Graham Keppie reflects on career

Former chief city engineer’s heroics saved EL

Though several decades have passed since he was active in municipal affairs, there will be many East Londoners who still remember former chief city engineer, Graham Keppie.

Graham, I am privileged to say, is a new friend. He lives in the apartment next door to me and with our wives we share the same dining-room table at Lily Kirschmann.

During the time we have been here I have come to appreciate the superior intellect, humble demeanour and subtle humour of this remarkable man.

Graham, going on 96, is a former East London Rotary Club president, has a hearty appetite, is an absolute whiz with figures which totally belies his age, has a memory like the proverbial elephant and can do things with his double-jointed hands and wrists that defy logic and medical science!

He is a little hard of hearing and a little tottery on his feet nowadays but hey, who cares! He is content with life and is a charming individual loved by all who live here.

Graham lives with his wife Patricia and, in a flat upstairs, is his brother-in-law, Les Kumm, a former town clerk and his wife, Anita Pat’s sister.

All four were prominent members of the local municipal staff in their day. By way of conversation one sunny morning last week, I asked him what he considered the most taxing experience of his 18 years with the municipality.

After a little deliberation he said probably the floods of August 1970 a natural disaster the likes of which reputedly occurs once every 200 years. At that time an unsuspecting East London public bore the brunt of an 828mm deluge in a week.

While you and I were rushing round trying to staunch the leaks in the roof, salvaging furniture and making sure the children were in a safe place, Keppie, his fellow engineers and their specialist consultants were desperately attempting to protect the city’s infrastructure which the flood waters were threatening to annihilate. The Bridle Drift dam and the smaller Laing dam, both situated upstream on the Buffalo River were near the top of an appallingly long list of fundamental city assets which suddenly needed attention.

With this torrential downpour and subsequent powerful run-off of water buffeting their holding structures, both these vital resources had to be protected at all costs.

Both had tons of water flowing metres over the top of their spillways every second and there was growing concern that the force of the water would breach the retaining wall of the newly-built 101,6-million m³ capacity Bridal Drift dam and carve a destructive swathe of our precious domestic water supply right down to the sea.

Fear was the water would then sweep aside everything in its path, including hundreds of river-side dwellers, in its headlong rush of muddy debrisstrewn water down to the harbour and ocean beyond.

An on-duty police officer on seeing the seven-metre high volume of water cascading over the Bridle Drift dam spillway, apparently exacerbated the situation by assuming it was entire length of the dam wall which was affected and informed the harbour authorities causing the prompt switch-off of the city’s electricity supply at the power station and throwing East London into darkness and turmoil for two hours. It turned out to be a false alarm.

The harbour was under severe strain and with flood water gathering momentum, the force of which swung a large Union Castle passenger liner, round, toppling a giant crane in the process.

Meanwhile from the other side of the city came news that the Batting Bridge over the Nahoon River which links East London to suburbs like Beacon Bay, had a buckled back and tree-laden flood waters were hurtling down to the sea at near rooftop level carrying all before it causing enormous damage to elegant riverside homes along the way. Two things now required immediate attention. One was how to erect some sort of temporary passage across the river and secondly how to prevent the flood waters from washing away the sewage pipes which ran along parts of the Nahoon beachfront.

Again quick-thinking by our brilliant engineers found a way. The army was called in to sling a Bailey bridge, I think they call it, across the Nahoon River to allow for the movement of traffic and as for the sewage pipes, municipal staff brought in boulders and as much rubble as they needed and packed it between the swirling river water and the sewage pipes.

The walls of the dams, by the grace of God, remained intact.

The Laing Dam wall was later lifted and secured thus providing protection for the Bridle Drift Dam further downstream. The Batting Bridge, partially built on a large boulder which had subsided during the flood causing the crumpling of one of the pylons rendering it impassable to traffic. The whole bridge was dismantled and completely rebuilt after the flood water had subsided and stabilised on solid bedrock.

The disaster cost the city millions and it took months to make good the terrible damage inflicted by this freak force of nature. The job was duly completed and I hope Graham Keppie and his unsung heroes were suitably acknowledged for their splendid contribution.

Kepping who remains appreciative of the important input of a number of city associations such as the Mdantsane Special Organisation (MSO) would, I’m sure, have regarded it as “in the line of duty.”

Now, in the autumn of his years, he deserves to sit back in his easy chair and as he gazes out over the manicured lawns and beautiful gardens of the Lily Kirschmann retirement complex, permit himself an occasional moment to recall that turbulent period in the city’s history, nearly 54 years ago and his part in it and to give thanks to almighty God that the consequences were not as severe as they might have been.