2oldbroads

Places of interest in Bethulie

Jan van Riebeeck plaque

As you enter town from the north west side, on your left against the mountain you will notice a plaque. This plaque was erected in honour of Jan van Riebeeck the father of the nation, who brought white civilization to this country. The plaque was erected on the 300th anniversary of the landing of Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape. 

The Horse monument

Just a little further down Joubert street you find the Horse monument on your left. The monument originated when a horseback commando took part in a Republic festival in Bethulie in 1981. Laura Rautenbach, a well known sculpture from Bloemfontein was commissioned to capture the traits of a typical Boer horse namely power, alertness and a fiery nature. As a base for the sculpture, an enormous rock was brought from the Hennie Steyn bridge to the present sight and the sculpture was secured to the rock with steel pins. The sculpture was unveiled on 23 April 1982 and it was placed facing south to depict the direction from which civilization entered the country. 

Cenotaph

On the corner of Roux and Grey street opposite the Dutch Reformed church we find a war memorial. It was erected in honour of the soldiers that lost their lives in world war one, two of which came from Bethulie. On the Sunday closest to the 11th November each year a memorial service is held to honour the soldiers. During this service a role of Honour is read to commemorate each and every soldier that lost his life. 

Ox wagon monument

On the corner of Voortrekker and Onder Noord street we find the Ox wagon monument. It was erected to coincide with the symbolic ox wagon trail in 1938. The Louis Trichardt ox wagon visited Bethulie on 13 October 1938 leaving its tracks in a slab of wet cement. The footprints next to the tracks belong to Mr & Mrs Tienie van Spoor. At the time of the wagon visit, a pile of stones were also stacked. These stones were later used to build a neat base for the sculptured ox wagon pulled by two oxen. The wagon and the oxen were sculptured by Hennie Myburgh. The bronze that was used was gathered by school children and comprised of old bullet shells. The monument was unveiled by Hennie Myburgh himself on 26 October 1940. Tragically Mr Myburgh lost his life in an explosion in his workshop. Unfortunatelly the oxen were stolen in 2005, hence the wagon was relocated to the Pellissier house museum for safe keeping. The rock pile to the left of the ox wagon monument was made from a pile of rocks collected during the Oudefontein memorial service. A bronze plaque in memory of two rebels Harm Grobler and Ben Kruger whom both drowned as well as the rock pile was moved from the Oudefontein site in 1971 to its present position as it was feared that they would be flooded when the Gariep dam was build 

Bethulie concentration camp

When Kitchener took over the leadership of the war, new methods were introduced to try and end the war. (11 October 1899 - 21 May 1902). One of the methods used was the erection of concentration camps for the people not fighting in the war, mainly woman and children. This lead to the  establishment of the concentration camp at Bethulie. Woman and children from the surrounding areas were brought there. The original camp was erected on the east side of the town, in the vicinity of the Burgersdorp train line. The camp had no permanant houses and consisted mainly of tents. It housed between 4800 and 5000 woman and children and was one of the biggest camps in the country. Conditions in the camp were appailing. In this camp an estimated 1714 woman, men and children lost their lives from illnesses such as measles and pneumonia. Every concentration camp had many casualties and there was a necesity for a grave yard. The grave yard was started on the east side ofthe concentration camp. Directly after the war, the British Government erected a monument to commemorate the fallen. In 1953 a memorial was erected and all the graves recieved uniform cement headstones. The new terrain and the memorial were unvailed on 10 November 1953. All that remains at the original camp site is the English monument and fragments of the gravestones. When the second phase of the Gariep dam was build it was feared that the original site would be flooded so a decision was made to move them. With monitary assistance from the Department of Water works and the help of the Bethulie camp fighters committee and the South African board of war graves, the grave were successfully moved to the new site just to the left of the eastern entrance to the town. The exhumation and reburial of the 1737 casualties started in 1966 and was completed on 10 October in the same year when it was unveiled by the then State President CR Swart. The monument as well as the grave stones on the old terrain were removed and were incorperated in a wall of remembrance at the new terrain. Some gravestones were individually re-erected. The remains of the casualties were individually removed and each placed in individual small white coffins which were re-buried at the new site. When the concentration camp was closed Rev HCI Becker was the only minister in the town and he took it upon himself to establish an orphanage for the concentration camp orphans. This was a temporary building made from wood and zinc. When the orphans were transfered to ladybrand and before all the inhabitants of the camp left the site, Rev Becker encouraged them to make a rock pile. This rock pile was later used to erect a monument in honour of the woman. It was unveiled on 22 March 1924. Visitors from all over the world visit the site to try and trace their fore fathers. When leaving Bethulie on the east side, if you follow the road to Smithfield and turnoff to the right just after the station turnoff you will find the new site.

