Sites

Archive Import: Significance:Grave of Voortrekker leader Piet Retief.
History: By the middle of 1837 the vanguard of the Great Trek had reached the Drakensberg. Piet Retief and a few of his followers proceeded from Kerkenberg via Port Natal to Mgungundhlovu to obtain a grant of land from Dingane on which the Vooi could settle. Dingane stipulated that Retief should recover some cattle which had been stolen by people dressed like the Voortrekkers, before the question of granting land could be considered. Retief agreed and succeeded in recovering the cattle from Sikonyella, chief of the Mantatisi in Northern Basutoland, who was the culprit. On the 3rd of February, 1838, Retief, with 69 companions and about thirty coloured servants, returned to Mgungundhlovu with the cattle.
After Retief had spent a few days at the kraal Dingane drew up the treaty under which the Voortrekkers received the land between the Tugela and the Umzimvubu ‘and from the sea to the north as far as the land may be useful and in my possession’. This document, dated 4th of February, was signed on the 6th at the
time of the final interview. On that morning the Voortrekkers and all their servants entered the kraal unarmed for the final entertainment and farewell. During the course of the dancing Dingane treacherously ordered his soldiers to kill the Voortrekkers. The white men fought heroically but were overpowered and dragged to the Hill of Execution, KwaMatiwane, where they were clubbed to death. The missionary, Owen, and his house- hold whose camp faced this hill, were the only European witnesses of the scene.
Immediately after the murder of Retief and his followers, Dingane despatched from Mgungundhlovu thousands of his warriors to exterminate the Voortrekkers along the Bloukrans and Bushman Rivers. In the early morning of the 17th February they attacked the laagers unexpectedly and murdered men, women and children indiscriminately, but they were finally repulsed. The Voortrekkers, however, were unsuccessful in their attempts to avenge the death of their compatriots and for nearly a year they were harassed by impis. After Gen. A. W. J. Pretorius had defeated the Zulu army at Blood River on the 16th December, 1838, he marched to the attack of Mgungundhlovu. At the approach of the Voortrekker commando Dingane left his kraal and from a distance sent word to Velenjeni Mawongo, his personal servant, to set it alight. From a hill Isihlalo, far to the north, he sat watching the burning of his great kraal. Consequently, when the Voortrekkers arrived on 21st December they found it in flames and deserted. On KwaMatiwane they found the remains of Piet Retief and his men as well as the leather bag containing the treaty.
The remains of Piet Retief and his men were buried by Pretorius at the foot of KwaMatiwane and in 1922 a monument to their memory was erected here.
In 1936 Mgungundhlovu or Dinganestat was pro- claimed a monument by the Historical Monuments Commission. Two years later a bronze replica of the treaty which was originally drawn up in English, was erected on the spot where it is believed to have been signed. By the generous co-operation of the owner of Moordplaas, Mr. B. van Rensburg, the Historical Monuments Commission is proceeding with the proclamation of KwaMatiwane also as an historical monument.
Visual Description: Near the royal kraal uMgungundlovu is a memorial to Retief and his party, executed on orders from King Dingane on the 6 February 1838.
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