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References

* Constructing the Du Toit's Kloof Pass by Andre E Martinaglia, published in The Cape Odyssey of March/April 2007.
* Paarl landmark restored, Paarl Post, 11 December 2003.
* Paarl Valley 1687 - 1987, ed.AG Oberholster, HSRC, Pretoria, 1987.
* The Romance of Cape Mountain Passes, Graham Ross, David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, 2002

Oral history

Sibratti Sabatino was an Italian POW and worked on farms in Wellington's Groenberg area.

2003 expedition

The Italian POWs placed a cross on the summit of Huguenot Buttress. The cross was replaced in 1956, and with a stainless steel cross in 1984. In 2003 an expedition set out to restore the cross. Photographs

Italian POWs

During their stay in Paarl, many Italian POWs had their portraits taken at the Gribble Studio. (Copyright Drakestein Heemrking) Sgt Maj Georgio Taducci worked a a head clerk in the orderly room at the Du Toitskloof POW camp. The image is from the Drakenstein Heemkring files link

History of the pass

Du Toitskloof Pass was named after a French Huguenot, Francois du Toit (1664-1731) who owned the farm Kleinbosch more.

World War II, Italian POWs and the Italian Cross

Italian POWs shipped from the front in Norther Africa during the Second World War, to South Africa provided the manual labour to construct the Du Toitskloof Pass between Paarl and Worcester. When they returned to Italy at the end of the war, four POWs erected a cross on the Huguenot Buttress to commemorate their stay in SA. Local farmers pledged to maintain the cross on their behalf.

The estimated 1,500 Italian POWs were accommodated in a temporary camp on the farm Keerweder in Klein Drakenstein. Construction started in 1940, and most of the work had been completed by the time the POWs returned to Italy in 1945 at the end of WWII.

Wooden cross At the end of the war, before returning to Italy, some POWs erected a wooden cross on Huguenot Buttress to commemorate lost comrades and friendships forged during their stay in SA. Huguenot Buttress is about 1,300m above sea level and one of the tallest peaks in the Du Toitskloof Mountains. The T-shaped wooden cross was 5m high and positioned to look down over the Du Toitskloof Pass, the Drakenstein Valley and beyond. Several men were required to carry the heavy wooden cross and supplies through Miaspoort to the top of Huguenot Buttress. There the cross was cemented into the rock and secured with wire stays. The cross was clearly visible from the valley below.

In 1956 the Klein Drakenstein farmers noticed that the cross was no longer visible, and assumed that the cross had been blown over during a winter storm. Hermanus le Roux of Palmietvlei (he had as a young boy promised the POWs to help maintain the cross) decided to replace the old cross and built a new wooden cross, saturating it with tar to make it more weatherproof. The cross weighed 80 kg and it took 6 men seven hours to carry it to the summit of Huguenot Buttress.

In May 1984 the wooden cross was destroyed during an autumn storm, and another expedition was launched to replace the cross with a new taller stainless steel cross that would be able to withstand the extreme temperatures and high winds of the exposed Huguenot Buttress. This time the expedition team included representatives of the Klein Drakenstein farmers, the Paarl Mountain Club and the Junior Rapportyers was formed. The new cross was 6m high and was erected with the help of a SA Airforce helicopter.

The cables support the stainless steel cross snapped during a storm in 2002. A group of mountain climbers visited the site and reported that the anchoring cables had snapped and the cross lay in pieces among the boulders on top of the peak.

Local engineers decided that while the original cross had been bolted onto a large rock, the rigid design was not suitable for the exposed peak. The new design would provide a pivot for the base of the cross. This would make the structure less rigid in high winds. In September 2002 a large group of local farmers, members of the Italian community, the Paarl Mountain Club and representatives of the Limietberg Nature Reserve helped to carry parts and equipment up to the peak. Heavier equipment was dropped off with a helicopter.