Mining the depths of history

It is noon in Cullinan, near Pretoria, and the Whispering Oaks restaurant is bustling in preparation for the arrival of a bus-load of international tourists. Hundreds of visitors come to this unique destination weekly to sample the underground mine tour and the increasing number of related attractions.

Though Kimberley is synonymous with diamonds, Cullinan locals like to boast that the famous Big Hole is smaller than the 100-year-old crater of its Premier Diamond Mine. A spectacular lookout has been closed, because the edges of the hole are crumbling, but the visitor can still see enough to be impressed and the tour makes up for any disappointment by taking enthusiasts to the bottom of the hole.

Back on the surface the landscape surrounding Cullinan hides almost as much history as it reveals. On the R513, a small yellow sign, which reads ll Duce, R Phitides, hints at an extraordinary construction — an art deco villa, built by 500 Italian prisoners over five years for the manager of the mine.

In the voluminous archives about Zonderwater prison camp, there are no records about the villa; the architect, engineers, craftsmen and labourers remain a mystery. There are apocryphal stories about its origins. Among them is that the architect of Mussolini’s summer villa in Rome is supposed to have been a prisoner of war (POW) here and the villa is allegedly a replica.

What is clear from the dimensions of the Villa Il Duce is that master craftsmen were behind the grand design and the finest detail and finish are evident in the balcony railing, the clean lines of hexagonal light fittings and symmetry of the balconies on three levels.

The choice of art deco is not surprising. While the style thrived under fascist regimes in Europe, it was a broad 20th-century movement, a hymn to industrialisation, most clearly seen in the Chrysler building in New York, Rome University and the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Indeed, mining giant Anglo American chose art deco design for its head office in Johannesburg.

From 1938 Premier Mine and environs were taken over by the South African and British military.

With the outbreak of World War II, South African soldiers moved rapidly north. They were key in the swift capture of Italian colonies and in turning the tide against the axis powers after the battle of El Alamein in 1942. Thousands of Italian troops surrendered between 1940 and 1943 in Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia and later in the desert campaigns in Egypt and Libya.

The vast numbers posed a problem for the allies. They could not be transported to England because of the danger to shipping in the Mediterranean. Nor could they be kept in Egypt, which was under pressure from the “Desert Fox”, General Erwin Rommel. A military doctor recalled how, “The high command of Great Britain and the Union decided to construct camps in South Africa to accommodate the embarrassing stream of prisoners who began to pour in in an ever-increasing magnitude.”

Zonderwater grew into the largest POW camp throughout the allied territories. It comprised 14 blocks, each subdivided into four camps. In addition there was a transit camp, a disinfestation camp and a hospital.

Articles of the time emphasise the high standards of prisoner care, which exceeded those of the 1929 Geneva Convention on POWs. Outraged letters from sympathisers of the Ossewa Brandwag complained that these prisoners enjoyed better treatment than those interned for sabotage.

The impression is certainly one of a spartan holiday camp, with few punitive features. All forms of sport were catered for and art, theatre and music formed a pre-eminent part of camp life. Visitors to concerts remember high standards of performance, while a symphony orchestra of 86 musicians and a quality brass band entertained many senior military personnel.

Fifteen schools were established in the blocks, where 9 000 illiterate prisoners learnt to read and write in Italian, while many others learnt a trade. A central library served the men, while each block had its own branch library.

Volatile Mediterranean prisoners had to be handled carefully. A camp doctor observed: “Hysteria is a common occurrence in all prison camps, and as the Italians are an emotional people, the incidence of hysteria among them is relatively high”. However, they compared favourably with a small number of German prisoners, en route to Canada, who were “truculent, insubordinate and uncooperative”.

Most official correspondence concerns the thorny issue of prison labour, which may offer a clue as to why no records exist about the Villa Il Duce.

Local farmers were delighted with the prospect of low-cost labour. However, a backlash from white artisans and workers soon meant that the conditions of employment strictly limited their use to “unskilled labour”, at a shilling a day. The Farmer’s Weekly ran a summary of the conditions of employment, where laxity surrounding periods outside the camp is evident in the concern about how prisoners were “left entirely to their own devices” for days. Fraternising was dealt with in a typically South African way: “It is the duty of the employer to warn prisoners of war of the consequences of association with native women.”

The design and construction of the villa, and the numbers involved, blatantly contravened the ban on the use of prisoners in any capacity beyond unskilled labour. Therefore, the building was clearly the product of a gentleman’s agreement between the South African army, the POW camp commander and the mine manager.

The camp commander from 1943 to 1946, Colonel HF Prinsloo, provides another fascinating link with the past in the area near Cullinan, particularly the Battle of Donkerhoek or Diamond Hill, during the Anglo-Boer South African War. Aged 12, Prinsloo fought in his father’s commando. He was taken prisoner by the British, and interned in Barberton concentration camp.

Ironically, Italian POWs who applied to return to South Africa faced a particular kind of racism. Although South Africa “required a larger white population” to exploit opportunities provided by the opening of the then Orange Free State goldfields and the post-war industrial boom, the then National Party urged that “only Europeans of Northern European origin” should be encouraged. While a significant number of Italians did return, the number was relatively small compared with those who applied.

The lowdown