Monuments and Heritage in the Vaal Triangle

There are a few interesting monuments to see in the Vaal Triangle area of South Africa, most in and around Vereeniging, and a few points to consider regarding the accessibility of South Africa’s history and heritage…

Many areas in South Africa can boast historical finds relating the movement of the San people (also known as the San Bushmen), other indigenous tribes and the French-Dutch colonists who became the forebears of today’s Afrikaans people. There are also monuments commemorating the fallen soldiers and glorious victors of the Anglo Boer War, to the women and children who died in the English run concentration camps, and monuments to the victors and loser in various tribal wars.

There are monuments and tributes to the incidents, heroes and martyrs in the Stuggle Against Apartheid, and there are pre-historic archeological discoveries and curiosities, from plant fossils to dinosaur bones to the fossilised remains of hominids and early humans – many incidental and others of considerable significance.

Sadly, like many areas in South Africa, mention may be made of San Rock Art or fossils having been found here and there, but the site is either emptied, inaccessible, overgrown, vandalised or mentioned over and over in tourism sites without anyone actually having a clue as to where it is or how to get there – not least the local tourism authority. Monuments are often non-descript, easily passed by if you don’t know what they are there for, and some (though by no means all) historical sites such as Boer War graveyards are today forgotten by many, the tragedies and heroism of individuals lost in long grass…

On the other side of that coin, much of what has been found has been safely stored over the years and is on display at a museum somewhere, and there are institutions that safeguard our heritage. So read on for a brief outline of what you can see, and where, for exasperation-free insight into the human, natural and historical heritage of the Vaal Triangle, with much of it concentrated in and around the city of Vereeniging.

Let’s start with Apartheid, in recognition of the significant role of the Sharpeville township in South Africa’s recent human history and heritage…

A Tragic but Transformational Day in South Africa’s History…

The Sharpeville Memorial

The Sharpeville Massacre is known around the world as one of the most tragic and significant events in South Africa’s Apartheid history. On March 21st 1960, an demonstration against South Africa’s draconian pass laws, held outside the Sharpeville police station, turned deadly. The police fired on the demonstrators, killing 69 people and injuring hundreds more. This event is commemorated in this memorial in Sharpeville, as well as in Human Rights Day – an annual public holiday, marked by many memorial events around South Africa.

“Wounded but Unconquered”

The Peace of Vereeniging – Monument at Vereeniging City Library

The town of Vereeniging played a most significant role in the Anglo-Boer war. Apart from the district having been the site of many a bloody battle, Vereeniging enjoys the accolade of being the town ‘where it all ended’.

The Treaty of Vereeniging (also called the Peace of Vereeniging) was signed on the 31st of May 1902, and saw the end of a protracted and miserable conflict between the British Crown and the Boer Settlers for sovereignty of the resource-rich land of South Africa.

This conflict introduced the modern world to Guerilla Warfare and Concentration Camps, and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, ‘Black’, ‘White’, men, women and children, in the first two years of the 1900’s. The Vereeniging Treaty brought a welcome Peace to South Africa, with sovereignty to the British. 

The words on the Boer Memorial at the Vereeniging City Library proudly read: “Gewond maar Onoorwonne”, which means “Wounded but Unconquered”.

Gone but not forgotten…

The Concentration Camp Graveyard and Memorial

The Vereeniging Concentration Camp was set up by the British in September of 1900 and by 1901 housed over 1000 men, women and children in tented camps. Conditions were very poor, with no running water, few supplies and little care for the welfare of the ‘inmates’, who’d been taken from homesteads and farms burned by British troops to starve the Boer soldiers who depended on them for food.
Many died of slow starvation and disease in the concentration camps, the most prolific and saddest victims being the children – of which there were 500 in the Vereeniging Camp.

EUREKA! The Discovery of South Africa’s Black Gold in Vereeniging…

The George William Stow Memorial – Bedworth Farm, Free State, Vaal

Vereeniging exists thanks largely to the discovery of coal in the Vaal River bed in 1878, and the George William Stow Memorial stands on the Bedworth Farm, on the opposite bank of the Vaal River to Vereeniging.

The monument reads: “George William Stow. 1822 – 1882. Distinguished Pioneer, Geologist and Ethnologist, Discoverer of the Vereeniging Coal Field. Erected by the Geological Society of South Africa and Vereeniging Estates Limited”.

The discovery of the coal fields not only lead to the energy wealth that fueled the growth of Vereeniging and concluded in the construction of the Sasol 1 Power Station in the 1900s among other developments, but also to the discovery of unique plant fossils, found nowhere else on earth. These can be viewed at the Vaal Teknorama Museum, along with the unique rock engravings found at the Redan Rock Art site on the Macuvlei Farm near Vereeniging, and a few other fascinating Vaal Triangle discoveries and snippets of a unique history…

Text: Nikki Ridley for ShowMe Vaal