Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Epic chapter of Cape history recalled
who happened to be at the scene of an arrest, could earn a shilling by pushing the offender to the police station, were recalled today by Hadji Abdurahman Johnson of 311 Hanover Street. He is believed to have turned 101 to-day.
The Hadji says he remembers clearly the day when the Malay people gathered on Sentry Jetty at the bottom of Adderley Street and watched the Alabama drop anchor.
‘And when Prince Alfred came to Cape Town and named the “new” docks I was nearly 16,’ he added. (The 1953 report then states: “Prince Alfred laid the foundation-stone of the old part of the docks on August 24, 1867.” In fact, the teen prince tipped the first load of stone for the breakwater in September 1860; Hadji Johnson would, therefore, have been about eight years old at the time.)
When (Zulu king) Cetswayo was imprisoned in the Castle, the Hadji says he could be seen in a loin cloth sunning his massive body on the Castle walls every morning. He always had several of his wives with him.
Hadji Johnson used to drive one of the old hansom cabs, and claims to have driven Lord Kitchener, General Redvers Buller and founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell, on their visits to Cape Town during the South African War.
He said: ‘In the old days, where the Standard Bank in Adderley Street now is, there used to be a coach house, and I can remember how they used to blow a horn warning passengers half an hour before the stage coach left.
‘Cape Town was a good place to live in those days. It was safe for one’s daughters to go where they wanted to at night, but, of course, there were no skollies. Although the Irish policemen that they brought here were big men, they had less to do than policemen have to-day.’
Hadji Johnson stopped working in 1937 when he made a pilgrimage with some of his family to Mecca.
He has lost count of his descendants, but his youngest son had 26 children, and Mr HO Levy, one of his grandsons, says there are hundreds of great-grandchildren.