Do you know who Job Maseko was?
Before he enlisted to fight as part of the South African Native Military Corps (NMC) of the Union Defence Force, Maseko was employed as a delivery man for an explosives company in Springs.
Many residents of Springs and KwaThema will be familiar with Job Maseko Street and Job Maseko Primary School, but how many people know why the school and street are named after the man?
Lance Corporal Jacob (Job) Maseko was a prisoner of war when he blew up a German supply ship at Tobruk Harbour in 1942.
Before he enlisted to fight as part of the South African Native Military Corps (NMC) of the Union Defence Force, Maseko was employed as a delivery man for an explosives company in Springs.
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During his time at the factory, he became familiar with explosives and their uses, knowledge which would stand him in good stead during the war.
Maseko was one of 77 000 black South Africans who volunteered to fight Hitler as part of the 2nd South African Infantry Division.
The NMC was not issued with firearms as race laws of the time prohibited black men from carrying firearms.
They were thus put in support roles, including drivers, military cooks, engineers, stretcher bearers and bomb loaders, within in the division, which did not require the handling of a firearm.
However, as Rommel’s Afrika Korps forces closed in and the defense of Tobruk became more desperate, the black soldiers were finally given rifles and allowed to fight alongside their white counterparts.
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The Germans could not be resisted though, and with no Allied air support, German aircraft bombed the port, while Rommel’s tanks and infantry advanced.
When Tobruk in Libya fell to Rommel’s desert rats, white South African troops were shipped to prisoner of war (PoW) camps in Europe and black troops were kept in desert camps and forced to labour for the enemy.
Maseko worked in the harbour, loading supplies onto ships and it was here that he saw his opportunity to alter the course of history.
Using a milk tin, cordite and a fuse he found buried in the desert, he manufactured a bomb which would destroy a German cargo ship.
On July 21, 1942, he went down into the hold of a supply ship and, while his three close friends – Andrews Mohudi, Sam Police and Koos Williams, distracted the guards, he used these discarded items to set up a delayed explosion.
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By the time the ship went up in flames, Maseko and his friends were safely back at the PoW camp.
Maseko was nominated Victoria Cross for valour, but a senior military officer vetoed the idea of giving such an honour to a black man.
Maseko was given the Military Medal for gallantry instead.
He died in Springs on March 7, 1952, and is buried in the Payneville Cemetery.
In 1997 the SAS Kobie Coetzee was renamed the SAS Job Maseko.
Sources: www.theteacher.co.za, www.sahistory.org.za and www.samilhistory.co.za
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