The following article, highlighting two remarkable heritage sites south of Johannesburg, was compiled by Calvin Montgomery of the Southern Suburbs Heritage Society in 2013
A few weeks ago, a friend and I decided to spend the day trying to trace as much of the history/heritage sites of the southern areas of the city of Johannesburg as possible. It was decided that we would spend the day focusing on trying to find these sites chronologically in light of the City’s past, and establish the current state of these areas of historical interest in Jo’burg south as well as to begin to determine what could be done to promote the area from a heritage perspective.
The areas which constitute the ‘old’ and ‘new’ south are rich in history and cultural significance, and are unique in almost every respect to the rest of urban Johannesburg. Each of these areas tells a different story of Johannesburg’s past, from areas like Turffontein, La Rochelle and Kenilworth & Booysens– the ‘old’, to areas like Mulbarton, Glenvista and Bassonia –the ‘new’.
This article details two of our finds, namely the BaTswana ruins in the Klipriviersburg Koppies and the Sarel Marais homestead. The Klipriviersburg nature reserve is a 15 miniute drive from the Johannesburg City center, it is a true gem of the City and holds great potential for being an area of heritage interest, in that, it preserves two specific periods of Johannesburg/Witwatersrand’s history, namely the BaTswana and the trek boers of the ZAR.
The BaTswana
The...
