earned enough in that first year to buy his first car (a VW Beetle) as a Christmas present for himself.

After leaving Afrox in his late twenties, Smith began his formal teaching business by providing support to first-year university students - an approach that soon expanded to include supplementary education for high school learners through the now legendary ‘Star Schools’ which gathered together large groups of pupils on weekends and during school holidays at venues like the Wits Great Hall, where they received instruction in maths and science.

Under Smith’s leadership, Star Schools also delivered its lessons on audio casette, and later on video tape, as well as through the pages of various titles in the then Argus Group of Newspapers (including the Johannesburg-based daily, The Star).

While Star Schools offered in-person classes in the country’s major centres - Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, etc. - political unrest and poverty across South Africa made access to classes held in the central business districts impossible for many of the large numbers of pupils living in the townships. Also, as an added challenge, leading political figures fighting the Apartheid regime were regularly exhorting the children of the country to ‘put liberty before education.’

Nevertheless, Smith focussed on providing lessons to disadvantaged learners at the much-reduced price of R5.00, with the balance of costs subsidised by corporate sponsors.

WILLIAM SMITH: TELEVISION STAR

In the early 70s, Smith partnered with the national broadcaster (SABC) to create the highly successful radio series, ‘Let’s Speak Afrikaans,’ which, as with his more formal teaching programmes, he linked to visual material in the daily press.

In 1974, he introduced his Tape Tutoring Service, with lessons recorded on audio cassette, and later - as the technology advanced - on video tape. This service was so successful that it attracted the attention of Africa’s leading distance-learning institution, the University of South Africa (UNISA), and audio cassettes were eventually introduced into their correspondence courses, too.

Smith’s recorded educational programmes were driven by the official syllabuses of the day, and quickly evolved to include phone-in questions from the students themselves: an innovation that was considered a world-first at the time.

This would lead to the establishment of The Learning Channel (see ‘Changing a Nation’ below).

In order to have full control of his live broadcasts, Smith developed a one-man television studio - one in which teachers could easily switch between head-and-shoulders shots of themselves (when addressing the audience directly), and aerial views of their hands at work. (In Smith’s case, with fingers usually - and famously - covered in blue ink.)

The sight of Smith’s expressive face - with a dramatic photo of the Knysna Heads as the backdrop - would thus become one of the best-known images on South African television.

In time, Smith’s broadcasts would reach almost every matriculant with access to a television set.

By 1990, the Learning Channel was providing instruction in English, mathematics, biology, and physical science.

In 1990, too, Smith launched his Exam Aid Live to help the matrics prepare for their finals, and which ran during the months of October and November on a broadcast schedule worked around the national examinations timetable.

Later, having mastered the formula of free-to-air recorded lessons supported by live phone-in question-and-answer sessions, Smith would launch TV-Africa, which broadcast to 28 African countries via satellite TV, and which received incoming calls from students in those countries via satellite telephone.

At its peak, TV-Africa reached 100 million students across the continent - every day!

“Dealing with three completely different syllabi and several languages simultaneously and a three or four second delay each time when talking to the pupils proved to be one of the most difficult things Mr Smith ever undertook.” (Rhodes University; distinguished alumni awards citation)

CHANGING A NATION

William Smith has always believed passionately that every pupil should have equal access to top-rate education. He’d run his first multi-racial school as far back as 1970 - drawing unwelcome attention from the Apartheid authorities - but his association with the journalist Aggrey Klaaste and The Sowetan newspaper had far more wide-reaching impact - both on education as a Nation Building project, and on the fortunes of the newspaper itself.

It would also lead to the creation of the Star Schools Rewrite Schools, which would similarly impact on matric pass rates in South Africa.

Klaaste, who had been appointed editor of The Sowetan in 1988, “was distressed by what he saw happening in black communities, where residents faced state terror and political violence. As a result, he sought to rebuild local community organisations and to restore values such as good citizenship, self-help and neighbourly conduct. On taking up the editor’s mantle, he began outlining his “big idea” – nation-building. Its central idea was to unite black South Africans behind community improvement and engagement. He intended the newspaper to be a key driver of the project.” (theconversation.com: ‘How South African editor Aggrey Klaaste put himself on the line with his contrarian idea’)

In 1994, The Argus Newspapers group sold The Sowetan to New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL- chairperson, Dr. Nthato Motlana). Klaaste retained his position as editor-in-chief, though, and he was therefore able to continue with his Nation Building initiatives - so when Smith invited him to work with him on his new ‘Learning Channel,’ Klaaste immediately agreed.

With sponsorship from the South African insurance giant, Liberty Life, Smith began broadcasting the Learning Channel live on SABCTV3 directly from his own studio in Braamfontein, and Klaaste supported it with a weekly, twelve-page education supplement in The Sowetan.

Published on Fridays, the education supplement included six pages of material prepared by Smith, covering the week’s lessons.

The Liberty Life Foundation sponsored the printing costs of this supplement, too.

The Learning Channel was an instant success, and provided cross-advertising opportunities both on the channel itself, and in the newspaper.

During his broadcasts, Smith would encourage students to acquire the printed lessons - ”With this programme, your schoolteacher. and the material in the Sowetan, you’ll be getting the best education in the world! Now go out and buy your Sowetan today!” - while the paper promoted the Learning Channel via its daily TV guide, which it had redesigned to accommodate the channel (with Smith’s smiling face prominently displayed).

Since Smith was highly regarded by the paper’s readers, the combined advertising effect produced positive results for everyone involved - including Liberty Life. (In a corporate profile published in September, 2007, news24.com reported that the Liberty Education Foundation had “invested more than R350m in mostly large-scale educational programmes” since its foundation in 1990.)

