Jan Kempdorp
When it was decided to pay the Kimberley area a visit I initially did not include this town into the itinerary. Only changed my mind when I saw that there were some German graves. Ok, I said, lets have a quick look. Now, I am happy to have gone there, the 'stuff' I discovered made it worthwhile. The visit was October 2024.
Jan Kempdorp is a small town along the Harts river and is one of the towns in the Vaal-Harts Irrigation scheme. Wikipedia tells us that about 24000 people live there and it's geo-position: 27.9173°S, 24.8372°,E and 1156m above mean sea level.
History
A rather late starter of towns in this part of the country. Its existence is because of the Vaalharts Irrigation scheme. First, it was a construction camp on the farm Andalusia in 1938, from that it developed into a town which was proclaimed in 1953 and named after Jan Kemp, a general of the Boers during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899 - 1902 and Minister of Lands at the time of the proclamation.
There was a bit of an oddity around the town in that the provincial boundary between the Cape and the Transvaal passed through the town, making it impossible to establish a town council. It required an act of parliament to enable the Transvaal side to be administered from the Cape. Municipal status was given in 1967.
With the new dispensation in 1994, the situation was between the new provinces of Northern Cape and North West. But finally, by an act of parliament, the borders were redrawn such that the whole of Jan Kempdorp is now part of the Northern Cape.
There used to be a museum in town (see picture). It is closed and hasn't been operating for many years. Reference 3, compiled 2015, already stated that the museum was defunct. It is just the building still standing there, it used to be the canteen for the workers and staff of the irrigation scheme. Scattered around the grounds are some machinery from the days of construction, all rusting away and covered in vegetation. Also on the grounds is the engineers house, picture on the right.
The Vaalharts irrigation scheme
Since this is the reason why this town was established, a few words about the irrigation scheme. The potential for an irrigation scheme was already seen in 1872 by taking note of the altitude difference between the Vaal River at Warrenton and the Harts River valley about 22 km away. It was confirmed by a survey in 1881 which showed that the Harts River was 137 meters below the Vaal at Warrenton. Without a mountain in between digging an irrigation channel would not be a major undertaking. Water could be brought up the valley up to the town of Taung.
In 1886 a concession was granted to a company to establish the scheme, but nothing came of it because the necessary capital could not be raised. It had to wait until 1934 when the government, partially driven by the world economic crisis, decided to implement the scheme. A weir in the Vaal River was constructed upstream from Warrenton at Veertien Strome and the main channel excavated and clad with concrete, all the way past the present town of Hartsriver up to Taung. The total length of canals is 1176km and the area under irrigation 39826 hectars.
Andalusia interment camp
During the 2nd World War the government found it necessary to establish camps to hold people who could be detrimental to the war effort. There were several internment camps in this area. Every camp for a specific group of people. The one referred to as Andalusia, was to hold citizens of Germany. It was established in October 1939 and was situated at the south end of the present Golf course. A few low walls are remainders, which could have been an accommodation block. And checking on Google Earth I can make out some camp roads.
The camp was for German citizens and also Germans who had been naturalised but were seen as a threat to the country because of their attitude or association to National Socialism. Andalusia was divided into two camps, camp 1 was for Germans from South West Africa (Namibia), who were initially collected in the Klein Danzig camp near Windhoek. The other camp was for other Germans, sailors from merchant ships and Germans from other British territories. A big surprise for me was to read that amongst the internees were also Jews. The reason behind this is not clear to me.
In one of the reports I read that most of the internees were openly supporters of German national socialism. The most common greeting used was "Heil Hitler". From my own expierience, as a young man in the early 60th, I met some of the former inmates of the camps and must say many of them were still supporters of the National Socialists.
Coming in to Jan Kempdorp on the R708 from Christiana, just before town, on the left is a cemetery. In it is a section for men who died during the incarceration. Apparently some of it was suicide. The names are listed on a central plaque (see picturs).
Ganspan
Ganspan, about 9km south-west of Jan Kempdorp, was an irrigation settlement, established by the Department of Welfare. The plots were only about one morgen (0.866 ha). I counted 209 plots on Google Earth. It was designed to give some people (whites) who had nothing, to earn a small income through irrigation farming.
There were some changes after 1994. I don't know exactly how it was done. From my informant I gathered that the irrigation board stopped supplying water and the people were given the choice to move away, transport for their household was provided. As soon as a house was empty, a new occupier, black, moved in. For those that couldn't or wouldn't move life was made difficult. One old lady who couldn't move had stones thrown on the roof in the middle of the night.
Once all that had settled and the whites were out, the water returned and deeds were issued by the authorities. The situation now is that a few whites have returned by buying the plot.
Ganspan internment camp
Ganspan was the location of an internment camp. This one was holding about 180 prisoners from the Ossewae Brandwag (OB). The organisation was opposed to South Africa entering the war, that was WW 2, 1939-1945. They were involved in acts of sabotage against the war effort.
Some of the welfare houses had already been built at Graspan, it was easy to convert it to a camp by just enclosing it with a fence.
And this is where the great escape happened. Nine prisoners escaped through a tunnel they had dug under the fence. Amongst the 9 was the later judge Jan Strydom. It was mainly due to his efforts that the story of the escape was kept alive.
When Jan Strydom entered the camp there was already a group planning to escape, he joined them. It was decided that a tunnel would be the means of escape. There was a house near the fence which was used for recreation. This would be the starting point for the tunnel. Lifting the floorboards in one of the rooms they dug down initially and then outwards towards the fence. The sand they dug out would be distributed under the floorboards of the building. When no digging took place or when there was danger approaching the floorboards would be put back and a heavy cupboard moved above the entrance. They also had an alarm system. Piano lessons were given in the building, as long as the piano was playing it was all clear. The piano would go silent when there was danger. Digging instruments were knives and spoons stolen from the kitchen. To move the sand out of the tunnel they had a little wagon that could be pulled from both ends. As the tunnel got longer there was a problem of build up of CO2. This was countered by pumping up a football outside and releasing the air at the dig.
The tunnel was 57m long, ending 13m beyond the fence and took six months to dig. Arrangements had been made that cars would be placed on the road to Warrenton recognisable by a white handkerchief on the door handle. This worked well for 7 of them, two missed the cars and spent the remainder of the night in the pastorie in Warrenton.
Nearly 40 years later, 1983, Judge Jan Strydom came to Ganspan to visit the site of his great escape. He could identify the house from which the tunnel was dug, this led to a group of enthusiasts to start digging to see whether the tunnel could be found.
It didn't take them long to find it. The tunnel was then opened up to the road and is now covered by concrete slabs. A monument was erected at the road with steps going down to the original tunnel, see pictures.
Railway line
There is a railway line passing the town, which I did not pay too much attention to. I wish I had, because it is a very historic line. It is part of the rail going up to Rhodesia. The first section from Kimberley to Vryburg was completed in 1890 already, some years before rails reached Johannesburg. One has to ask, what was the rush to get a rail line that far north where there was nothing at that time? Perhaps the Tati gold-fields around Francistown in Botswana? To complete the line up to Bulawayo took until 1897.
Checking Google Earth there is a Border Hotel, Railway restaurant, but this is not where the station is. That one is 2.5km up the line. From driving past I can say it's not in use anymore.
Italian POW camp
There was an Italian prisoner of war camp near the railway line at the southern end of town. I didn't visit the place because, at the time, I didn't know about it. All that is left from that time is a graveyard in a derelict state. The picture shows one of the graves, this I borrowed from ref 3. The coordinates in that report are given as 27.9193°S and 24.826°E. Perhaps somebody in the area wants to have a look at it and get it cleaned up.
References
Ref 1.: Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, Nasou Limited, 1974
Ref 2.: Dr.Udo Küsel, Vaalharts irrigation project, 2015, impact assesment
Ref 3.: Manuscript by Jan van Heerden, made available by Berta Stoltz