by Lennie | Jun 25, 2021 | Events, Forgotten Heroes, Places
This week’s news reports about the current spike in the Covid pandemic echo down the ages to 120 years ago. Stories about the measles outbreak in the winter of 1901 in the Potchefstroom concentration camp sound eerily familiar with overcrowded hospitals, exhausted...
by Lennie | Jun 18, 2021 | Events, Forgotten Heroes, People
The public holiday of 16 June is known as Youth Day, commemorating the death of 60 youths shot by police in 1976. But for the Afrikaners 16 June signifies the day the British forces started the genocide of the Boer nation. On 16 June 1900 Lord Robberts set the...
by Lennie | Jun 14, 2021 | People, Places, Street names, Technology, Uncategorized
Almost all that is left of the thriving mill industry on the Bult during the latter part of the 19th century are mill streams, repurposed as storm water drainage and three street names, Molen Street, Meul Street and Hoffman Street. The first two are self-explanatory...
by Lennie | May 26, 2021 | Forgotten Heroes, People, Street names
The interesting people that walked the streets of Potchefstroom never cease to amaze me. The exasperated first teacher of Potchefstroom, another historian and a once fancy hotel all lent their names to street names starting with a “K and “L”. Kamp Street (Central) was...
by Lennie | May 7, 2021 | Forgotten Heroes, Street names
A father and son – both historians – a war hero, a cartographer and a long-standing dominee all lent their names to Potchefstroom street names starting with an “I” and a “J”. Iris Street (Grimbeekpark) Senex is of the opinion that Iris Street was named after one of...
