Mthonga
It was around this time that Mthonga, the first born son of Mpande arrived in the area with his entourage. Mthonga had fled Zululand (with some of his father’s cattle) in fear of his life. Mpande’s second wife was plotting to have him killed to ensure the succession to the throne of her own son, Cetshwayo. Mthonga and his party settled at a place then known as KwaYende.
An interesting story has it that there was a scribe named Ngema among Mthonga’s entourage. Yende asked Ngema to write to the President of the then Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek and to register the title to the land. Ngema did this, but omitted to mention that he was writing on behalf of Yende and the area was duly registered as KwaNgema not KwaYende.
In 1854 Mpande ceded the right to the Boers at Utrecht to settle the area in the upper umZinyathi – more of the former Hlubi territory vacated during the Mfecane – in return for their help in locating and returning Mthonga to him for punishment. The cession granted by Mpande resulted in the settlement of a wide area around the present-day towns of Utrecht, Wakkerstroom and Volksrust by white stock farmers.
Mthonga had to flee once more and he moved westwards to the Wakker-stroom area and was given refuge on the farm Saxony, just west of the present-day town where Wakkerstroom Farm Lodge is today. He also spent a lot of time at the place known as Ophondweni or eSikhaleni between Wakkerstroom and Volksrust. In March 1861 the Boers handed Mthonga over to Cetshwayo in exchange for a land agreement.
Early days in the town of Wakkerstroom
The Volksraad of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek in Potchefstroom decided that there was a need to establish a town between Potchefstroom and Utrecht. Swart Dirk Uys, who lived in the vicinity, was instructed by the Executive Council to find a site for a town that met the criteria of having good grazing and plenty of water to cater for the cattle and other livestock of both the residents and passing travellers.
His brief was simply to find a suitable site for the new town, but Swart Dirk decided to measure out the town anyway, before any approval was given by the Volksraad. He accomplished this by cutting a 50 yard long thong or “riem” from an eland bull that he had shot when he arrived at his chosen site to measure out stands in the future town.
Using his layout he submitted plans to the Volksraad for the layout of the town he called Uys-en-Burg. The plans were submitted to the Volksraad by President M.W. Pretorius and were unanimously accepted by them on 21st September, 1859. Swart Dirk’s name for the planned town was not accepted, however and the town was officially named Marthinus Wesselstroom – the name which is still used on official documents today – in the District of Wakkerstroom. With a typical Boer disregard for central authority the district name of Wakkerstroom was adopted as the “unofficial” name for the newly proclaimed town.
The Wakkerstroom of those days was a wild place. Not only did the nightly roars of lions compete with the calls of the frogs in the wetland, but there were many pretty lawless human inhabitants as well. The first Police Officer, Richard Donague, was only appointed in 1864 and there was quite a contingent of people who managed to avoid settling in Australia by getting out of their leg irons and jumping ship in Durban. These folk settled in Wakkerstrom outside the jurisdiction of the Natal Colonial Police and would retreat into the Colony whenever the ZAR Police decided to look for them
By the late 1860s the town was described as ‘little more than a shanty town on the edge of a swamp.’ Young Tom Vinnicombe and his family settled on the farm “Mooi Plaats” and described the place thus (from Vinnicombe’s Trek):
High in the Drakensberg were reedy bogs
Where lions’ roars were answered by bullfrogs.
From mountain kranzes spruits ran sparkling down
Through Mooi Plaats to the place called Wakker’s Town.
In time the boggy basin was surveyed,
Rondavels, mud huts and sod houses made;
Mud floors, reed doors, rawhide hung from door pole;
A pillow served to close each window hole ….