Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The First Fifty Years
There was no Catholic Church in Umkomaas and the Town Hall
had to be used for services, with a visiting German priest from
Umzinto� Father Umberto Ceselin, a priest from Friuli, arrived in
Umzinto in 1956�
About half the Italians were married, and wives started arriving
from 1955� Some of the single men arranged proxy marriages to
girlfriends in order to bring wives out, since the company would pay
for a wife’s fare, but not a girlfriend’s� One of the first, in September
1955, was Renzo Scarpa, whose son Flavio and daughter Mannie
Rivetti still work for Saiccor� There were 25 proxy marriages – in a
few cases the couples did not even know each other – and most were
successful� The first couple to get married in South Africa was Silvano
Moro and Imperia Martelossi, in July 1957 at Umzinto�
The Zulus solved their accommodation and travel problems by
simply building a village on the small hill across the road opposite
the woodyard (where No 4 continua stands today), named Villaggio
Roma by the Italians� There were also some Pondos in the village,
which gave rise to occasional clashes�
The Zulu employees in the 1950s built themselves a small village, named
Villaggio Roma by the Italians
In May 1955 Dr Fabio Fonda, an experienced Chemical Engineer,
arrived from SAICI� He was in charge of the start-up, and brought
with him Dr Brusa, the Laboratory Manager, and his assistant Dr
Gianpietri (later to become Technical Manager at Mondi Merebank)�
Fred Aldred, the Courtaulds’ representative, arrived on 7 June with
Dr Bruce and John More (a long-time Saiccor associate until his
retirement in the mid-1980s) and 10 engineers, chemists and analysts�
Five ‘cooks’ were made towards the end of June 1955 and 17 in July�
The first 440 pound bale of unbleached pulp was made on 16 July
1955 (bleached pulp started at the end of September)� In August the
factory was running on a continuous basis, six days a week� The
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Dr Fabio Fonda