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Graaf-Reinet is built on one of the most attractive settings of any town in South Africa, with mountains on three sides of the town and the very flat plains of the Camdeboo on the southern side.
GRAAF REINET - INDWE
GRAAF REINET
Graaf-Reinet is the oldest established town in the Eastern Cape and the fourth oldest in South Africa. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Dutch Burghers began to leave the settlement around Cape Town and the authorities tried to keep up with them as they moved into the vast African interior. These Burghers became known as Trek Boers and were noted for, amongst other things, for their hardy independent characters, a disdain for authority and their perpetual disagreements with the taxman.
In an effort to keep some control over their subjects, in 1786 the authorities established an administrative centre, or Drosdty, in a picturesque setting in the arid Great Karoo where the Sundays River flows from the Sneeuberg Mountains. This centre they named after the Governor of the Cape, and his wife Reinet.
In the 1830s there was a mass movement of Boers away from the Cape Colony to lands to the North where the Boers hoped to establish Republics where they would be an independent people. This was the Great Trek which had such huge ramifications on the history of South Africa. The vast majority of those who embarked on the Great Trek came from the Eastern Cape. One of the Graaf-Reinet trekkers, Andries Pretorius commanded the Boer forces at the Battle of Blood River and later became the 1st President of the South African Republic. The capital of South Africa, Pretoria, was named after him.
Graaf-Reinet is the main center of the Camdeboo Municipality (Population in 2002 44 354), and is built on an area known as “the horseshoe” where the Sundays River makes a loop that almost encircles the old town.
Graaf-Reinet is built on one of the most attractive settings of any town in South Africa, with mountains on three sides of the town and the very flat plains of the Camdeboo on the southern side. Few towns have conserved their historic townscape as well as Graaf-Reinet, with the result that the town has more protected buildings than any other in South Africa. The most prominent of these is the Dutch Reformed Church which is a Victorian gothic gem. Other notable structures are the Old Drosdty, which is now the Drosdty Hotel, as well as several buildings which are splendid examples of the Cape Dutch idiom, such as Reinet House, Urquhart House and the old Residency which now are part of the Graaf-Reinet Museum.
Graaf Reinet has always been a political centre in South Africa and since the days of the “Graaf-Reinet Republic” has always been in the forefront of the historical processes in South Africa. During the Second Anglo Boer War, during the guerilla phase, raiders from the Transvaal and the Free State operated widely in the rugged terrain of the area, supported by much of the Afrikaans speaking populace. Many of these people, although officially subjects of the Queen, took up arms and joined the Boers. They were known as the “Cape Rebels”. A large military garrison was stationed in Graaf Reinet in order to try and quell the situation. The barracks where they were stationed still exist and is now known as the “Royal Walk” and is part of the suburb uMasizakhe. Many of the Cape Rebels were taken prisoner and were charged with high treason. A number were shot by firing squad, the most famous and controversial being Gideon Scheepers, a Boer commander who was executed outside the town near the Van Rynevelds Pass. When the Van Rynevelds Dam was built his grave was covered by waters of the resultant lake.
Dr. Robert Sobukwe one of South Africa’s most famous and tenacious anti apartheid activists hailed from Graaf Reinet. He is best known for founding the Pan African Congress and was imprisoned on Robben Island for many years. When he had served out his sentence a special act was rushed through the South African Parliament to keep him on the island, the only time in South Africa’s history that a piece of legislation has been passed with one person in mind. Dr Sobukwe is buried in Graaf-Reinet.
Graaf-Reinet is almost entirely surrounded by the Karoo Nature Reserve which covers the surrounding mountains. In this reserve is also to be found one of South Africa’s best known geological features the Valley of Desolation, a dramatic cleft in the ironstone rocks. Graaf-Reinet is also at the centre of a large area of private game reserves and hunting lodges. The town is also the centre of a sheep farming area where that became well known for the quality of its wool and its mutton. Karoo Lamb became famous as being the finest in the world. Many of the farms in the area offer farm stays on the cottages on the farm where activities as hiking, horse riding, quad bikes, hunting, bird viewing and a host of other activities are on offer.
Source: Courtesy Eastern Cape Tourism Board - www.ectb.co.za
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