Before Smith’s education programme was introduced to the Sowetan, the paper enjoyed similar circulation figures to its sister title, The Star - on average, about 175,000 copies per day.

After the introduction of the education supplement, though, The Sowetan’s circulation increased significantly. Although this was boosted by a similar cross-advertising partnership with Tim Modise’s talk show on Radio Metro, the managers of The Sowetan attributed the bulk of the benefit to support from Smith and his Learning Channel.

Increased circulation made the publication considerably more attractive to advertisers, and as more of them bought space in its pages, the paper increased from an average of twenty eight to thirty two pages a day. In turn, the increase in content made The Sowetan more attractive to readers… which meant circulation increased... which attracted even more advertisers….

In the two years following the introduction of the education supplement, The Sowetan’s advertising revenue increased by fifty percent, and circulation grew to about 240,000 copies per day. (In the same period, the circulation of The Star dropped from 175,000 to a little over 150,000 per day.)

Besides massively boosting the reach and content of The Sowetan, Smith and his Learning Channel thus made major contributions to Aggrey Klaaste’s Nation Building campaign, while at the same time benefiting hundreds of thousands of individual students every year.

AGGREY KLAASTE, WILLIAM SMITH, AND THE REWRITE PROGRAMME

At some point before the introduction of the Learning Channel, Klaaste had approached Smith with an idea for a rewrite school to help pupils who’d been negatively affected by the examinations boycott during the political unrest of 1986.

Other rewrite programmes in place at the time helped pupils pass their supplementary exams, which were usually written in March, following the end of the academic year in December. But Smith was concerned that three months wasn’t enough time to teach a year-long syllabus, so, following negotiations between Klaaste and the then ministers of finance and education, pupils who were registered with the Star Schools Matric Rewrite Programme were given permission to rewrite their finals at the end of the year.

In 1987, 950 pupils who had attended weekly classes at the University of the Witwatersrand sat the first ever Star Schools rewrite exams - achieving an average pass mark of around 72%. (This figure would improve, too: in ‘Star Schools give pupils another chance,’ published on 6 November, 2017, The Star reported that, “Today Star Schools’ Matric Rewrite Programme is acknowledged as one of the biggest and most successful in the country, yielding an average annual pass rate of around 78%.”)

WILLIAM SMITH: NATIONAL ORDERS - AND AN HONORARY DOCTORATE

Smith left the Star Schools in 1994, and sold the Learning Channel to the media house, Johnnic Communications (now the Tiso Blackstar Group), in the early 2000s - following which he dedicated his time to his other passion: Knysna’s Featherbed Nature Reserve, which he had developed for tourism in the mid-1980s (and which he sold in 2008).

But, he said, it’s been a busy retirement, what with national orders in 2019, and in 2021 - at last! - an honorary doctorate: a Doctor of Laws (LLD) (honoris causa) from his alma mater, Rhodes University

According to the President’s official citation, Smith was presented with the Order of the Baobab in Silver in 2019,

“For his excellent contribution to the teaching and demystification of mathematics and science. Through the medium of television (TV), he made mathematics and science accessible even to the most marginalised in our society.”

And really, can anyone give anyone else a gift greater than that?

An 1882 tribute to John Benn II from the people of Knysna

2021-03-28T00:00:00+02:00

PRESENTED TO JOHN BENN, PILOT “By the inhabitants of Knysna in recognition heroic courage displayed by him and the saving of four men who, while attempting to cross the Knysna Bar on the 9th of June, 1882, were capsized and would have been drowned had he not acted in such a fearless and gallant manner by going to their rescue at the imminent risk of his life and that of his boat's crew”.

On the rescue by John Benn

1. The pilot stands with thoughtful brow and gazes on the sea.

2. Again, he sweeps the ocean with keen and anxious eye. He thinks of those in danger of that wild darkening sky.

3. The billows wild are leaping with crested bows of snow. The breakers roar and thunder upon the rocks below.

4. Death is in hollow sounds their weirdly wreathing forms forewarn daring madness around the Cape of Storms.

5. The pilot stops a moment keen fix on his gaze then springs swiftly to the mast the danger flag displays.

6. He turns him quickly from the spot and down the mountain side he bounds and leaps from ledge to ledge and runs with rapid stride.

7. And as he runs, his ringing hail arouses those below. "Hey Donald! Quick, get out a boat to rescue let us go".

8. His brother Donald true as steel never doubted his command but promptly launched the pilot boat the crew with life-belts stand.

9. One glance to see that all is taut the pilot takes the helm, the boat springs toward the seething bar which threatens to overwhelm.

10. No word is spoke, but hearts beat fast and each strain every nerve. The Pilot's look is fixed ahead 'tis death to let her swerve.

11. The deafening surf roars in the ears now lifted up on high the downward pitched within the trough they go to do or die.

12. God speed them, but whence that cry that sends the heart ashore. The Pilot's wife stands on the rock her children at the door.

13. Her eyes suffused her hands are clasped in agony of prayer, to him her only helper now those gallant men to spare.

14. The little children, mute with awe now group around her knee in sadness at their mother's grief most pitiful to see.

15. Her prayer is heard, for safely o'er that fearful bar they steer and on a rolling billow's crest the drowning men appear.

16. A humble glance of gratitude far upwards to the skys and then a manly pride lights up the quiet Pilot's eye.

17. And as he stoops and draws them in each and every one resounds an echo through the world

"Brave men most nobly done".

