In 1967 I was sent to Philippolis as agency teller. The then Verwoerd Dam (Now Gariep Dam) was being built and at the coffer dam stage. The agency truck, which had the bank set up in the back, had two mobile stops and a fixed one at Oranjekrag, the little town which sprang up to house the dam builders. I would spend the morning in a pre-fab office and then take the truck down to Norvalspont, a village on the Cape side of the river and provide service out of the truck.
I was at the Pont when a black fellow in overalls came to my window and placed two coins before me. He wanted to know what they were worth. I was considerably taken aback because they were a British gold sovereign and a half sovereign – Queen Victoria on one side and St George killing the dragon on the other. They were shiny and looked freshly minted. He also had a little tobacco bag which bulged with more of the same! Even in those days, gold was expensive and I was a penniless bank clerk, so I could not afford to buy them ….. unless I borrowed from my agency cash. But it was fear of a cash check as well as simple honesty which stopped me “borrowing” cash. Telling the fellow I’d give him R1 000 the next day, I contacted a coin collector friend, who sent me the money.
I could hardly wait to get to the Pont the next day. After I had waited impatiently for quite some time, my cleaner found the chap who sauntered up to my window. Imagine my dismay when he said he had sold all the coins to the fellow who owned a clothing shop there – for a mere R500! I was pretty crestfallen but asked where he had found the coins. Seems he was assisting a bulldozer which was loosening up gravel for the dam access roads which were being built, when he noticed a splintered box beneath the tracks and coins which had spilled out of it. Not wishing to draw the operator’s attention, he quickly crammed as many coins as he could into his pocket, before the dozer pulled back and pushed the rest away into the pile of gravel I had no reason to doubt him as he was a rather naïve, unimaginative fellow who was unlikely to have thought up the story.
During the Boer War, there was much military activity around the Pont – a British blockhouse on the river banks is still there and I surmise that British troops buried the coins which were destined for troops in the area, when the Boers placed them under pressure and they never returned to collect their wages. It’s just my theory but what is probably true is that the remaining coins were scooped up with gravel which was then used on the roads which were being built.
It’s quite a thought that the roads around the Gariep Dam might well be paved with gold. I’m still penniless today but I often wonder if fate or something else was testing me for my suitability to be an honest Auditor.
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