In the dying months of the Anglo-Boer War up in the Northern Transvaal, Harry Harbord ‘The Breaker’ Morant commanded a unit of the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Soutpansberg. Morant, an Anglo-Australian with a colourful past, vowed to avenge the death of his best friend, Captain Percy Hunt, who had been killed in an ill-conceived attack on a civilian house.
What was to follow was a series of callous murders and trumped up accusations – leading to arrests, court martial, and executions – the effects of which still reverberate today.
Many books and a stage play have been written on Morant’s life, and a movie called
Breaker Morant was released in 1980. Most of these were written from an Australian point of view.
Now Charles Leach, whose family has been resident in Louis Trichardt (Makhado) in the Soutpansberg for four generations, tells a local version of the tale in a newly-published book titled
The Legend of Breaker Morant is Dead and Buried: a South African version of the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Zoutpansberg.
His narrative reveals no less than 35 known murders committed by Morant’s men, aided and abetted by the notorious Captain Alfred ‘Bulala’ Taylor of the British Army Intelligence Department.
Well-known in the area as a local historian and tour guide, Leach’s passion for his subject has resulted in the establishment of the Zoutpansberg Skirmishes Route, attracting over 4 000 tourists to the area to date.
Date: Tuesday, 26 June
Venue: Origins Centre
Time: 18:00 for 18:30
Cost: R45/R35 Wits students and Wits staff
Bookings:
[email protected]