Ventersdorp (E 9)

Name: Ventersdorp



Main source: http://www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/southern/ventersdorp.html, Also Wikipedia

Ventersdorp is a town situated in North West Province of South Africa.

The town's population is just 2,000 while the nearby township of Tshing has a population of around 15,000.

AWB legacy

Afrikaner nationalist Eugène Terre'Blanche was born in Ventersdrop.[3] The town is the base of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), a far right secessionist political organisation and former paramilitary group, which Terre'Blanche founded.

Many of the AWB's major figures live in Ventersdorp, including Terre'Blanche's former driver JP Meyer. Eugene Terre'Blanche's security firm was rented out to the town council for a long time as an almost private police force.[citation needed]
In 2000 the new black Mayor of Ventersdorp terminated this contract.[citation needed] Shortly thereafter he disappeared, never to be seen again and his car was found in a nearby field.[citation needed] The Mayor's cousin was found guilty of his murder, but some people, particularly black people, believed that Terre'Blanche had ordered the murder and that the AWB influenced the outcome of the trial.[citation needed]

However, separately, Terre'Blanche was sentenced to six years in prison on June 17, 2001, of which he served three years, for assaulting a petrol station worker and the attempted murder of a security guard in 1996.[citation needed] One of only three whites in the Rooigrond prison near Mafikeng, during his time in prison he became a born-again Christian and later claimed to have moderated many of his more racist views.[4] Terre'Blanche was released on June 11, 2004[5] and the AWB website claims these court cases and other scandals involving him were fabricated by the 'Black Government and the left wing media'.

Terre'Blanche, who had lived in relative obscurity since his release from prison, was murdered in his sleep on his farm Villana just outside of Ventersdorp on April 3, 2010. He was reportedly beaten to death with pipes and pangas by two black men, one of them a minor, allegedly over "a wage dispute". Terre'Blanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries. Ventersdorp police said two suspects were taken into custody over his killing.

The Ventersdorp High School has changed quite dramatically, with non-white students attending since 1995. These students are mostly Afrikaans speaking coloured residents of the smaller township Toevlug.

The Tshing township has a diamond mine nearby: a town councillor owned it in the early 1990s.


Ventersdorp is at the centre of a large agricultural area.

The enormous silos, with a two million bag capacity, stand as proof of the farming activities in the area.

Eye of the Schoonspruit River

This is one of many river eyes in the area. It is 6km from Ventersdorp on the road to Koster. The town depends on its water for human consumption.

Water Mill

The mill is in Roscher Street (off N14 on R30 just south of town). The mill was built on the Schoonspruit River, on a farm the government granted to Mrs de Beer after the death of her first husband. Her next husband, a Welshman named Mr Richard Carew Wilson, built the mill in 1866. It still works today, although it has been electrified and the wheel has long since gone.

Rietspruit Dam Resort

Elandskuil Dam

Klerkskraal Dam

Swartrand Caves

Tarentaal Hiking Routes

The grave with eternal flowers

In the town cemetery is the grave of an Irish soldier, G. Shaw, who fought on the side of the Boers during the South African War. He was court-marshaled by the British authorities and executed by firing squad. Use the entry gate to the left of the old cemetery. The lonely grave is in the shade of a huge tree, next to the fence on the left.

NG Church Hall & NG Church

Anglo Boer South African War Memorial

Near the Voortrekker Hall, next to the fire and ambulance services. In memory of Boer soldiers who died during skirmishes, and women and children who died in the concentration camps.

Boer Fort

The fort is on the farm Elandskuil 4km out of town on the road to Klerksdorp. It is on the left side of the road, at the turn-off to the Rietspruit Dam.

Battle of Ventersdorp Memorial

In memory of those who died on August 9, 1994.

History

The Eye of the Schoonspruit attracted people for hundreds of years to this fertile valley and it still is a never-ending source of life for the people of the town, even during the harshest drought.

Some BaTswana groups settled in the Ventersdorp region in the mid 18th century, but fled the area in the early 19th century during an invasion by other groups. Most of them fled to the Free State. They later returned only to find that white farmers had already claimed the land along the Schoonspruit River.

The first white people came to the area in 1840, making it one of the first settlements in the old Transvaal Republic. The first farm in the area was called Sterkstroom ('strong flowing stream'). The town was established on the farm Roodepoort 22, property of Mr JH Venter. It is believed that Venter allocated stands as early as 1860.

With the development of a farming community in the area, more and more people bought property from Venter.

History

The town grew around a Dutch Reformed parish that was established in 1866.[1] [2] The town was named after Johannes Venter who owned the land the church was built on.

The first church was built in 1889. This building was later used as the church hall, with the completion of a larger red brick church in 1912, which still stands sentinel over the town.

More people settled in the town after the discovery of diamonds in the area. Gold was also discovered but turned out not to be worth mining.

During the South African Anglo Boer War, most of the men folk joined the Boer commandos. When the British introduced their scorched earth policy, an Irish soldier, G. Shaw, considered the tactic immoral and defected. He stayed with the Engelbrecht family at Ventersdorp. When food ran out he went to a local shop for rations. British soldiers recognised him. After his capture he was tried and executed. He was buried in a far corner of the cemetery, away from both British and Boer soldiers. The site is known as The Grave With Eternal Flowers. The grave is under a tree which stays in bloom for months.

In the 1960's and 1970's, hundreds of blacks in the town and surrounding areas were forcefully removed under apartheid laws. They were relocated to newly declared townships such as Makgokgwane in the former Bophuthatswana.


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