Disasters

This story is not about Potchefstroom history, but it is worth telling. It is about one of the largest explosions that occurred in South Africa and it was on 17 July 1932 at Leeudoringstad. The tenuous connection with Potchefstroom is that a report on the conclusions of the board of enquiry on the explosion appeared in Die Westelike Stem on 2 November 1932. At the time Leeudoringstad was also still part of the larger Potchefstroom district.

The town Leeudoringstad was founded in 1920 and named after the railway halt that was already there. Today it is part of the Maquassi Hills Local Municipality, which also includes Wolmaransstad and Makwassie.

The explosion of 320 tons of dynamite, loaded onto 30 railway cars, was so huge that it is one of only two explosions in South Africa that feature in a Wikipedia article named “Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions”. The other is the Braamfontein explosion of 19 February 1896 when 60 tons of blasting gelatine exploded at that station after the train wagons stood for three days in scorching sunlight.

The South African Railways immediately sent a photographer to the scene and some of the photos taken are now in the Transnet Digital Library. This is one of those photos and shows some of the twisted metal...

Below are a few excerpts from the report on the restoration of the town of Wupperthal following the tragic 2019 fire. Many commentators have described the fire as the worst disaster to South Africa's built heritage since the 1969 Tulbagh earthquake. The project shows what can be achieved when architects, contractors, funders and the community pull together for a greater cause. Click here to view the full report.

Historical Background

The mission station of Wupperthal is a veritable time capsule. It is located within the arid Cedarberg region of South Africa, a place characterized by craggy wilderness landscapes and spectacular seasonal displays of wild flowers which  have drawn and captivated many over the years: from the celebrated poet, medical doctor and epicure, C Louis Leipoldt in the earlier 1900’s, to modern day international rock climbers and those simply seeking a temporary break from their hectic city lives. 

Wupperthal was established in 1830 as the first Rhenish mission station in South Africa. The new settlement was spearheaded by the missionaries Baron Theobald von Wurmb and Louis Leipoldt’s grandfather, Gottlieb Leipoldt. The mission was laid out on the farms Rietmond and Koudeberg, situated in the isolated but fertile Tra Tra River valley approximately 72km from Clanwilliam and about 250 km from Cape Town, after the farms were acquired by the Rhenish Mission Society. Interestingly, the founding of this mission town pre-dated, by approximately 100 years, the formal founding of its namesake in Germany.

By 1834 a church and school had been built to...

On 8th April 1954, South African Airways flight 201, travelling from London to Johannesburg via Rome and Cairo, crashed into the sea just north of the island of Stromboli, with the loss of all persons on board. Barely three months earlier, another Comet, operated by BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) had crashed into the sea off the island of Elba, having taken off from Rome's Ciampino Airport a short while before. Both Comet disasters made worldwide news: the revolutionary de Havilland Comet was the first - and at that time - only jet airliner to have flown in service.

Crash location (Wikipedia)

"Revolutionary" Comet

Flying for the first time in 1949 - a full eight years before the Boeing 707 - the Comet was indeed a revolutionary aircraft. Not only was it the world's first jet airliner, it would cruise at altitudes far higher than other commercial airliners of the time: the DC-4 flew at an altitude of 22,000 ft, against the Comet's 40,000 ft; the Comet would cruise at almost 500 mph compared to the "rival" DC-4's 265 mph.

The de Havilland pioneers had a host of "firsts" to tackle in the design of the new aircraft, not least of which was pressurisation at higher altitudes than airliners had ever flown before. After exhaustive testing, the Comet entered...

Johannesburg is a gold mining city and, through the decades, there have been a number of disasters related to the industry. A walk through Johannesburg's cemeteries offers a visual history of premature loss through mine related explosions. The granite memorial in the Braamfontein Cemetery erected in memory of those who lost their lives in the great dynamite explosion of 1896, is still moving and offers a unique insight into Johannesburg history. 

The memorial to those who died in the disaster (Kathy Munro)

The memorial takes us back to one of the earliest and most tragic mining disasters in the city's history. On 19th February 1896, a freight train left stationary on a siding at the then Johannesburg Railway Station (it was in Braamfontein and today is known as the Braamfontein Station) carrying dynamite exploded. The train comprised of eight trucks of dynamite (Norwich says ten) or 2300 wooden cases adding up to between 56 and 60 tons of dynamite (AP Cartwright gives the statistics of 3000 cases of blasting gelatine amounting to 80 tons). The trucks had been left standing in the sun for three and a half days (why is a crucial question) and, when a shunting engine was backed into these trucks, the impact apparently caused the dynamite to explode in the hot afternoon...