When the sheep farmers came to Durban

This week we take a last look at the wool trade in Durban. The Ko-operatiewe Wolmaatskappy Beperk (KWB) (the Co-operative Wool Company Limited) was formed in 1927 as a national wool mart, existing only to sell the wool produced by its members.

The driving force behind the creation of the KWB were members of two prominent sheep farming families in the Wakkerstroom area: the Kolbe and Labuschagne families. In 1912, Len Labuschagne married Bessie Kolbe, the daughter of George Kolbe, thus uniting the two families. Kolbe was elected the Wakkerstroom representative to the Volksraad in 1914 and the chairman of the Transvaal Sheep Farmers’ Association in 1917. But he believed that the wool industry needed more than just a provincial association.

In this, he was supported by his son-in-law, Labuschagne. They teamed together to form the KWB, a national association, in 1927. Kolbe was the first chairman.

Labuschagne was an interesting man. Despite being the scion of an old Transvaal family, he matriculated at Maritzburg College in 1897, aged 17. While studying law at Victoria College (now Stellenbosch University), the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899. He returned home to the Transvaal to fight in the war, later becoming a friend of Jan Smuts and a strong supporter of the United Party in Wakkerstroom in the 1930s and 1940s. Labuschagne also became a prominent cattle and cotton farmer in Swaziland.

When Labuschagne and his father-in-law opened the Durban branch of the KWB, they leased a small premises in Queen Street. So rapid was the growth of the business, that within a year the KWB purchased the site on the corner of Kitchener Street and the Esplanade, 17/18 Victoria Embankment. There the KWB would remain for the next 25 years. They built a two-storey office block in the Cape Dutch revival style, complete with gables and shutters, behind which were extensive warehouses with saw-tooth roofs. The cost was £30 000, with a further addition in 1928 costing £25 000.

Saw-tooth roofs were constructed with plate glass windows facing south to ensure the best light without direct sunrays. It was the Shaw Brothers (another prominent wool firm and neighbor to the KWB) that had been the first business to introduce the saw-tooth roof to South Africa in 1910. Although the Shaw Bros original building has been demolished, there are still some saw-tooth roofed premises that have survived in that part of Durban.

Like so many businesses during the Great Depression, the KWB suffered a setback. To ensure its survival, Kolbe and Labuschagne, together with EP Hoogenhout and HP Hancke, staked their entire fortunes by standing surety for the KWB in their personal capacities. The decision enabled it to recover. By 1936, it had 6 000 members among whom the net profits were divided. At its peak, about 25% of the wool sold in Durban went through the KWB.

In 1952, it moved to 1975 South Coast Road and then in the 1960s and 1970s to 1537 South Coast Road. By 1979, the KWB had ceased trading in Durban.

The following year, Labuschagne died aged 99, just two weeks shy of his 100th birthday.

Over the years, there were many businesses which had offices at 17/18 Victoria Embankment, including briefly in the 1950s the Banque de L'Indochine. In the 1960s and 1970s, two shipping companies were based there: Clan Line and Union-Castle SA. When Professor Brian Kearney evaluated 17/18 Victoria Embankment in 1983, he regarded it as significant enough to be included in A Revised Listing of the Important Places and Buildings in Durban, published in 1984. Despite its listing, the building did not survive much longer: it was demolished to make way for Truro House which is today the Provincial Head Office of the Education Department in Durban.