Further reading

A 1929 interview with Knysna River pilot, John Benn II

Knysna Museum's Maritime Collection

A 1929 interview with Knysna River pilot, John Benn II

2021-03-23T00:00:00+02:00

THE KNYSNA ADVERTISER. 1/2/1929 - INTERESTING CHAT WITH THE OLD PILOT, MR. JOHN BENN

It is safe to say that among Knysna’s old parishioners none are held in greater respect than Mr. John Benn, the old pilot. Finding him the other day in an out-house relieving huge sunflowers of their seeds, I sat down on an empty petrol case and told him I wanted him to talk about the old days. Afterwards, at his suggestion, we adjourned to the house and made ourselves comfortable in easy chairs. Often in course of conversation I had got snatches of his early experiences and had made up my mind that some day I would get him to turn on memory' s tap not only for my own benefit but for the benefit of a wider audience.

Now armed with notebook and pencil (although of course I did not intrude these too much, for there is nothing that checks spontaneity like the sensation of being interviewed), I said "now grandpa, I want you just to talk freely about the early days of Knysna.” “First of all", said he, “I want to show you a photo of the old pilot house, built by Mr. Jackson in 1857.” He then produced a photo of an old wooden house, quite respectable for those days, in which Mr. Jackson carried on business as a pilot, fisherman, boatbuilder and practically jack of all trades. He built the schooner ‘Annie S’, and sold it in Cape town for £300. - He was later appointed Port Captain at East London.

Birthplace and early life

In answer to a question as to Mr. Benn’s birthplace, he told me he was born at Breede River near Swellendam on Sept .12. 1846. So that next September he will be 83. His father who was also named John, went to live at Mossel Bay when the subject of this sketch was six years of age. His business was that of shipwright where he made lighters used for bringing cargo and passengers (chiefly cargo) from the sailing ships to shore.

Young John went to the only school at Mossel Bay, an English school run by Mr. John van der Riet. In those days there was no dual language question. Only English was used In the school and so far as we know, Mr. van der Riet (a Dutchman) raised no objection. Much water has gone under the bridges since then, but that Is another story. The Benn family moved to Knysna in 1855, the father continuIng his work as boat builder and joiner.

In those days the sailing vessels were brought ashore near the present jetty at high tide and left stranded. After being off-loaded they were again half loaded with timber and left to refloat with the tide. They were then navigated Into the river, the remainder of the cargo being taken to them in rafts.

For about three years young John went to school at Knysna, the master being a Mr. Homer, whether or not a descendant of the world famed Greek poet, Mr. Benn could not enlighten me. At the age of 19 he went to sea, and for three years sailed between Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, and Table Bay. The main cargo was 40 feet ironwood logs used for Cape town harbour. The jetties in those days were built of wood. Concrete had not come into use. The building of the breakwater had just begun. His first ship the “Galatea” was wrecked in a big gale on Woodstock beach in 1865. His next ship was the “Knysna Bell” and then he transferred to the "Annie Benn” a boat built by his father.

Up to this time no official pilot had been appointed at Knysna, the work had been done by private enterprise. Now, however, in 1868 Mr. John Benn, Snr. was made pilot, his son leaving the sea and came home as his assistant. For 44 years he held this appointment, being pensioned in 1912. Mr. Benn is proud to be able to state that during that whole period he had no accident In the course of his duties. He was twice capsized when on the outer bar, drifting back with the tide, boat bottom upwards. But this was when on fishing enterprises of his own. He saw several shipwrecks, In some cases, he affirms the ships were deliberately run on to the rocks for the sake of the insurance.

Mr. Benn said he sometimes wished he had remained pilot a few years longer so as to have been able to celebrate his jubilee as pilot.

He was silent about the high esteem in which he was held by the authorities, the medals and honours received at different times, the deference always paid to his knowledge and experience, the great trust placed both in his seamanship and character. But these things are well known to his friends.

The Historian C. M. Theal

Among Mr. Benn’s early associated was the famous South African historian, C. McCall TheaI. Mr. Theal as a young man lived here for a number of years, worked in the bush, taught in the school, was interested in boatbuilding and, indeed, was a young man among the young men of that time. Mr. Benn tells me that nobody ever suspected that Theal was destined for fame. He was however, always interested in the Bantu race and it was this interest which laid the foundation of his unrivalled historical knowledge of South Africa and its people.

Men Hanged in The Open Air

One of Mr. Benn’s earliest recollections is of an unique event that happened about 70 years ago.

A native of the Fingo race had murdered a man In the bush, almost severing his body with a bush axe. He was condemned to death and confined to a room where he could easily have escaped, but made no attempt to do so. Gallows were erected among the trees below where Mr. C. W. Thesen’s house now stands. Most ef the villagers came out to witness the tragic scene; the children only being as far as possible kept indoors. Mr. Benn remembering seeing the head fall. Such an event would naturally make a deep impression on the mind of a lad of 12. It was the one and only hanging in Knysna.

Knysna Seventy Years Ago

When Mr. Benn arrived In Knysna there were but 31 houses all of primitive design and with thatched roofs. Corrugated iron was unknown. The village was merely a little timber depot. He can only remember one person now living who was here when he came - Mrs. Kanock, now 100 years old. She can well remember the foundation being laid of the old English Church, lately superseded.

The village in those days was very isolated, about once in three months supplies were brought by sea. At times they ran very short of life's necessities. Once for a whole month they had to live on brown rice. Flour for bread could not be had. Those were the days of the transport rider. A flourishing business in timber was done with Aberdeen and Graff-Reinet. The roads were awful and at times the bullock wagons simply refused to budge.

The river was swarming with fish and sharks. Mr. Benn had caught many sharks eleven feet long. There were no nets in those days. He is of opinion that the present use of nets is ruining the river. In the old days no fish were sold. Everybody caught his own. I must admit that I am glad the sharks have been scared away.

