Wolvengat, also known as Viljoenshof, is a village in the southern

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

region, in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province of South Africa. It is situated south of Elim and southwest of

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agul ...

. It was originally named ''Wolfgat'' or ''Wolvengat'' in reference to the

brown hyena The brown hyena (''Parahyaena brunnea''), also called strandwolf, is a species of hyena found in Namibia, Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and South Africa. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Parahyaena''. It ...

, known as ''strandwolf'' in Afrikaans. However, when the local post office was established the authorities named it ''Viljoenshof'' in honour of DJ Viljoen, the Dutch Reformed (NGK) minister of Bredasdorp from 1904 to 1934; this name was then extended to the village. The original name ''Wolvengat'' was officially restored in 1991. In the early 1900s the village had a school with 100 children, but by the early 21st century there was neither a church nor a school. The fertile soil, and the potential of using land for vineyards, explains the high property prices.

References

{{Overberg District Municipality Populated places in the Overstrand Local Municipality