Burghersdorp
Principal town in the Cape Province in the magisterial district and division of Albert, situated in a sheltered valley on the Stormberg Spruit, on the main railway from East London to Bloemfontein, Altitude 4,554 ft.; Burgersdorp is also the junction of a branch line via Aliwal North to Bloemfontein . Population (1960): White 2,291; Coloured 870; Asiatic 12; Bantu 3,992. The name was formerly written in English as Burghersdorp.
Toward 1844 about 300 families between the Stormberg Spruit and the Kraai River were granted permission by the Dutch Reformed presbytery of Graaff Reinet to establish a parish of their own. On 27 December 1847 they purchased the farm Klipfontein, belonging to Gert Buytendach, to found a town and build a church. To the great annoyance of many it was proposed to name the town Maitland in honour of the Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland. He, however, declined the honour because the British government hesitated to declare this region a magistracy. Thereupon the town was named Burgersdorp, according to some in honour of the burgher commandos during the Seventh Frontier War (1846-47). It is, however, more likely that it was so named because of the fact that the town was established on the initiative of the burghers themselves. Burgersdorp remained Church property until 01 January 1913, when title was transferred to the municipality. On 21 January 1860 the Rev. Dirk Postma founded a congregation of the Gereformeerde Kerk, as many parishioners left the original Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk; and in 1869 he established a Theological Seminary of the Geref. Kerk, which was transferred to Potchefstroom in 1905. Burgersdorp, however, has always remained a stronghold of the ‘Doppers’ or Gereformeerde adherents.
Here also is the Taalmonument (Language Monument) in commemoration of the official recognition of the Dutch language by the Cape Parliament on 9 June 1882, as proposed by Jan Hendrik (‘Onze Jan’) Hofmeyr. The main inscription, reads: ‘De Overwinning der Hollandsche Taal’ (the triumph of the Dutch language). The life-size marble figure of a woman holds a tablet in her hand with the above inscription. She stands on a high pedestal of granite, to which large marble slabs are fixed bearing further inscriptions. The district of Burgersdorp played a prominent part in the movement for the recognition of Dutch. In 1856 the member for Albert (Burgersdorp district), J. A. Kruger, asked for permission to address the House in Dutch. The request was turned down by the Speaker, but it was the beginning of a movement which continued for 25 years until success was achieved. The monument was unveiled by the chairman of the responsible committee, D. P. van den Heever, M.L.A., on 18 January 1893.
During the Second Anglo-Boer War the statue was removed by the military authorities, and in 1907 the British government put up a replica to take its place. On 3 1 May 2933 this statue was moved to Burgher Square, and in 1937 declared a historical monument. The missing statue was recovered in 1939 at King William’s Town, with the head and one arm missing. In 1957 it was re-erected by the Cultural Society of Burgersdorp in its damaged condition behind the replica. The replica has meanwhile been moved to the foyer of the new library, and the original monument placed beside the Burgher Monument on Burgher Square.
On 13 November 1899 400 Boers defeated a large British force at the Battle of Stormberg, near the town. Ruins of the old Boer forts are still to be seen in the vicinity. The blockhouse at De Wetsville, to the south of the town, was proclaimed a historical monument in 1939.
The J. L. de Bruin Waterworks have solved the town’s water problems, and a water-borne sewage disposal scheme has been carried out at a cost of R50, 000. Electricity is supplied by a municipal power-station. There are residential areas with all amenities for Coloured people and Bantu. Local newspaper: Die Albert Boerevriend (established 1926), bilingual, weekly. Burgersdorp’s former importance as a cultural centre is exemplified by the fact that the Albert Times and Aliwal North Advertiser was started here in 1854, followed by half a dozen other English or bilingual weekly newspapers; while a weekly in Dutch, De Stem, appeared from 1902 to 1925, and two church magazines subsisted for some years until the nineties.
(2) Transvaal. Small suburb in the municipality and magisterial district of Johannesburg, adjoining Newtown and ½ west of the City Hall. The Rand Aid Association had quarters in it. The Government of the Transvaal Republic had the land divided into 311 stands for ‘bywoners’ (sharecroppers) and other Poor Whites who were destitute and landless.
Source: Standard Encylopeadea of South Africa Vol 2. Published in 1970. Acknowledgments: with kind permission.