"What about wild animals in the forest, Mr. Benn?” I asked, "Elephants, for example?” "Oh yes", said he, his face lighting up with a smile. “I used to see plenty of elephants. I have killed six. I have seen as many as 25 in one troop. There were wild pigs too and buffaloes Their special rendezvous was at Millwood and Blauwkrantz. I ate some biltong from the last buffalo that was killed in the forest".

Those were also the days of toevering (witchcraft). In fact up to 20 or 25 years ago the practice was common. Probably it is not extinct even yet. Not only did natives and coloured people follow this custom, but also Europeans. Under its influence all sorts of strange and weird things were done. Men have been known to climb trees and act like monkeys. People under the belief that they had been toevered were in a state of great fear and dread. It is believed that one means of toevering was to administer ground up roots in coffee. There Is still mystery surrounding the old custom. It would well repay some person with leisure to Investigate the subject, this district at one time being full of it.

Mr. Benn well remembers going out to the ill-fated "Drummond Castle" with his pilot boat and taking off Mr. and Mrs. Parkes the parents of Stephen and Mr. Howard Parkes when they first came to reside here. It was the last trip of the “Drummond”.

I did not bring the old pilot down to modern times or question him as to whether the former days were better than these. He could doubtless say much about present day Knysna and its people, but my object was to get a bird's eye view of the past, and my readers are left to decide whether or not it is interesting.

The old pilot is still as straight as a Iath. He carries his 82 summers with dignity and manliness. He often has aches and pains. He cannot do what he once could, but he cannot be idle. Out and about the garden, doing something in the house, his spirit will not let his body rest for long. He is a lovable old man and why should we wait till he is gone before we say so? Why pile all the flowers on a person’s grave when he can see them no more? Let us give our friends a few posies during their lifetime so that they can carry away still happier memories of this earth. When our old friend goes he will almost be the last of the old guard. But he is not going yet. May his remaining years be his brightest and best.

L.C.

Since writing the above I have seen Mr. Benn again and questioned him more closely about his medals etc., and I must ask the editor to find space for some more particulars. Hanging on the wall of the drawing room is a beautiful illuminated address on vellum which bears the following inscription.

PRESENTED TO JOHN BENN, PILOT.

“By the inhabitants of Knysna in recognition heroic courage displayed by him and the saving of four men who, while attempting to cross the Knysna Bar on the 9th of June, 1882, were capsized and would have been drowned had he not acted in such a fearless and gallant manner by going to their rescue at the imminent risk of his life and that of his boat's crew”.

There was also about 12 verses of a poem composed specially to celebrate the event. Mr. Benn has saved in all 16 lives from drowning. In 1883 he received the medal of the Royal Humane Society. In 1889 the much coveted Bronze Medal, He was also the recipient from his fellow townspeople of a beautiful case of three telescopes and barometer.

L.C.

____________________

The Brig "Galatea" In which Pilot John Benn sailed was wrecked in Table Bay during a heavy N'ly gale on the 17th of May 1865. Several other vessels went ashore during the same gale, the majority being total wrecks. The vessels stranded were the RMS “Athens”, Brig “Jane”, Cutter "Gem", 7 Barques - “Frederick Bassel”, "Alacrity”, "Diana”, “RoyalArthur", “City of Peterborough”, “RoyaI Minstrel”, "Star of the West”, 6 Schooners - "Isabella”, “Fernandez”, "Marie Johanna", “Reherwarder”, “Figitante”, “Clipper".

John Benn the father of Pilot John Benn was born at Deptford, England, on the 24th November 1812. He died at Knysna on the 20th May 1877, and his remains were buried in the graveyard of the English Church.

His son Pilot John Benn died the 25th November 1934, and his remains were buried in the English Church section of the Knysna Cemetery. Inscribed on the tombstone are the following words:

"He crossed the bar on the 25th November 1934 after

"weathering the storms for 88 years".

Erected by his children.

Mr. Donald Benn a brother of Pilot John Benn and who acted as second Pilot to his brother, retired 34 years ago and lives at Knysna. He was 94 years of age In February 1945, reads the newspaper every morning, enjoys his meals and sleeps well, and is still hale and hearty. He Is a bachelor.

Mr. Conning Benn, a son of Pilot John Benn retired on the 8th of April 1945 on his 60th birthday. As a youth he worked with his father in the port boat, later becoming signalman at the Heads Marine Signal Station and then Marine Signalman and River Pilot. During a time of good and faithful service, he never had an accident.

His son, Reuben Benn, of the S.A.R. & H. marine service, has taken over the position held by his father, grand-father, and great grandfather.

“As the twig is bent, so the tree inclines".

Further reading:

The Poem Presented to John Benn II in 1882

Knysna Harbour Pilots 1818-1954

Knysna Museum Maritime Collection

Literary (accidental) tourist: George Bernard Shaw’s five productive weeks in Knysna

2021-01-14T00:00:00+02:00

One of the famous visitors to Noetzie was the playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw, always known as GBS. He was born in 1856 and was a co-founder of the London School of Economics, as well as writing more than 60 plays. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social issues, including education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society, promoting equal rights for men and women, the alleviation of abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles.

He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (an adaptation of his play of the same name, which also later formed the basis for the musical My Fair Lady).

He visited South Africa in 1932 at the age of 75 and again in 1935, on that occasion visiting only Natal. On his first visit, although he initially had meant to land for a few days only and take the same ship back to Britain, he decided to extend the trip and while in Cape Town, he went up Table Mountain by cable-car and took the first flight of his life around the Cape Peninsula.

He also had an introduction to surfing at Muizenberg, as this extract from SA Travel News (see gallery) shows.

