Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Douglas Smit Highway Namestone Duncan Village, East London, Eastern Cape

Date: 1991 Type: Commemorative Plaque Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°00'31.21" S 27°52'48.35" E Alt: 64m

A triangular truncated obelisk forms a namestone to commemorate the naming of a road in Duncan Village, East London after the nationally known figure of Dr Douglas Smit. The Douglas Smit Highway has a measured length of about 4,1 km from the intersection with Phoenix Street at the east end to the intersection with North West Expressway at the west. The truncated plastered brick obelisk is capped with a finial formed with a facebrick on-edge capping, in turn capped with a pyramidal plastered top. One of the face bricks is impressed with the slogan BUILT IN GENUINE CLAY BRICKS. Two of the three faces have polished granite commemorative plaques. The first plaque reads: DOUGLAS SMIT HIGHWAY The second plaque reads: DOUGLAS SMIT HIGHWAY OFFICIALLY OPENED ON THE 31ST JULY 1991 BY HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR OF GOMPO TOWN COUNCILLOR E N MAKEBA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: MR. P J VAN ZYL CRONJE CONSULTING ENGINEERS: ENGELBRECHT, VAN DEN BERG (CIVIL) ADAMS AND FROST (ELECTRICAL) CONTRACTORS: W J M CONSTRUCTION (CIVIL) ELECTRO NETWORK (ELECTRICAL) In 1934 Jan Smuts appointed Douglas Laing Smit (1885 Seymour – 1961 East London) as Secretary for Native Affairs (SNA). He served until 1945. Both Smit's grandfathers were missionaries: "Rev. N.H. Smit, who worked among the coloured people at Grahamstown and the Rev. William Sargeant, a Methodist from the Salem area." (Bell 1978: 3) In 1912 in Graham's Town he married Charlotte Louise Reay Shaw, a descendant of Rev. William Shaw. Smit was the SNA for the 1936 Hertzog bills, later a United Party Member of Parliament for East London City from 1948 until his death in 1961 (Shear 2013: 229). Mike Kenyon & William Martinson, April 2022 References: M.M.S. Bell, 1978, The politics of administration: A study of the career of Dr. D.L. Smit with special reference to his work in the Department of Native Affairs, 1934 - 1945, MA RU [PDF] Keith Shear, 2013, "At war with the pass laws? Reform and the policing of white supremacy in 1940s South Africa", The Historical Journal [PDF] Entry from Donaldson, Ken. South African Who's Who 1949: An Illustrated Biographical Sketch Book of South Africans. 33rd edition. Johannesburg, 1949 pg 222 SMIT, Dr. Douglas Laing ; U.P. M.P. for E.L. City, has had a distinguished career in the Civil Service and on ret. 1945 was Sec. for Native Affairs ; Dep. Chair. Native Affairs Comm. ; joined Cape Civil Service 1903, and was posted to the Magistrate's Offce, Gtown. ; during the next 29 yrs. served in various capacities in the Magisterial Offce until in 1933 he became UnderSec. for Justice ; 1934 appd. Sec. for Native Affairs ; 1945 accompanied Gen. J. C. Smuts to the United Nations Conf. at San Francisco and rep. S.A. on the Trusteeship Comm. ; later in the same yr. was a Union Delegate to the I.L.O. Conf. held in Paris ; saw service in the S.A. War and. in 1939, as Sec. for Native Affairs ; was responsible for the recruitment of Natives for the Native Military Corps ; rank Hon. Col. ; b. 21st March, 1885, Seymour, C.P. ; s.o. Mr. and Mrs. N. H. Smit ; educ. Seymour Pub. Sch. ; 1946 received Hon. Degree of Dr. of Laws, Wit. Univ. ; m. Miss C. L. R. Shaw, d.o. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Shaw ; 3 c. Add., 1, Mimosa Rd., E.L.