Editor – Every day that goes by, a little bit more of our town’s history is eroded.
Former positions occupied by the King’s Rifles on the hilltop overlooking the Army Base are slowly being eradicated as housing development continues.
The Red Fort near the Leicester Memorial is now seeing construction work being done. What was once a grand fortified line will soon become little more than a monument to Ladysmith’s expansion.
Many old buildings have been bulldozed flat to make way for the new, with little thought given to the historical consequences of the action.
We live in a town that should be reaping the rewards of its colonial history. Is it wrong to be earning a living from our former colonial masters? To milk them for every penny as righteous retribution for past injustices.
Yes, we can easily bulldoze the past, but as long as there are people willing to pay to see our history, should we not preserve it?
Protect this income stream for generations to come.
There are many who will say “forget the past”, yet we live in a society so fixated on the past that was apartheid that surely where we can make money from it, we should.
Let us not throw away our town’s history because of shortsighted building developments. Let us protect our heritage and ensure that we earn as much as we can from tourists.
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