Having enjoyed a month of Cape hospitality and friendship, mountains and sunshine, bathing and motoring, fruit orchards and vineyards, he stunned his listeners by launching into an attack on the faults of privileged white South African society. He spoke of the capital invested in ‘splendid hotels, golf links, polo grounds...' and of ‘unproductive plutocrats' and their dependence on the labour of others `not of my own colour,' and said he felt as if he was in the worst kind of ‘Slave State'. He went on in similar fashion in a broadcast which was carried by 1,500 miles of telephone wire from Cape Town to Durban, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria simultaneously. White South Africans were angry and there was strong reaction in the press. However unpalatable it may have been, Shaw's parting shot to Cape Town contained discomforting truths to those who regarded themselves as admirers of his fame in the world of theatre.

GBS crashes his car, Charlotte Payne-Townshend injured

Shaw and his wife, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, left Cape Town and motored along the Garden Route towards Port Elizabeth where they were to board a ship for Durban, after which they would sail back home up Africa's east coast. However an accident intervened - Shaw was driving and having negotiated the mountainous roads successfully, reached a smooth section, ‘let the car rip', hit a bump, and charged through a bank and five strands of barbed wire into a ditch. Charlotte was injured. They reached Knysna, booked in at Fraser’s Royal Hotel (owned by Margaret Parkes’ father) and stayed for five weeks.

While Charlotte recovered, Shaw wrote his novella, ‘The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God’, which is a book of short stories and is a satirical allegory relating the experiences of an African girl, freshly converted to Christianity, who takes literally the biblical injunction to "Seek and you shall find me" and attempts to seek out and actually speak to God. Both the story and the essay outraged the religious public, ironically creating additional demand that supported five reprintings. Shaw exacerbated the general furore by proposing intermarriage of blacks and whites as a solution to racial problems in South Africa. This was taken as a bad joke in Britain and as blasphemy in Nazi Germany.

During his time in Knysna, Shaw visited Noetzie and again went surfing, as this delightful picture, kindly provided by Margaret Parkes, shows. Certainly on this occasion, the oft-repeated story that he outraged the public by bathing nude was not true, although there are many other well-attested stories of his liking for doing so.

Noetzie

For information about Noetzie beach and the Noetzie conservancy, please visit noetzie.co.za.

Author

This article was written by Chris Everett for the Noetzie Conservancy Owners’ Association Newsletter, May 2014. Republished with permission.

Knysna Harbour Pilots 1818-1954

2020-05-16T00:00:00+02:00

Knysna Harbour Pilots 1818-1954

From 1818-1954 (136 years) there were 15 pilots or harbour masters appointed to the port of Knysna

John Gough - appointed 19 February, 1818 by Lord Charles Somerset, dismissed March 1820 for negligence.
Thomas Finn - appointed 3 March, 1820, drowned on duty 11 August, 1820.
Edward Wallace - appointed 15 June, 1821. Transferred to Port Francis (Port Alfred) in 1825.
John Mackenzie Johnson (ex Royal Navy lieutenant) - appointed October 1825, transferred as Deputy Port Captain to Table Bay 20 June, 1826

These four pilots were all government appointees. During their terms of office there had been two shipwrecks and numerous complaints from the pilots concerning equipment, staff, and housing. The government then closed down the Pilot Establishment.

The Rex family voluntarily undertook the provision of signals from the tower on the Eastern Head for the next 33 years. As a result of urgent applications from local residents and seamen, the government agreed to support the Pilot Establishment again. The next pilot appointed was:

William Jackson - appointed in November 1859 and transferred in 1865.
George Bruce - appointed coxswain March 1865, resigned March 1868.
James Miller - appointed May 1865 and retired in 1867.

The office of pilot and harbour master was abolished in 1867, and the post was then put out to tender.

John Benn I - appointed 1 April 1868 & died in 1877.
John Benn II - appointed in 1877. During office of 35 years, saved 16 lives on the bar. Retired in 1912.
Donald Benn - was assistant pilot from 1888 & retired in 1912.
Lauritz Marchussen (ex master of the Thesen Line's ss Agnar) - appointed in 1912, retired 1930.
Bernard Lynch - was appointed in 1930 and transferred in 1931.
William Rose - was appointed in May 1931 & transferred in 1933.
Thomas Conning Benn (previously signalman and assistant pilot) - appointed in 1933, retired 8 April, 1945.
Reuben Benn - was appointed April 1945. Transferred to Durban on closure of the port in 1954.

Visit Knysna's Maritime Collection on line

NSRI Knysna

These days, the volunteers of the National Sea Rescue Knysna (Station 12) carry out many of the pilots' duties.

Visit the NSRI Knysna museum On line

What's with Knysna's Town Hall?

2020-05-10T00:00:00+02:00

The story of Knysna’s Market Hall told by historian Philip Caveney

Unusually for a small town like ours, our town hall isn’t exactly the centre of community life in Knysna - and that’s probably because you can't really see it behind the face brick building at the lower end of Queen Street.

Market Hall

In fact, what passes for a town hall today began life as a market hall whose foundation stone was laid during a ceremony on 12 January, 1909 - correctly checked and pronounced true by the local Freemasons, of course.

The hall was opened on 25 May, 1909 but, to quote the Knysna Historical Society’s Brown Plaque, it was “used for dances, the annual horticultural show, concerts, choral performances, ballet classes and also served as the electoral voting station."

As Philip points out in his research paper (below): “Everything but for holding a farmer’s market!

"Did the farmers benefit? Definitely not!”

Facade lost

The building’s elegant facade was lost to view in 1963 when the Council built a new wing to house its chambers and the mayor's office and parlour: that face brick building already mentioned.

