This was a question I recently had to answer after somebody had heard over the radio that Klerksdorp made the claim to be the oldest town in the old Transvaal. The debate about which town would be the oldest one across the Vaal River had been going on for many decades...
Many people use this website to traverse the history of Potchefstroom. This timeline will put events into perspective and in their respective places. The original was compiled by the staff of the Potchefstroom Museum many years ago. I have amended and augmented it. It...
The existence of a Voortrekker cemetery on the Bult that had never been removed has caused much discussion lately. This was after my interview with Potchcast on the subject. I originally wrote an article about this for the Herald in their supplement to celebrate...
The building, now known as the “Old Post Office”, was initially planned to be a Government Building, housing numerous government departments. It stands just off the corner of Greyling Street (now OR Tambo) and Wolmarans Street, facing the church square. The architect...
The recent arrival of a hippopotamus in the Potchefstroom area sounds as farfetched as can be, but is true! Before this one appeared, the last wild hippos were killed in the area during the last quarter of the 19th century. One of the two main fountains supplying...
The sale of Nathan Kirsh’s company, Jetro Restaurant Depot Business, for R500 million was recently announced. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index noted this as his biggest asset. After the sale, he was regarded as richer than the well-known Johann Rupert. The Bloomberg...
After discovering letters written to the Herald in 1912 about the first successful trip by motor vehicle across the Drakensberg, I wrote an article for Weg/Go! about it. I later discovered the tale about an attempt to travel by car from Cape Town to Cairo, which ended...
Sports Village – Olympic medal champ This article was compiled as a commission from the NWU, Records, Archives and Museums and is published here with their permission. The Sports Village, built in 2010, stands next to the Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds of the...
This article first appeared on the website theheritageportal.co.za on 10 November 2015 and was reprinted in my book Stories of Potchefstroom that was published in 2018. This is an article in the series on the declared heritage sites of Potchefstroom. About two decades...
Arguably one of the most beautiful heritage buildings in Potchefstroom is the Landdrost-, Post- en Telegraafkantoor (Magistrate, Post and Telegraph Office) in Greyling (OR Tambo) Street next to the Church Square. Although nowadays defaced by unsightly security...