HISTORY
Cannon owner and operator Martin Venter carefully loads the cannon ahead of the start of another TTOM race
SIGNAL HISTORY
THUNDERSTRUCK!
Who knew owning a cannon was a‘ thing?’ This is exactly what we asked Martin Venter, who has diligently fired the cannon at the TTOM start since 2014. It turns out that cannon ownership is governed by a strict and onerous process!
Getting to the point where he could legally own and operate his own cannon was long process for Martin.“ I joined the South African Navy in January 1975 and met a retired serviceman who took a liking in me, as both of us love weapons. He gave me my first cannon,” begins Martin.“ To own a cannon in those days was illegal, as it’ s a prohibited weapon, but that didn’ t stop me, and I housed the cannon on military property. In the meantime, I started to write letters to the South African Police Service( SAPS) firearm licensing section to obtain a licence and permit for the cannon’ s use.”
For 30 years, Martin received no positive outcome, but then in 2005, he received an unexpected breakthrough when meeting with the SAPS Explosives Unit Superintendent, who had no immediate answers, but promised to look into the matter of legally allowing the cannon to be fired. Three months later, SAPS reverted with several criteria, starting with Martin being instructed to get a letter from the South African National Defence Force to prove that the cannon was not their property. Secondly, an affidavit was required in order to prove that the cannon had not been stolen.
Finally, SAPS required that Martin had to formally belong to a cannon organisation, but as Martin explains,“ The first two requirements were fairly easy, as I was still serving in the Defence Force. However, no‘ cannon organisation’ existed, so a friend and I started the Cannon Association of South Africa( CAOSA) ourselves. I now personally own 30 cannons – three big ones, and twentyseven smaller working ones.”
Today, Martin says cannon firings are used to mark all kinds of occasions: Births, deaths, at ceremonies to scatter ashes and bid farewell to a deceased loved one, event starts, retail space and store openings, at gender reveals, and even at schools to sound farewell to a graduating senior class or to welcome a new intake of a junior class.
LORE OF MUZZLE-LOADERS
Unsurprisingly, one does need formal training if you would like to fire a cannon, especially the historical muzzle-loading types, which are loaded from the front‘ muzzle end,’ whereas more modern cannons are breech-loaders, and are loaded from the back. Martin explains that 18 months of training are needed. Even Martin had to start with training:“ As a military man, I was trained in all weapons except muzzle-loading weapons or cannons!”
“ To satisfy the requirements of the SAPS Explosives Unit, I wrote a training manual on muzzle-loading cannons, which was accepted by them, and we still use that to train gunners in muzzle-loading and cannon firing. This training takes about eighteen months, as we have to be sure that the person firing the cannon knows what he or she is doing. Remember, we often conduct firings in public, whereas other weapon firings take place on a shooting range, under the supervision of a Range Safety and Firing Officer. In our case, the gunner must do all these jobs on his own, and the responsibility is so much bigger,” he elaborates.
Today, trained gunners are registered by the SAPS Explosives Section, and are officially recognised by the CAOSA with a training certificate with the gunners’ grading as well as a competency certificate. The gunner must be trained, certified, registered and have a valid black powder permit, while the cannon must come with a firing certificate and be registered with SAPS, which also regulates all firings. In some cases, a gunner will have permission to fire cannons at any event in public, but some are only allowed to fire on their own farms, or on military property where there are safety measures in place.
One of the historic signal system cannon still to be found around the Western Cape, this one at Signal Gun Wines near Durbanville
If one looks back through the annuls of history, cannon play a leading role in the Western Cape story. By the late 1700s, Dutch authorities had positioned a series of cannon at various outposts or on farms as part of a signal system, used to either call farmers to bring their produce to Cape Town to replenish visiting ships, or to take up arms and head to Cape Town to protect it from an invasion. This system stretched in various directions from Cape Town, as far as Darling, Mooreesburg, Tulbag and Citrusdal in the north, and Stellenbosch, Worcester, Grabouw and Swellendam to the east.
Even though this signal system did not prove all that effective, it remains a heritage that is celebrated by those enthusiastic about history in general, and cannon in particular.“ I am planning to carry out a signal system firing on 24 September 2026, throughout South Africa, to celebrate Heritage Day,” says Martin Venter of the Cannon Association of South Africa.“ There are already eighteen cannons identified in the Western Cape, from Cape Point to Cape Town; and as far as Piekenierskloof, Worcester, Plettenberg Bay and Grahamstown, and even all the way to the Orange Free State and Gauteng.”
The system of signal cannon established by the Dutch in the Cape Colony of the late 1700s
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