The M33

Google Map of M33

The M33 highway, running from Kloof to Link Hills, plays a key function in the supply chain between Durban and the Waterfall area. But it was never intended for this role and lacks the basic road engineering that should be fundamental to such an artery. This realisation casts a long shadow.

The route begins in the Old Main Road and descends into the gorge near the St Agnes’s Anglican church. This road has been in use for many decades. It links at the Molweni river crossing with the aptly named Bridle (called by some local cartographers ‘Bridal!) Road. This road winds over several hills before a steep climb to Link Hills, and the suburb of Waterfall. Regina Harborth, later Mrs Cliff Gillitt, grew up on a farm in present Waterfall early in the 20th century. She remembered that her mother used regularly to send a farm servant by this route to Pinetown for supplies.

The Kloof Falls have been a place of resort for a long time. Some years ago, I met an elderly gentleman who told me that, as a boy, he used to go down there to trap birds with bird-lime. He sold them to Luther ‘Skit’ Field for his aviary at Glenholme. ‘Skit’ and other men from the area hunted antelope or game birds in the area. Many years ago, in the Kloof library, I saw a collection of photographs of men with firearms near the Molweni crossing.

Sought-after stands

Properties on Kloof Falls Road were clearly much sought-after. But the rush-hour traffic in the 21st century must create nightmares for present owners. Someone planted a bamboo which is still very much in evidence and dates perhaps from the days when the sale of bamboo sticks to wagon drivers and coastal fishermen was an important Pinetown industry. These exotic plants were introduced to the region from the Far East by an entrepreneur named Colenbrander, who tried to produce indigo dye from local plants, just before someone else discovered a way of making the colouring synthetically. His Indonesian workmen used bamboo poles to crush and mix the indigo plants in vats in the present Pinetown industrial area.

The Highway Mail archive carries a report from the early 1950s stating that Mr David Collingwood had just bought “the last house in Kloof” on Kloof Falls Road. The building had previously been a tearoom. He commuted daily to his business in Durban. David’s son, Bobby, told me recently that his father remained there until the Sharpeville shooting early in 1960. The local fear at the time was that a band of discontented Zulus would march down from the Molweni Zulu reserve and attack the outlying areas of Kloof.

But all this is far in the past. In recent decades the entire region has undergone tremendous change. Crestholme resident, the late Jimmy Grace, recalled walking home in the late 1950’s from teenage parties in Hillcrest in total darkness. Several decades later, two of our sons (now in their forties) attended the Crossroads pre-primary school in Waterfall. When my wife’s turn to do lifts came around, she travelled the same route, from the civilization of Hillcrest along Inanda Road. The journey involved passing through timber plantations and sugar cane fields. On one occasion, my in-laws from Durban were invited to attend an end-of-year concert at the school. As instructed, they turned into Inanda Road at the Christian’s corner. After a long and uncertain drive which appeared to be heading into darkest Africa, they turned back, only to learn that that they had been just a few hundred metres short of their destination.

New Inanda Road

Since then, Inanda Road has been rebuilt. Old landmarks like the former Inanda butchery (run by a young Dinkelmann who owned a pet lion which featured in African Mirror newsreels) have been demolished in order to accommodate the widening of the route. And for residents of Waterfall, the unceasing noise of motor traffic can be heard throughout the daylight hours and beyond. It is reasonable to suppose that the M33 through the Kloof gorge will, at some time in the foreseeable future, require similar improvement. The implications of this for the nature reserve are clearly profound and are undoubtedly already exercising the minds of the reserve’s management.

Change is an unavoidable part of the human condition. We need to face this inevitability and accept the implications of that reality. Sometimes, it brings unlooked for benefits, even if the time between has some painful interludes.

Irrelevant footnote for some senior readers: In a British academic study published by Emma Sandon in 2013, the African Mirror (established 1913) was identified as “the world’s longest running commercial newsreel”. So the Dinkelmann lion found a place in our national history.

The M33

About the author

Robin taught History for many years at Kearsney College. Since 2004 Jean and he have lived in a hillside complex at Waterfall, daily enjoying the quiet, the views and the wildlife. Robin is also a regular contributor of historical articles to a number of magazines.