Riemvasmaak is a settlement in
ZF Mgcawu District Municipality in the
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...
province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The name means ‘tighten the strap’ or ‘tied with straps’.
Riemvasmaak is located near the
Orange River
The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...
, close to the Namibian border. It was originally settled in the early 1930s by people of
Xhosa,
Damara,
Herero
Herero may refer to:
* Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today
* Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group)
* Herero and Namaqua Genocide
* Herero chat, a species of b ...
,
Nama, and
Coloured
Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
origin, but in the early 1970s the community was sent back to their ethnic homelands by the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
government to make place for a military testing site.
The Damara group was sent to
Khorixas in
South-West Africa
South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...
(today
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
) and became known as ''Riemvasmakers''. They were given land by Damara
Chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
to settle in that area.
In 1975, Riemvasmaak became a military testing site, Riemvasmaak Ranges, for live fire exercises of the SADF Armour, Artillery and Air Force until 1994. Long Range Artillery of calibres 120 mm and above, as well as air-to-ground rockets and cluster munitions and ground-to-ground rockets and missiles were tested. It also garrisoned a Company/Squadron of the 62nd Mechanized Infantry and two Companies of the
8 SAI of the SADF, co located with a Target Locating Regiment of the SADF Artillery and a Rocket Artillery Battery. In 1998 a process of land restitution allowed the return of families and communities.
[ Some of the Namibian ''Riemvasmakers'' returned but a residual group founded their own traditional authority. They are recognition from the Namibian government to be recognised as a separate Damara clan.][
The Riemvasmaakers land claim was successful and a large number returned to their ancestral lands in 1997.
The Melkbosrand area, consisting of the farms or areas known as Hartebeesvlak, Blousyfer and Wabrand that cover the northern side of the Augrabies Gorge and the ]Augrabies Falls National Park
Augrabies Falls National Park is a national park located around the Augrabies Falls, about 120 km west of Upington in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It was established in 1966.
The Augrabies Falls National Park covers an area of ...
, was deproclaimed by parliament,
References
Populated places in the Kai !Garib Local Municipality
Hot springs of South Africa
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