Pieter Gysbert Noodt was governor of the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

from 1727 to 1729. He was first employed by the

United East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock co ...

as director of fortifications in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and visited the

for the first time in 1718, where he remained for nearly a year. He was a combative character, but it was not until his return to the Cape in 1727 as

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

that it became clear exactly how unfit he was for office. He has explored some forests in the interior, but his name is mainly associated with the barbaric treatment of a number of soldiers, driven to obscurity by his actions. His unexpected death, while still sitting in his chair, was then seen as divine intervention. Noodt was buried in the

Groote Kerk, Cape Town The Groote Kerk (Afrikaans and Dutch for "Great Church") is a Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town, South Africa. The church is South Africa's oldest place of Christian worship, built by Herman Schuette in 1841. The first church on this land was ...

in April 1729.

References

{{Governors of the Cape Colony 1729 deaths South African politicians Governors of the Cape Colony Governors of the Dutch Cape Colony