Louw Wepener monument

Six kilometres outside of Bethulie on the west side you will find the Louw Wepener monument. This farm belonged to Louw Wepener, a respected farmer of his time since 27 June 1862. After his passing his wife lived there untill unforseen circumstances forced her to sell.  Louw Wepener died on 15 August 1865 on the Thaba Bosigo Mountain and was buried in a shallow grave with a friend of his, Adam Raubenheimer. After the peace accord of Thabo Bosigo in 1866 his son Dick resumed the two's remains and they were reburied in a camphor wood coffin on his farm in Constantia in the family graveyard. Unfortunatelly the graves were never marked. In 1938 a few of the graves were reopened in the search for the remains of Louw Wepener and on 18 July 1938 they were reburied on the hill. With the help of Dr SH Pellissier a monument was erected on the hill and was unveiled on 31 May 1941. Coert Steynberg scultped the bust of Wepener for the monument and a plaque describing the 1865 storming of Thabo Bosigo was added .

Other activities in and around Bethulie 

Some of Bethulies colourful character

                                  Actor, entertainer, raconteur and self-confessed kakprater……. Patrick Beattie Mynhardt was born on  12 June 1932 in Bethulie, Free State, South Africa. He appeared in over 150 stage plays in South Africa and England, 100 local and international films, TV plays and serials as well as an opera. He died in London where he was performing in his one-man show “Boy from Bethulie” at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End on 25 October 2007. 

Source -  www.PatrickMynhardt.com  

                           Jacques Loots, an actor who featured in many South African movies and also in South African sitcoms such as "Koöperasie Stories" as  Genis, - "Orkney Snork Nie" as Oupa van Tonder, - “Die Kandidaat” as Reverend Peroldt.

During his later days he owned and ran a Coffee  and Bookshop, "Die Boekwinkel" in Bethulie.  

Mzi Tyhokolo,was born on 16 May 1975 in Bethulie.He was a contestant on the first season of the Survivor South Africa Panama reality series.
He was a member of the Aguila tribe and was the 9th person eliminated from the game, on Day 20. He was given a reprieve and  made it to the final four, getting eliminated on Day 29, the final day before the jury vote. In the end he was third overall.
Mzi is an energy advisor for a big fuel company. 

Source - ttp://www.tvsa.co.za/actorprofile.asp?actorid=5152 

A.J. (Albertus Johannes) Venter, was born 29 July 1973 in Bethulie.  He is a South African rugby union footballer. He currently plays for the Sharks in the international Super 14 competition.

Venter made his debut for the South African national team, the Springboks, 26 November 2000 in  a Test against Wales. He  attended Pellissier primary school.

Source - http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/user/6585  

Benjamin Fourie grew up in Florida. He studied music at the University of Pretoria and after having won the SAMRO Overseas Study Bursary, he continued his studies in Detmold, Germany. In 1996 he obtained the degree MMus Performers) cum laude from the University of Port Elizabeth. At the end of 2004 he moved to the village of Bethulie at the Gariep Dam, Free State, from where he has been focusing on reelance work. He has released three CD recordings of solo piano music by South African composers, His biography is also published in various biographical reference works of the ABI, as well as the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England.

Source - http://www.freewebs.com/artcircles/  

Bets de Bruyn has been a sculptor and artist for as long as she can remember and has participated in numerous exhibitions over the last 24 years since she became a serious artist. She is the winner of the Old Mutual Sculptor of the year in Centurion in 1988 and has both sculptures and paintings in different overseas countries. She moved to Bethulie in the Freestate to enable her to devote all her time to art and teaches art to art lovers. Source - http://www.artbybetsdebruyn.co.za/index.html

Munro Having held numerous exhibitions and being represented in all the major art galleries, Munro contributes much to the country’s culture and artistic richness. With more than 11,000 paintings sold, all numbered and catalogued, his work will forever be part of the South African heritage. Munro  uses builders’ tools as pallet knives, to boldly lavish copious amounts of paint onto canvas creating quality works of the highest artistic standard. His works are found everywhere, from the “voorkamer” of the guy next door to corporate and private collections locally and internationally. Source - Janine (Munro’s wife)

Anthony Hocking has lived in Bethulie since 1983 and has written 36 books including corporate histories, guide books and educational non-fiction.  He has produced extensive biographies of Sir Ernest and Harry Oppenheimer  (Oppenheimer & Son’) and Tretchikoff (‘Pigeon’s Luck’) and was lead author of the well-known Reader’s Digest ‘Illustrated Guide to the Game Parks and Nature Reserves of Southern Africa.’ Along the way he spent four years in Canada, researching a series of twelve books about that country’s provinces and territories. As a sideline, he owns and operates Bethulie’s Royal Hotel. 

Source – Anthony Hocking & http://www.countrylife.co.za/i   (Jan 2011)

 Bethulie has played a considerable role in South African history and society.

A ‘Hall of Fame’ of prominent contributors

He used Bethulie as the launchpad of the Griqua trek

He led the Bethulie commando to victory at the Battle of Stormberg

He used the Royal Hotel as his HQ in the hunt for Christiaan de Wet  

His career started when at school in Bethulie

Source - Tony Hocking of the Royal Hotel