Read the full story below, or...

click here to download the pdf

Living Heritage of Knysna

2020-02-17T00:00:00+02:00

The stories of the Khoi, the San, the woodcutters, the furniture makers, the miners, the schoolteachers, and many others who've lived in Knysna over the years. Funded by Knysna Municipality, and produced and directed by Picca de Bruin.

A Storyteller Productions film in association with Sirius Media, 2014

Bondi of HMS Verbena

2020-01-13T00:00:00+02:00

Bondi was given as a present to the crew of the minesweeper, H.M.S. Verbena (details below), in 1928 by the people of Maputo (then Lourenço Marques), during one of the ship’s visits to the city.

The dog’s name was entered in the ship's list as its mascot, which gave him the right to draw an allowance for victuals from the Admiralty.

H.M.S. Verbena visited Knysna regularly, too. During the ship’s third visit, the crew was scheduled to give a variety concert in the Town Hall, and a work party was sent ashore in the afternoon to decorate the venue. For this task, the men marched from the wharf on Thesen Island, uphill to the hall.

It was an extremely hot afternoon and, not wanting to remain behind to stand anchor watch, Bondi followed his shipmates on foot - but sadly collapsed and died shortly before they reached their destination.

The ship's log for Friday, 30 January 1931, records very simply:

"16:00. The ship’s pet bulldog, Bondi, died ashore of sunstroke."

Grave

Bondi was buried on the wharf just north of the old government warehouse which stood almost where the Garden Route National Park building stands today.

A wooden tombstone placed at the head of a grassy mound marked the dog’s final resting place, its brass plate inscribed, "Bondi of H.M.S. Verbena."

Thereafter, every British ship that visited Knysna would send a detail of seamen ashore to polish the brass and clip the grass on Bondi's grave. Sailors from H.M.S. Delphinium in 1932, H.M.S. Rochester in 1933, H.M.S. Milford and H.M.S. Weston in 1934, and also from H.M.S. Bridgewater, H.M.S. Penzance, H.M.S. Auckland, and H.M.S. Londonderry visited the little memorial to keep it ship-shape.

The tradition continued until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when the wharf became a restricted area because of its proximity to Thesen’s Boatyard (now The Boatshed at Thesen Harbour Town), which had been contracted to build more than 600 vessels for the British Navy - including ten 85-ton, 112 ft (34 metre) Fairmile B class motor launches.

With no British ships visiting the port of Knysna, Bondi’s grave fell into disrepair until 1948, when the H.M.S. Nereide (and later that same year, H.M.S. Actaeon) tied up at the wharf and revived the tradition of tending the memorial.

The Nereide would visit on five further occasions, the last being in 1953, but Knysna’s links with the Royal Navy (which dated back to 1817 with the arrival - and immediate wrecking - of H.M.S. Emu) came to an end when the harbour was closed to shipping in 1954. (See our page, Maritime Collection.)

After that, unfortunately, the original tombstone was lost.

It wasn’t the end of it, though, because, led by the members of the Knysna Historical Society, the people of Knysna erected a new memorial to Bondi close to its original position on Thesen’s Jetty in the early 2000s, and the South African Navy revived the tradition of tending the grave on 13th July 2001, when men from the mine hunters S.A.S. Umhloti and S.A.S. Umzimkulu polished the brass plate once more.

The tradition was then maintained by ships of the South African Navy whenever they visited for the town’s annual Knysna Oyster Festival - and more recently, by cadets of the local naval training school, T.S. Knysna.

GPS: -34.0493343, 23.0457186

Bondi sculpture

A life-size sculpture created and donated by local artist, Karel du Toit, is the second monument to Bondi in Knysna.

Originally erected on the quayside at The Waterfront (21 Waterfront Drive), this sculpture now stands beneath a staircase next to the pedestrian bridge that crosses the canal in the same shopping centre.

The little statue guards a collection box dedicated to KAWS - the Knysna Animal Welfare Society - which relies heavily on donations from the public “to protect animals, to heal their sickness, to fight cruelty, and to educate others to do the same.”

GPS: -34.0413995, 23.0450135
Visit KAWS on Facebook, and
Please give Bondi a pat on the head when you visit his statue next time you’re in Knysna - and leave his living doggy relatives a generous donation.

H.M.S. Verbena

The Royal Navy’s Flower-class minesweeping sloop, H.M.S. Verbena, was built by the Blyth Shipbuilding Company in Northumberland in England. She was launched on 15 November, 1915.

Flower-class ships were built according to three different specifications: the H.M.S. Verbena was one of 36 vessels of the Arabis sub-class.

The designs for these ships were drawn up in 1914: “The design was highly appealing, as most shipyards were capable of building them, and construction could be completed in five months.

“Like the preceding Acacia and Azalea class sloops, these were single-screw Fleet Sweeping Vessels … with triple hulls at the bows to give extra protection against loss when working.” - Wikipedia

After World War I, H.M.S Verbena was assigned to the Africa Station, where she was based in Simonstown. From there, she paid regular visits to ports along the Southern African Coast.

She was sold for breaking up on 13 October, 1933.

Article by Martin Hatchuel
Thanks to the members of the Knysna Historical Society for help with information and images

Owéna Schutte: the woman they call Nobantu

2019-07-13T00:00:00+02:00

1984

They call her Nobantu, but that wasn’t always her name.

While it is true that she was given that name in a church, it was far from a traditional christening. The church in question was little more than a shack; no spire, no bell, no stained-glass windows. Just a simple room with walls of corrugated iron. On the outside, those walls were painted red, the earthy terracotta of Klein Karoo dust. And so it was known as the Rooi Kerk – the Red Church – in the township called Flenterlokasie: location in tatters.

