South Africa is filled with haunted places; and ghosts can be found at sea, on old battlefields, sitting with you in a restaurant, or in your mind. They are everywhere – a part of us, a part of our legend. Here are 10 to send a delicious shiver down your spine…
Southern Seas
The southern seas of Africa are among the most treacherous in the world. Circumnavigating the continent was especially risky for earlier boats – and they also had to contend with the most famous ghost ship in maritime history.
Legend has it that in the mid-17 th century a Dutch trader, Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), ran into trouble while rounding the Cape. It now sails the seas in search of other ships to take messages home to their loved ones.
Uniondale
At the Barandas turnoff 19 kilometres before Uniondale, you’ll find one of the world’s most famous ghosts - the Uniondale hitchhiker.
On a cold, rainy Good Friday night in 1968, Maria Charlotte Roux was killed there in a car accident. It is said that since then the apparition of a hitchhiker matching the description of Roux appears at the spot every Easter.
The Castle of Good Hope
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Haunted Cape Town Castle |
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The Castle of Good Hope is the oldest building still in use in South Africa. And the most haunted. For over a century it was the centre of life in the settlement. There was pomp and ceremony, glittering balls and extravagant banquets.
There was also disease and the horror of executions. It is little wonder that it is crammed with apparitions, including those of Pieter Noodt, the most hated of all Cape governors, and the beautiful Lady Ann Barnard who haunts the ballroom.
The Old Gaol
Grahamstown is known as the City of Saints, but it was not always so blest. Under martial law for much of its early existence, its main social occasion appears to have been public beatings and hangings.
Those condemned to death were shackled and led from the dank Old Gaol to the military parade ground where the punishment was administered. The last person to be publicly hanged there was Henry Nicholls, who can sometimes be seen doing the dead man’s walk along the route to where the gallows once stood.
Rudd House
For many ghost-watchers, the fabulously spine-chilling Rudd House in Kimberley is the archetypal South African haunted house. Sprawling and squat, its deep shaded verandahs lend to the air of menace.
Inside, a baby can sometimes be heard crying in the nursery and there is often the terrifying clatter of glass and cutlery being flung on the floor in one of the two dispensaries. Enter if you dare.
Matjiesfontein
At Matjiesfontein, the Victorian village in the Karoo, the past and the present are inseparably intertwined. So do not be surprised to find that some of the visitors are staying forever.
Among these are the spirits of founder Jimmy Logan and Lucy, who has never checked out of her hotel room. Wearing only a negligee, she’s often spotted in the corridor.
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Haunted Nottingham |
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The Nottingham Road Hotel
The Nottingham Road Hotel, the oldest country establishment in KwaZulu-Natal, is possessed by an exuberant spirit.
Thought to be that of a barmaid, she turns tricks in one of the rooms, opens taps, moves ornamental copper pots in the pub, rings the antique decommissioned service bell and even deflates the tyres of problem guests.
Doornkloof
Issie Smuts, the wife of statesman Jan Christiaan Smuts, was adamant that their Irene house, Doornkloof, now Smuts House, was haunted.
Of most interest was her regularly sighting of a ghost of an elderly man with ‘a Kruger-style set of whiskers’. He is purported to be the keeper of a secret regarding the whereabouts of Boer treasure buried on the property.
The Port Elizabeth Public Library
The Port Elizabeth Public Library on Market Square is one of the most beautiful buildings in South Africa. Erected in 1902, it is a fine example of Art Nouveau Artistic Baronial with dramatic Elizabethan touches.
Its resident ghost is of caretaker Robert Thomas who devoted the last 31-years of his life to the library. Since his death in 1943, staff say doors open and bang shut of their own accord; books are removed from shelves and stacked on the floor; and books fall for no reason.
Africana Museum
The Kimberley Public Library, now the Africana Museum, was founded in 1882 and housed opposite the Kimberley Club in a magnificent building with wrought-iron gallery, spiral staircase and sparkling chandeliers. Dyer, the city’s first qualified librarian, arrived in 1900 from England, where at one time he had worked in Buckingham Palace.
But he was also a fraudster, misappropriating funds until auditors caught up with him in 1908. Rather than go to prison, he took cyanide, and his ghost can still be seen dressed in Victorian clothing rearranging books and files in the stacks section.
So when next visiting our wonderful cities and towns, do keep an eye out for those with unfinished business.
For more information on these and other ghost stories, read Ghosts of South Africa by Pat Hopkins, published by Zebra Press.
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