John Taylor let me know about the coolest Durban video. It’s made up of thousands of individual photographs of scenic locations in the city brought together into a stunning timelapse video. Not history but very cool all the same. See it at the link below on Vimeo.
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vatu butow
hi just wanted to roll back the years to when my dad fritz butow was a life guard on the colored beaches of durban in 1955 and won a bronze medal for saving lives ..i know not too many people won these so im quiet proud of his achivements .the other thing i wanted to share was he later went on to be the last coach for sth african swimming at the 1956 melbourne olympics,then as we all know arpathied was declared and so he was the last swim coach of that era.he later went on to marry my mum from fiji and ended up in new guinea working as a freemason and died two years later when i was only two years old in a unmarked grave site in a town callled madang.this is not a fitting way for a special man from africa to be remembered who gave so much time and skill to his chosen professions .so to the butows all over the world related to him and the people of south africa i leave you with this story of a part of history not many know of ,yes my mum was a black woman and so you can imagine if he took her back to africa in those days what a ordeal they woulkd have face him being white from a line of german aristocracy i will always love my dad and his legacy he left us thankyou for sharing this story .
Gerald Buttigieg
Hi Vatu,
Thanks for sharing that about your father. Yes it is sad when one’s parent is buried in a grave far from home in some remote place. Consider all the dead in the war graves all over the world. A lot of injustice was committed and allowed.
Just a correction, South Africa did compete in the 1960 Olympics held in Rome but was not allowed to compete in the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Kobus Scheepers
Hi Vatu
I would really like to get more information about your father and his life saving and swimming.
Can I get in contact with you about that?
Kind regards
Kobus Scheepers
Allan Jackson
Hi Kobus, I have sent your email to Vatu in case he doesn’t spot your message.