There were twenty-two women in the church that day. Twenty-two black faces under colourful headscarves, twenty-two bosoms squeezed into their smartest dresses (mostly hand-me-downs from their white employers). Strapped onto some of their backs were babies whose innocent faces peered out from under tightly knotted shawls, unaware of the hardship they’d been born into.

There were men, too, four of them, dressed respectfully in worn but neat suits.

They were the township committees, those men and women. Representing the townships to the west of Knysna was the Thembalethu committee, Thembalethu meaning ‘our trust’. And from the other side of town came the committee called Vulindlela, meaning ‘open the road’.

And that was how they arranged themselves in the Red Church that day: Thembalethu on the one side, Vulindlela on the other, twenty-two women and four men sitting on plastic chairs in their place of worship.

But they were not there to worship their God, not that day. They were there to honour a white woman.

For two years, that woman had been coming to their homes and changing their lives. She was the one who helped to start a crèche when she realised their children hadn’t held a pencil by the time they went to school. She was the one who took those children to the beach for the first time in their lives. She was the one who taught the local women to sew, when their only skill until then had been cleaning white people’s houses. She was the one who fought for their right to have more than one water tap serving an entire community.

For all of that they were honouring her that day, in a way reserved only for those who earned the respect and the love of the people. They were to give her a Xhosa name: a name they could use to greet her, to welcome her, and to call to her when they needed her.

The two committees had each chosen a name, which they wrote on a scrap of paper and placed on a table at the front of the church.

On the left, ‘Nobantu’: for the people. On the right, ‘Noluthandu’: the one with the love.

And then they began to sing.

They sang songs of joy and songs of hope, and as they sang the twenty-two women and four men formed a line and danced, single file, shuffling towards the tables.

And they reached into their pockets and into their bosoms, and on the name they felt most worthy of the woman, they placed their crumpled notes and sweaty coins – one rand, two rand, five rand, even ten. However much they had to give, they gave.

And they danced and they sang until all twenty-two women and four men had voted with their hearts and their pockets.

The money was counted, counted again. A decision was reached.

The woman was to be known as Nobantu. ‘For the people.’

They gave her the crumpled notes and the sweaty coins, one hundred and three rand in total – more than two months’ income for most of them. And, despite her protests, they insisted that the money, like the name, was hers.

In the four years that followed, the woman continued to fight for the rights of the people through times of unrest and protest, discontent and violence. During the national state of emergency in 1986, she drove through police barricades and past armoured Casspirs, around burning tyres and past angry youths who were ready to launch bottles and stones at the first white driver they saw. But when she approached, they lowered their bottles and dropped their stones to wave her through. She was Nobantu. She was there for the people.

But it was becoming increasingly dangerous.

The youths were being influenced by their more radical peers from surrounding areas, and eventually the hands holding those bottles and stones were no longer familiar.

There were issues closer to home, too. The security police branded the woman an instigator. Why else would she sympathise with those people? And so she was blacklisted, her family’s phone tapped in an attempt by the security police to find the evidence they needed to implicate her in the growing unrest.

Fearing for the safety of her family – not her own – the woman left the people in 1988.

But the people remember.

And even today when the woman walks down the street, she still hears the cry, ‘Nobantu!’ from grown men and women; black men and women who were once children she’d taken to the beach when they’d never seen the sea.

They call her Nobantu.

I call her Mother.

Click here for more info about Anelia Schutte's book, 'For the People'

Amazon author page: Anelia Schutte

Rotary sponsors pop-up museums for local schools and libraries

2019-05-20T00:00:00+02:00

The Rotary Club of Knysna last Thursday (16 May, 2019) handed 15 sets of posters - each of which forms a ‘pop-up museum’ about Knysna’s timber heritage - to representatives of the town’s libraries and high schools.

The poster series was developed for the Knysna Museum by Martin Hatchuel (writer) and Jo Hugo (graphic designer) using original and archival photos, and is based on pages on the web site, knysnamuseums.co.za.

The first set of A1-sized posters, printed on museum-quality canvas and stretched on wooden frames, hangs in the Parkes Shop in the Millwood House complex of the Knysna Museum. The schools and libraries received laminated, A3-sized reprints of these posters.

Each poster contains a limited amount of text (maximum 100 words - designed to excite interest in the poster’s theme) as well as an invitation to visit the corresponding page on the site, and a QR (quick response) code, which links to the same page. When users scan these codes with their smart phones, the phones will automatically direct them to the relevant pages, where they’re presented with multimedia experiences - text, images, pdf files, and videos.

Knysna’s timber heritage is told on these posters through the stories of the Parkes Shop, the Knysna forests, the woodcutters, the timber merchants, the trees they harvested, timber products in the early days, the Coffee Pot Railway (with original footage of the little train in action), and books and movies about the forests.

The Rotary-sponsored poster sets will be distributed to the Main Road, Sedgefield, Smutsville, Rheenendal, Hornlee, Masifunde, Khayalethu, and Brackenhill libraries, and, via the individual Interact Clubs, to Percy Mdala, Concordia, Knysna, Knysna Sekonder, Oakhill, Heatherhill, and Montessori High Schools.

Besides the educational value of the posters and the web site to pupils at the schools, the information on the web site will be of value to tour guides, tour operators, and anyone who has an interest in Knysna’s history - with, of course, the added benefit of being accessible around the world.

