Page 75 - Bulletin 11 2007

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THE AGE OF ELECTRICITY AND GAS:
LIGHTING UP THE PENINSULA AND THE FALSE BAY COAST

Dick Fowler and Peter Coates

Introduction

The authors have an interest in the history of those technical matters commonly known

as public utilities. Peter Coates, who has retired from the National Library, has made a
study of the history of public transport in the Western Cape and takes an amateur’s

interest in water supply and sewerage. Dick Fowler, who has retired from Eskom, is

researching the history of electric power generation in South Africa, in which the Kalk
Bay area played a small but significant part. The paper draws together a lot of disjointed

information about public utilities and, in the process, may shed light on some obscure

aspects, and explain some mysteries.

Sanitary problems plague Kalk Bay.

Kalk Bay was famous long ago both as an important fishery and as a health and holiday
resort. Its importance as a fishery is undeniable, but its claims as a health resort are

dubious. “Those who keep pace with the times”, wrote the Cape Town Mail in 1846,

“instead of taking physic for ailings, take themselves off to Kalk Bay with a sure
prospect of more speedy and more pleasant recovery.”

But before a municipal council existed, the area was plagued by disease, not only

arising from poor sanitation but also from overcrowded living conditions. As recently as
the 1870s a newspaper report raised a suspicion that there might be some kind of link

between flies and disease, but the idea was quickly dismissed as ridiculous, since

everyone knew that disease was caused by miasma. There was also an exceptionally
high incidence of leprosy here. Fishermen had it, dressmakers had it, the local butcher