Citizen’s Civil Defence Handbook / Handboek Burgerlike Beskerming – City of Cape Town

Citizen’s Civil Defence Handbook / Handboek Burgerlike Beskerming is an interesting bilingual South African municipal civil-defence booklet issued by the City Council of Cape Town in January 1977. Designed as a practical guide for Cape Town residents, the booklet can be read from either side, with the English Citizen’s Civil Defence Handbook beginning at one cover and the Afrikaans Handboek Burgerlike Beskerming beginning from the reverse.

Produced during the apartheid-era 1970s, Citizen’s Civil Defence Handbook provides a fascinating snapshot of municipal emergency planning and public preparedness in Cape Town. It explains what civil defence was, who was responsible for it and how the City of Cape Town planned to respond when an emergency required activation of its Civil Defence Organisation. The text discusses the municipal command centre, mobilisation of departments and trained personnel, emergency medical assistance, housing and feeding displaced people, maintenance of law and order and other measures intended to deal with disasters and major emergencies.

The inside cover also provides spaces for the owner’s name, address, telephone number and important emergency telephone numbers, emphasising the booklet’s original practical purpose.

Today this publication is particularly interesting as South African social and political ephemera, documenting the emergency-preparedness thinking of Cape Town in the late 1970s. Its unusual reversible English/Afrikaans format adds further interest. A worthwhile addition to collections of Africana, Cape Town history, civil defence, emergency services, South African municipal publications and twentieth-century social history.

Condition – Good

Good 1977 paper booklet. Page discolouration and age toning are present, together with marks, staining and general age-related wear to the covers. Some pencil notation is visible internally. Binding remains intact.