By: Staff Reporter
Leaders and members of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) descended on Laingsburg on Sunday to commemorate the disastrous floods that swept through the small Karoo town decades ago, leaving devastation and heartbreak in their wake.
The party had spent the previous day in the nearby municipality of Karoo-Hoogland, which is also governed by the PA.
The PA’s mayor of Laingsburg, Mitchell Smith, delivered the keynote address on Sunday, choosing to note the memories of the 104 people who lost their lives on 25 January 1981; 72 of the bodies were never recovered.
“On the 24th and 25th of January 1981, 425mm of rain fell in the area and 185 houses were destroyed of 226, leaving only 41 houses standing,” he said.
He noted that it was the greatest natural disaster to be recorded in South Africa up until then. Smith paid tribute to the “unwavering bravery” of the community and the many heroes who emerged in a spirit of solidarity.
“We are here to console the families, friends and loved ones of those who perished.”
Smith said that he wanted to draw attention in particular to the often unacknowledged stories of coloured and black people, who were overlooked despite 34 of the victims being coloured, while 29 of their bodies were irretrievably swept away. One man, Frans Diko, lost nine family members on a farm downstream of the town but received far less state support than white family members at the time.
Quoting Ashrick Peterson, it was clear that there was also a campaign by the apartheid government not to recognise the rescue efforts of non-white people, such as those of visiting Oudtshoorn-based teacher Neil April, who saved a nine-year-old boy and a baby from drowning. Another man, Elliot George, pulled several residents to safety out of the Floriskraal Dam.
Non-whites were also barred from unsupervised entry into the town during cleanup operations. They were only allowed to visit the local supermarket to buy food.
Smith said that even the flood museum today has “few stories or photos about the involvement of the coloured man in 1981 and it is heartbreaking to say this today”. He mentioned though, that the photos and stories of coloured people were now being collected to be displayed in the museum in a “special place”.
PA president Gayton McKenzie echoed the mayor’s sentiments, saying: “We will rewrite our own stories and write our truth back into history.
“We will erect statues and fill the museum with their pictures also.
“We have black and coloured heroes who were written off; they shall be returned with statues being built for them.”
Mitchell paid tribute to all the PA supporters who had flocked to Laingsburg.
“Today is the first time I know of that there is such a big gathering of people – friends, brothers and sisters – in Laingsburg over the past 41 years to come and honour our people, to remember and never forget what they went through on 25 January 1981.”
To close, he quoted Laurence Binyon’s war poem, For the Fallen:
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
