Vryheid

The South African Police Silver Cross for Gallantry was instituted in January 1985 and it was only awarded to members of the South African Police who had displayed conspicuous and exceptional gallantry or had performed a fearless or outstanding act through which they lost or imperilled their own lives.

Marthinus Jacobus Nel, fondly known by his family as “Marti” or “André”, was born in the Vryheid Government Hospital on Monday the 28th of February 1966. Marti was the middle child of the three children of Ben and Francis Nel, and he had an older sister Antoinette Muriël “Toontjies” van Zyl, and a younger brother Francois Webb Nel.

Marti grew up at Inyathi, a small mining town near Hlobane, where his father had been employed on the mine as a boilermaker. The Nels were part of the pioneers of the Inyathi area. Antoinette van Zyl once wrote how her brother Marti and his friends used to spend many hours playing in the bushes and mountains surrounding Inyathi. Marti’s grandmother, on his mother’s side of the family, was Muriël Koekemoer who lived in Mason Street in Vryheid. Francois Nel says that “Ouma Muriël” was Vryheid’s very own fortune teller and that all of Vryheid’s “Wanna know the futures” paid her a visit at some point to have a cup of tea and see their futures in the bottom of a cup. Muriël moved to the Old Age Home in Utrecht in later years where she passed away and was laid to rest.

Marti started his...

The battle of Kambula (29 March 1879) is the definitive battle of the Zulu War. After the disaster at Isandlwana, when Lord Chelmsford’s Centre Column had temporarily ceased to exist, the focus of the Zulu War had turned to Evelyn Wood’s Column in the north. Not that the British had yet fully learned their lesson about underestimating the Zulus. The Northern Column suffered two disasters – one at Ntombe Drift (12 March) and the other at Hlobane (28 March), before the rampant Zulu army tried their luck on the British base camp at Kambula the following day.

Now situated in a forestry reserve north-west of Vryheid, the area is remote and difficult to reach, especially in a low-slung car or in the rainy season. The signage hasn’t been spruced up for some time either, and the only badly faded sign says “Nkambule”. But don’t be deterred – it’s the right place. The site of the battle is largely unspoilt. Fragments of commercial plantations only marginally spoil the integrity of the site, which is otherwise as pristine as the day it took place.

A stone plinth on top of a small hillock marks the site of Evelyn Wood’s redoubt, and one can clearly see the trench dug around it in the stony ground. If you look about a mile to the north-west you will see the monuments in the British cemetery. To your left (or West) is the site of the laager, with the artillery positions on the saddle between the...

“We once bumped into a column of Russian POW’s. They were in a very bad way and some of them could hardly walk, being assisted on either side by their friends. We had just been given a rare treat - a parcel on the march and our chaps had got stuck in - so much so that some became sick and brought up. A Russian was a witness to this, and no trouble started to wolf down the vomit with his bare hands. This gives an idea of what real hunger can do.”

This harrowing tale is an extract from the war memoir of John George Cheere Emmett. Known as George to friends and family, he was born in Vryheid on October 17, 1905, one of the children of Cecil Frederick Cheere Emmett, and his German-born mother, Elsa Riebeseel.

The Cecil Emmett Park in Vryheid is named after him. Cecil was a brother of the Irishman, Boer General and farmer, William Cheere Ayliff Edwin Joseph James Emmett, whose sister Annie was married to Boer General Louis Botha.

George, who matriculated from Vryheid High School in 1923, was one of nine siblings. He was employed by the Vryheid Municipality as Town Treasurer, and had an affinity with figures and very neat handwriting. He enjoyed cricket, and back in the day was the opening batsman for the Vryheid Club. George also collected stamps, loved wildlife, and played the cello and the trumpet in the family band.

To the strains of  “Now Is The Hour”...