Funny how one cold night on a railway platform in Natal ended up changing the world, but that’s exactly what happened on this day.
1893: A young Indian lawyer named Mohandas Gandhi was travelling first class from Durban to Pretoria when, at Pietermaritzburg station, a white passenger objected to sharing the carriage with him. Gandhi had a valid ticket, but he was ordered to move to third class, and when he refused he was thrown off the train onto the platform. He spent that freezing winter night in the station waiting room, humiliated and shivering, turning the whole thing over in his mind. He always said that night was the moment he decided to stand up against injustice, and the seed of what became passive resistance was planted right here on our soil. Hard to believe a global movement started at a Maritzburg platform.
1900: During the South African War, the Boer general Christiaan de Wet pulled off one of his cheekiest raids at Roodewal station on the railway line near the Rhenoster River. His commando overwhelmed the British garrison and captured an enormous haul, supplies, ammunition, winter clothing and even sacks of mail meant for the troops. What they couldn’t carry off they burned, sending up a smoke cloud the soldiers could see for miles. De Wet had a real talent for hitting the British where it hurt and then vanishing into the veld before they could respond, and stories like this one are why his name still gets spoken with a bit of awe around here.
1990: State President F.W. de Klerk announced the lifting of the national State of Emergency that had gripped the country for four long years. It was a massive moment, because that emergency had given the security forces sweeping powers to detain people without trial and to muzzle the press. De Klerk kept it in place in Natal, where the violence was still raging, but everywhere else the heavy lid was finally coming off. You could feel the country inching towards something new, even if nobody was quite sure yet how the road would unfold.
Three very different days, one young man wronged on a platform, a general burning the enemy’s post, and a president loosening the chains, and all of them helped shape the place we call home.
Share on X