GPS: 33 deg 19 min 43.62 sec S, 24 deg 20 min 26.64 sec E
The commando reached the Steytlerville district. A Boer patrol under Segt Carel van Heerden appeared suddenly at Rooiklip where Mrs Edith Carey was living with her old parents. She heard 20 rifle shots from the stoep and saw two men, the Acting Magistrate, Mr EN Grayson, and his Clerk, James Madlaila, racing towards the house with Boers in close pursuit. Grayson galloped out of sight past the homestead, but Madlaila's horse was failing and the clerk jumped off and ran to the house for help. The Boers fired at him. The terrified Mrs Carey ran inside and bolted the door and window shutters.
As Madlaila reached the barred front door the Boers fired and hit him. The wounded clerk pulled himself up against the door and pleaded. "I could not hear what he was saying. I told him to lie down", the widow said in evidence at Cmdt Scheepers' trial. She heard boots clump across the wooden stoep and a Boer voice demand the clerk's pass. Finally, there was a deafening report of a bullet fired nearby. "When I got outside the man was dead, shot through the head. He was not armed", she stated.
After World War I, war veterans restored the clerk's grave. Iron railings were placed around it and a marble slab was laid on top.
Madlaila was killed by the Boers after General Kitchener's policy about the shooting of unarmed scouts had been made clear in a letter to the Cape Governor, Sir Walter Heley (sic) Hutchinson. Kitchener stated "that the killing of unarmed scouts was against the usage of civilised warfare and all persons committing or authorising them should be brought to trial if caught and if found guilty, the penalty of death should be inflicted". French has informed the Boer leaders of this decision.
From August Scheepers had been informed by the British leaders that if they captured him, he would be brought to trial for the killing of unarmed scouts.
Sacred to the memory of James Kobe Madlaila Constable and Interpreter on staff of Resident Magistrate, Steytlerville, who was shot by Scheepers' Commando, at Rooiklip, in this district whilst out scouting 6th August.1901