Members of the public can visit the display at the Parkes Shop, or access the web pages themselves - all of which can be found under https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/parkes-shop/

Image

Handover at the Parkes Shop, Knysna Museum, 16 May, 2019 - From left to right: Xola Frans (Knysna Municipality); Latoya Baba (Percy Mdala High Interact Club); Philip Caveney (Knysna Historical Society); Megan Hunter (Knysna High Interact Club); Herb Hunter (Knysna Rotary); Brandmore Sandile Mngcitha (Percy Mdala High Interact Club)

Parkes Shop timber heritage posters: display order and URLs

This poster series is designed to be read as a story. For best results, please display the posters in the following order (left to right):

The Parkes Shop story - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-parkes-shop-story/
The Knysna forests - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-knysna-forests/
The woodcutters - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-woodcutters/
The timber merchants - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-timber-merchants/
The trees they harvested - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-trees-they-harvested/
Timber products in the early days - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/timber-products-in-the-early-days/
The Coffee Pot railway - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-coffee-pot-railway/
Books & movies about the Knysna forests - https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/books-movies-about-the-knysna-forests/

Edit: Additional pages. January, 2021

Additional pages and posters have been added to this series since the publication of this article. Please see:

Pre-colonial people of the Knysna forests -https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/knysna-forests-pre-colonial-history/
Slavery and labour in the Knysna forests in the 19th Century -https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/knysna-forests-slavery-and-labour-colonial-period/
Labour in the Knysna forests under apartheid -https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/labour-conditions-knysna-forests-apartheid/
Invasives and indigenous: Changing patterns of plant growth on the hills of the Knysna Basin - (page; no poster) https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/vegetation-regime-change-knysna-basin/

Who was Percy Mdala?

2017-06-26T00:00:00+02:00

Percival Mdala grew up near King Williamstown in the Eastern Cape. He came to the Garden Route in 1956, where he found work as a gardener for Bishop Stainton, the rector of St. George’s. When the Bishop discovered that Percy was a qualified teacher, he asked him to take over as head of St. Paul’s Caradoc, a tiny school of about 25 pupils that was housed in the church hall at Salt River in Knysna.

St Paul’s received funding from the Anglican Church, but nothing from the Government.

Percy and his colleague, a Mr. Ganga, started a programme of house visits to encourage the children of the area to come to school. They were so successful that two assistant teachers were soon appointed to serve the growing numbers of pupils.

On rainy days, the Salt River flowed so strongly that children couldn’t cross it to come to school. Percy would go down to the river and carry them across, one or two at a time - and at the end of the day, he’d carry them back again to ensure that they made their way safely home.

As a result of the support of a Mr. and Mrs. JDM Philip, St. Paul’s became known as Philips Lower Primary School, and it was eventually recognised for a subsidy from the Government - just as forced removals came into effect.

With all its pupils now living elsewhere, the school was now forced to close.

Percy - for many years the only properly trained black educationalist in Knysna - transferred to Thembelitsha Primary in 1971, but he resigned and retired within a year. He remained active in the fight for black education for the rest of his life.

His memory was honoured in 1992 when the new school at Khayalethu was named Percy Mdala High. Its motto: ‘There’s light through education.’

In Knysna, Percy Mdala was a light indeed.

Visit Percy Mdala High School on the web: percymdalateam.weebly.com

Facebook: Percy Mdala High School

Article: Martin Hatchuel

Margaret Parkes: a lifetime in service to culture in Knysna

2017-06-24T00:00:00+02:00

Knysna’s history has always fascinated Margaret Parkes.

Born Margaret Fraser - her father owned Frasers’s Royal Hotel, on the corner opposite St. George’s Church - she grew up in Knysna (in a house where the Post Office stands today), and went on to study as a teacher before marrying Bernard Parkes in 1952, and with whom she had two sons: George and Jim.

Bernard passed away during a holiday in Scotland in 1982, and it was after this sad loss that she began to write.

“I was on the founding committee of the local museum - I was its curator - and you have to have something to do in life if you’re on your own,” she said.

Forgotten Port

In all, Margaret researched and produced thirteen books and pamphlets with her writing partner, Vicky Williams - of which the most famous must be Knysna the Forgotten Port.

Published by Emu in 1988 in a signed and numbered, limited edition of 500 (and sold for R 31.00 each), first edition copies of Forgotten Port are now highly sought-after by collectors - although reprints (from 1988 and 2004) also fetch excellent prices.

“When they closed the Knysna Harbour in 1954, they sent the pilot’s logbook to Port Elizabeth, and although I approached Hans Huismen, who was the harbour engineer there and the chairperson of the Port Elizabeth Historical Society, and although he looked everywhere for it, nobody knew where that logbook had gone.

“So in Knysna, the only shipping record is at the back of that book (Forgotten Port) - and I only mentioned the first visit of every ship.”

Friends of the Library

But history hasn’t been Margaret’s only passion: she served as chair of the Friends of the Knysna Library for twenty five years - until just last year, when she handed the reins to Florence Erasmus... And stepped into the deputy’s position.

During her time with the Friends, Margaret built a comprehensive collection of books by Knysna-based authors, and recently presided over the construction of a special cabinet to house it. (Made in the style of the historic Union Steamship Company cabinet that has graced the Main Street Library’s activity room for more than a century, the new cabinet was built by Fechter’s out of timber donated by Geo. Parkes & Co.)

Treasured award

Margaret’s beautiful home is, of course, decorated with the treasures of a lifetime - but of all her mementos, one stands out: the Cape Tercentenary Foundation’s Molteno Medal, which was presented to her in 2000 at Groot Constantia, where she was one of fourteen honourees.

“There I was in the company of all these illustrious people: it was quite an occasion!” she said.

And it’s fitting that the inscription reads ‘For services to conservation’ - because Margaret Parkes has served our entire town her entire life.

Portrait of Margaret Parkes: Mark Taylor