Jan Smuts birthplace

Jan Smuts was Prime minister of South Africa during the second world war, He was instrumental in uniting the Africaans and the British against the Germans, which facilitated the stratigic support for the British navy this became vital to the outcome of the war.

His birthplace is only 10 minutes from Riebeek west and within the confines of a cement mine! We had to go through the main security gates of the mine in order to visit the home. We were all breatherlised before they would let us through, fortunately this was at 11.30am so we all passed!! There is a big problem with alcholism in SA and for health and safety reasons within the mines boundary no one can be under the influence. It's a good job we didn't visit in the afternoon as we did another wine tasting today, more on that later.