Dates: 1892
The Paul Kruger Bridge is a 12 m span steel truss girder bridge with stone abutments. It was designed by Sytze Wierda and manufactured in Germany, where it was disassembled before being shipped to South Africa. The bridge crosses the Wakkerstroom Utaga River, sometimes referred to the Wakkerstroom River, on the road to Amersfoort on the eastern side of town.
The building of a bridge began during the British occupation of the Transvaal (1877 – 1881) as major problems with flooding of the river and the wetlands made road to Amersfoort impassable. Military labour was for this used but had to be stopped due to outbreak of ABW in 1880. Because of the challenges that water made for passage a petition was sent to the government of the ZAR but without success.
It was when President Kruger visited Wakkerstroom after heavy floods in the wetland, and the local authorities made sure that Kruger’s coach got stuck in the mud on crossing the vlei that the request for funding was approved and construction of the bridge started in 1892. The bridge was declared a National Monument in 1984.
The bridge is also associated with the birth of the Zionist movement in South Africa, when in 1893 the Rev PL le Roux of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), began missionary work in Wakkerstroom. Le Roux and his deputy Daniel Nkonyana, gradually felt more aligned to Pentecostal and Zionist teachings and on 24 May 1904 the first black Zionist (141) Zionists were baptized by full immersion in the pool below the bridge. . There were 141 baptised on that day. The DRC frowned on these baptismal practices as well as on the Zionist belief in divine healing, and subsequently
Le Roux and family were put out on the street, and were treated as pariahs in town.
Most local Zionists later joined the New Apostolic Faith Mission of which Le Roux was president from 1913-1942, and 80% of Zionist churches are of African Independent Churches membership. There are various well-known subgroups today, such as the ZCC in Moria, Limpopo and the Shembe Nazarite Church. The Zionists continue to hold meetings and baptisms at the Paul Kruger Bridge today.
References:
- Hofmeyr, JW et al (2009). Wakkerstroom, Jewel of Mpumalanga, Mediakor
- Peters, W. (Ed.) 1995 &2001. Wakkerstroom: A Conservation Study and a re-assessment, Durban: University of Natal Department of Architecture
