Transport

Air

thumb|left|Ladysmith railway station

Ladysmith is served by a small airport, located on the western outskirts of the town just below Platrand at .

Rail

The Danskraal Yard is located on the Free State main line and the Glencoe–Vryheid line and acts as a depot for train marshalling and maintenance as well as rail maintenance. The passenger station is located some distance away from Danskraal close to the Central Business District.

Road

The N11 links Ladysmith with Newcastle in the north and with the N3 Freeway in the south-west, while the R103 provides access to Colenso in the south and the N3 Freeway in the west. Traffic traveling between Durban and Johannesburg used to pass through Ladysmith up until the late 1980s, but the completion of the N3 Toll Highway, bypassing Ladysmith to the west, has caused a dramatic drop in traffic volumes through this town as well as others that are now bypassed. In that regard, the old main road through Ladysmith is now designated as the R103. 5 South African Infantry Battalion is based in Ladysmith. A military shooting range is located on the outskirts of the town between the Aerodrome and Platrand.

Other buildings of interest are the Siege Museum, built in 1884 as a marketplace and opened as a museum in 1995. Detailing the battles and history at the time of the Siege, the museum holds around 60,000 documents related to the Siege and the Boer War. The Town Hall was damaged by Boer artillery during the Second Boer War. A large number of the Second Boer War Battlefields around Ladysmith have been preserved as memorial sites. Monuments and memorials to those who died during the battles have been erected at most of them. Two RML 6.3 inch Howitzers used by the British during the Siege stand in front of the Town Hall.

thumb|right|The Burgher Memorial on Wagon Hill at Platrand. Photo 2008.

Located just south of the town, the Platrand/Wagon Hill area saw action during the Relief of Ladysmith. The Burgher Memorial on Wagon Hill, a sculpture of six hands pointing upwards and one downwards, was erected in 1979 in honour of 781 Boer forces killed in the battles in Natal during the Second Boer War. A crypt at the center contains the remains of 310 re-interred burghers. On Platrand there are memorials to the Imperial Light Horse, the Devonshire Regiment, the Earl of Ava and a number of others.

Ladysmith is the hometown of Joseph Shabalala, founder of the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Thulani "Sugar Boy" Malinga, a champion boxer, was born in Ladysmith. Thamsanqa Gabuza, a soccer player, who plays for Orlando Pirates, was born in Ladysmith.

thumb|left|Soofi Mosque

Christianity has a strong presence in and around Ladysmith. It can be seen through the places of worship built around the time of the Anglo Boer wars. One such structure includes the Anglican All Saints Church, built in 1902 from cut flagstones from a quarry in the area. Islam also has a strong presence in the town, which is well known for the Soofie Mosque on the banks of the Klip River. Built in 1969, it is regarded as one of the finest in the country. The origins of the structure date back to 1895 when Hazrath Soofie Saheb arrived in South Africa. He made it his mission to build as many as 12 mosques along the east coast of Durban. Ladysmith was also the home of a revered saint known as Hazrath Soofie Sayed Mahomed Abed Mia Osmani, who is buried in the Ladysmith Muslim Cemetery.

For Hinduism, Sanathan Dharma Sabha was inaugurated to promote religious, social, cultural and education activities in Ladysmith in 1902. The oldest Hindu temple resulted from the amalgamation of Hindu Thirukootam (1910) with the Shree Ganaser Temple and hall erected in 1916. It was declared a national monument in November 1990. The present site of the SDS temple (Sanathan Dharma Sabha aka Lord Vishnu Temple) also housed Mahatma Gandhi who established a non-White Stretcher-bearer service in the Ambulance Corps in the Ladysmith and Spioenkop during the Anglo-Boer War.

There are also Rastafarian devotees within the areas surrounding Ladysmith, residing in Waters Meet, Peace Town, eZakheni, Steadville, Saint Chads, Acaciaville and Roosbom.

Notable people

  • Cecilia Tshabalala, women's rights activist and clubwoman

References

Bibliography

  • Ladysmith — a novel by Giles Foden that is set in Ladysmith
  • London to Ladysmith via Pretoria — a book by Winston Churchill that includes an account of the Relief of Ladysmith
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  • The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi — contains a number of chapters dealing with Ladysmith:
  • Volume II - Indians in Ladysmith (29-10-1903); Indian Store-Keepers in Ladysmith (5-11-1903); Indian Licences in Ladysmith (10-12-1903)
  • Volume IV - Ladysmith Licences (11-2-1904)
  • Volume V - The Ladysmith Licensing Board (21-4-1906); Indentured Indians in Ladysmith (23-6-1906)
  • Volume VI - Ladysmith Licences (23-2-1907); Ladysmith Appeals (20-4-1907); Licence Case in Ladysmith (11-5-1907); Ladysmith Struggle (18-5-1907)
  • Volume VII - The Ladysmith Traders (31-8-1907); Licences in Ladysmith (31-8-1907); Indian Merchants of Ladysmith (26-10-1907)
  • Ladysmith Battlefields
  • Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal