Piet Retief, officially eMkhondo, is a town situated in a

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

-growing region in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is the seat of the

Mkhondo Local Municipality Mkhondo Municipality () is a Local municipality (South Africa), local municipality within the Gert Sibande District Municipality, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, Piet Retief is the seat of the municipality. Mai ...

. It is located just west of the

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

border.

History

The town was founded by the

Voortrekker The Great Trek (, ) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...

s in 1883 and named it after the Voortrekker leader,

Piet Retief Pieter Mauritz Retief (12 November 1780 – 6 February 1838) was a '' Voortrekker'' leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he later assumed command of punitive expeditions during the sixth Xhosa War. He became a s ...

, who was killed by the

Zulus Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They originated from Nguni communities who took p ...

under their King

Dingane Dingane ka Senzangakhona Zulu (–29 January 1840), commonly referred to as Dingane, Dingarn or Dingaan, was a Zulu prince who became king of the Zulu Kingdom in 1828, after assassinating his half-brother Shaka Zulu. He set up his royal capita ...

's orders, after a negotiation for land failed. In 1886, the inhabitants of the town declared the ''

Klein Vrystaat (Afrikaans for 'Little Free State') was a short-lived Boer republic in what is now South Africa (around the town of Piet Retief). History From around 1876, a group of Boers lived on land bought from the Swazi king Mbandzeni. In 1886, a fo ...

'' (''Little Free State''), which contained a population of only 72. This republic existed until 1891, when it was incorporated into the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

. The town became a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in 1932. Its main tourist attraction is the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

that was designed by the architect

Gerard Moerdijk Gerard Leendert Pieter Moerdijk (4 March 1890 in Zwaershoek farm near Nylstroom, Transvaal – 29 March 1958 in Nylstroom), also known as Gerard Moerdyk, was a South African architect best known for designing the Voortrekker Monument in Pretori ...

and built in 1921.

Climate and economy

The area has an annual rainfall of 1000 mm. Its main economic activities are

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

and

wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australian English **''Acacia'' ***Black wattle, common name for several species of acacia ***Golden wattle, ''A ...

bark production as well as

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

kaolin Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (). ...

and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

Name change

On 2 February 2010, South African Arts and Culture minister

Lulu Xingwana Lulama "Lulu" Marytheresa Xingwana (born 23 September 1955) is a South African politician who served as Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities from November 2010 to May 2014. Previously she held the position of Deputy Minis ...

approved a state decision for Piet Retief to be renamed to eMkhondo. Like many other post-

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

name changes in South Africa, the incident remains controversial. Most residents are uncertain what the new name means. Unlike some place names, such as Verwoerdburg, the name was never considered offensive. Prominent Afrikaner groups, including the

Freedom Front Plus The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus or FF+; , ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Corné Mulder. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African Third Cabin ...

, wish to restore the original name.

People

* Jack Diamond, architect, born in Piet Retief *

Heino Kuhn Heino Gunther Kuhn (born 1 April 1984) is a South African cricketer who has played for the national team. He has played for Titans and Northerns in South African domestic cricket and in March 2018 signed a Kolpak contract with Kent County Cric ...

South Africa national cricket team The South Africa men's national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa. South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council. T ...

player *

Sandra Laing Sandra Laing (born 26 November 1955) is a South African woman who was classified as coloureds, Coloured by authorities during the apartheid era, due to her skin colour and hair texture, although she was officially listed as the child of at leas ...

, woman who was born to white parents but reclassified as coloured during the apartheid era in South Africa, born in Piet Retief * Jabulani Mbatha, lifetime Chief, died in Piet Retief in 1945 * Dumisani Msibi, footballer * Ntokozo "K.O" Mdluli, musician (rapper), Teargas member *

Pretty Yende Pretty Yende (born 6 March 1985) is a South African operatic coloratura soprano. She has performed leading roles at opera houses internationally, including La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. She performed at the coronation of Charles III and ...

, opera soprano * Ntandoyenkosi Kunene, Miss SA 2016

References

External links

Town's websiteNew town's website
{{Authority control Populated places in the Mkhondo Local Municipality Populated places established in 1883