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Boekenhoutfontein, Rustenburg District

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Post date: 07/08/2012
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President Paul Kruger’s house on his farm Boekenhoutfontein still stands on the slope of a tree-covered hill at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountains, 20 km west of Rustenburg.

At the end of 1840 several Voortrekkers settled in the fertile valley between the Magaliesberg and the Pilansberg Mountains. Paul Kruger was one of them. When still a very young farmer he chose the farm Waterkloof, west of present-day Rustenburg, and lived there until about 1873. On 19th January, 1862, he acquired the farm Boekenhoutfontein as well. Although Waterkloof remained his home, he and his family periodically went to live there especially during the winter. It was only’ in about 1873 that he went to live permanently at Boekenhoutfontein.

It is not known exactly when the large house on Boekenhoutfontein was built. Kruger would not have moved with his wife, who was seriously ill at the time, if there had not been a house. It may be that he built one of the smaller houses before he moved and lived in it while the large house was being built. In any event, all the evidence suggests that he built the existing spacious and solid house during the early 1870’s.

The house is built of stone and the walls are 76 cm thick at window height. According to a sketch made by A. Deden approximately in 1870—1880 it looked like a double-storeyed Cape town-house with a flat roof, but the upper row of windows were loft windows. The loft had no windows at the back. In this respect it resembles the early houses in the Colesberg district where Paul Kruger came from. Indeed, it bears a striking resemblance to G. J. Joubert’s house at Hebron, Colesberg.

Paul Kruger lived in this house until he became President of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek in 1883, when E. Cheeseman, 1920 he moved to his well-known house in Church Street, Pretoria. The farm, however, remained in his possession until 1904.

The house was not burned down during the Anglo Boer War, but, according to Gustav Preller, ‘the President’s house was bombarded with guns from a distance - . . In fact, it became a target for every passing column. Only one shot found its mark and ripped away a part of the front wall . . .’

After the President’s death the farm passed into the hands of his eldest son, Kasper Kruger, who altered the house almost beyond recognition in 1907. The flat roof was replaced by a pitched roof of corrugated iron, with the result that the loft windows disappeared. The wide, open stoep became a verandah supported on clumsy pillars. In spite of this, much of the old house was preserved.

Apart from the house, there are many other features at Boekenhoutfontein that not only remind one of President Kruger’s occupation but illustrate his rugged personality and strong religious convictions. There is a coach-house with an iron roof which is not corrugated: when Kruger found that he had not brought enough 316 corrugated iron sheets by ox-wagon from Durban to cover the roof, he flattened out the corrugations to increase the coverage of the sheets he had. There are the solid outbuildings and pig-sty he built, and the gardens with the lemon trees he planted. Above all, there is the rough altar of stones on the slope behind the house where the President is said to have gone every day to pray.

In 1970 the property was donated by a group of Afrikaans business men to the Simon van der Stel Foundation. The homestead is now being restored by the Foundation.

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