Keetmanshoop (A 9)

Name:Keetmanshoop
Source: http://www.hunche.com/South_African_Railway_Namibia.htm
the Quiver Tree Forest, situated 14 kilometers outside Keetmanshoop, on the farm Gariganus. These prehistoric-looking trees grow up to 7 meters high and have attractive yellow flowers which appear in June and July.

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Just after the turn off from the main road look out for the original Witputs farmhouse ruins on your left. The owner, Reinier Coetzee, was apparently the last person to ever see Adolf Lüderitz alive. On the right is the police garrison that patrols the area up to the Sendelingsdrift gate. On the hill behind the building there are remnants of old South African World War One trenches and ruins. General Manie Maritz stayed at Witputs for three months to train horses for the Schutztruppe. Maritz was charged with treason in the 1920's for having joined the German forces in South-West Africa in 1914.

The Maritz Rebellion:
The Maritz Rebellion (Boer Revolt) (Five Shilling Rebellion), took place in South Africa in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the recreation of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa. Many government members were former Boers who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War, which had ended 11 years earlier. The rebellion failed, and the ringleaders received heavy fines and terms of imprisonment.

The outbreak of hostilities in Europe in August 1914 had long been anticipated, and the government of the Union of South Africa was well aware of the significance of the common border South Africa shared with the German colony of South-West Africa. Prime Minister Louis Botha informed London that South Africa could defend itself and that the Imperial Garrison could depart for France. When the British government asked Botha whether his forces would invade German South-West Africa, the reply was that they could and would.

South African troops were mobilised along the border between the two countries under the command of General Henry Lukin and Lt Col Manie Maritz early in September 1914. Shortly afterwards, another force occupied the German port of Lüderitz.

When the South African government offered to invade the German colonies, the commander-in-chief of the Union Defence Force, general Christiaan Beyers resigned, writing, “It is sad that the war is being waged against the ‘barbarism’ of the Germans. We have forgiven but not forgotten all the barbarities committed in our own country during the South African War,” referring to the atrocities committed by the British during the Boer War. A nominated senator, general Koos de la Rey, who had refused to support the government in parliament over this issue, visited Beyers. On September 15 they set off together to visit major JCG Kemp in Potchefstroom, who had a large armoury and a force of 2 000 newly trained men, many of whom were sympathetic to the rebels’ ideas.

Although it is not known what the purpose of their visit was, the South African government believed it to be an attempt to instigate a rebellion, as stated in the Government Blue Book which covers the historic event. According to general Beyers, it was to discuss plans for the simultaneous resignation of leading army officers in protest against the government’s actions, similar to what had happened in Britain two years earlier in the Curragh incident over the Irish Home Rule Bill. On the way to the meeting de la Rey was accidentally shot by a policeman at a road block set up to look for the Foster gang. At his funeral, however, many Nationalist Afrikaners believed and perpetuated the rumour that it was a government assassination, which added fuel to the fire, which was even further inflamed by Siener van Rensburg and his controversial prophecies.

General Maritz, who was head of a commando of Union forces on the border of German South-West Africa, allied himself with the Germans and issued a proclamation on behalf of a provisional government which stated that "the former South African Republic and Orange Free State as well as the Cape Province and Natal are proclaimed free from British control and independent, and every White inhabitant of the mentioned areas, of whatever nationality, are hereby called upon to take their weapons in their hands and realize the long-cherished ideal of a Free and Independent South Africa." It was announced that Generals Beyers, De Wet, Maritz, Kemp and Bezuidenhout were to be the first leaders of this provisional government. Maritz's forces occupied Keimoes in the Upington area. The Lydenburg commando under General De Wet took possession of the town of Heilbron, held up a train and captured government stores and ammunition. Some of the prominent citizens of the area joined him, and by the end of the week he had a force of 3000 men. Beyers also gathered a force in the Magaliesberg; in all, about 12,000 rebels rallied to the cause.


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