The brick and mortar behind ‘Mr Ballito’

Building a six-bedroom house on Compensation Road for R8 000 and the iconic landmark, La Ballito flat block for R70 000 are two memories that have endured for one of Ballito’s ‘founding fathers’, Peter Thomas.

Armed with a degree in civil engineering from Natal University, Thomas arrived in Ballito in 1963 and started Thomas Construction.

In those days, construction workers’ wages were only eight cents an hour and Thomas remembers building a six-bedroom holiday home on Compensation beach for Oscar Clayton for R8 000. The house was inbetween where Le Roc and Cowrie Cove stand today.

Business was booming and by the mid 1960s Thomas could afford a bigger house and moved the business from the family home to the Thomas Construction building where the municipal offices in Ballito are today.

Over the years Thomas built some of Ballito’s most iconic landmarks including La Ballito, Sand Piper Bay, The Boulders, Cowrie Cove, The Grange, La Mystique, Le Mouettes, Casablanca, Burmuda and Louis Luyt senior’s house that used to be on Willard Beach.

“We built La Ballito, the tallest building in Ballito, in the mid 1960s and it only cost us R70 000,” said Thomas.

Originally from Durban, he first came to Ballito as a teenager in about 1950 to play in the Umhlali tennis tournament. He later met his wife, Denise, a nurse at Addington Hospital, while visiting his friend, Michael McKenna who then lived in Shakaskraal.

“We started dating in the early 1960s and soon after were married and settled in Ballito. All five of our children (three girls and a set of twin boys) were born in Ballito,” said Thomas.

In 1983 Thomas Construction listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, but in a shaky economy, Thomas Construction went to the wall in 1984 – the year his wife died.

Thomas later retired and moved to Umhlali Country Club. His active lifestyle was tragically brought to an abrupt halt two years ago when a gust of wind blew him off his feet. He fell and hit his head, hospitalising him for seven weeks and leaving him a partial quadriplegic.

However, with friends and family constantly coming and going, visiting him at home, the well-loved family man does not have time to be lonely. With five children and nine grandchildren who live all over the world, Thomas has great wealth in family.

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