- The Company’s Gardens in Cape Town CBD will soon be the home of a new memorial to commemorate the lives of black South Africans who served with the Military Labour Corps and died in service during the First World War.
- The construction for the landmark Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial started during a ceremony held last week.
- It is funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and aims to pay homage to the lives of more than 1 700 servicemen who served in non-combat roles and died without known graves or previous commemoration during the First World War.
The Company’s Gardens in Cape Town CBD will soon be the home of a new memorial to commemorate the lives of black South Africans who served with the Military Labour Corps and died in service during the First World War.
The construction for the landmark Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial started during a ceremony held last week.
It is funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and aims to pay homage to the lives of more than 1 700 servicemen who served in non-combat roles and died without known graves or previous commemoration during the First World War.
The CWGC is a global leader in commemoration, responsible for maintaining the cemeteries, memorials, graves and records of 1,7 million men and women from the Commonwealth who lost their lives in the two World Wars.
The men served with the Cape Coloured Labour Regiment, the Cape Auxiliary Horse Transport, the Military Labour Bureau, and the Military Labour Corps of South Africa.
They fed and supplied the front lines and kept armies in the field.
The memorial’s contemporary construction, designed by Dean Jay Architects, will see each life lost represented by an African hardwood post, with the service number, first and last name and date of death of the deceased engraved on it. Each post will be set into an individually numbered South African Rustenburg granite base – a material used in the Commission’s cemeteries across South Africa.
Speaking at the ceremony Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said Cape Town is proud to honour the more than 1 700 servicemen who made the “ultimate sacrifice in the fight against tyranny” more than a century ago.
“Once completed, this memorial will be a wonderful tribute to black South African servicemen who perished in the First World War, and whose stories were often overlooked in the telling of that history. I can think of no better place to remember their contribution than right here in our beautiful and much-loved Company’s Garden in the heart of the Mother City.”
The memorial is the first to be created by the CWGC in response to previous inequalities in commemoration after the First World War.
Charles Garrett OBE, Director of Commonwealth Relations and Global Strategy at the CWGC, explained that the memorial would honour people who “for too long have been overlooked”.
“We have found an enthusiastic and warm response to providing a memorial to appropriately reflect the loss experienced after the First World War: it is fitting to have a new focal point of remembrance in South Africa, to South Africans and for all South Africans to see.”
He explained that a considered and consultative approach was taken in the creation of the memorial.
“This included engagement with South Africans and military veterans to determine the most appropriate location. It was agreed that Cape Town offered great relevance with First World War servicemen enlisting in the city, and sailing from there to join comrades in other parts of the world.”
He said the families and descendants of the deceased can now visit the site.
“We hope that this new memorial will be a permanent tribute to the lives and experiences of these men. Now their story will live on, their service will be honoured and their names will not be forgotten.”
Sidney Maliwa, a relative of Magwayi Maliwa, a serviceman being honoured in the memorial, said he was thrilled that his family member’s life was acknowledged.
“It touched and moved my dad the most because he did not know his grandfather and had never met him. When I showed him the pictures, it moved him emotionally more than anything, he was filled with tears of joy that his grandfather’s legacy was being acknowledged and that anytime he comes to Cape Town he has a place to visit where he would see his grandfather’s name.”
He explained that the memorial brought a sense of closure to the family.
“My family are all very happy in my partaking and standing for our great grandfather’s name ensuring that it does not perish. We were already on the verge of giving up because we’d never seen or met him let alone known where his grave was, but now finally we know where his memory is so the family can go visit.”
The memorial is expected to open in November.
