A country of one-storey buildings

These materials were used for building single chamber one storey round homes – rondavels. As used here, such materials would not have been suitable for anything higher.

But then there was no need and no demand for buildings of this kind. With the railway, however, came the first of the goods imported into this country, metal door and window frames, corrugated iron roofing, wire and probably most importantly, metal nails together with key tools such as axes, hammers and saws.