JC Smuts was born on the farm Bovenplaats, part of Ongegund near Riebeek West, in the then Cape Colony, and what is now the Western Cape, to parents Jacobus Abraham and Catharina Petronella (nee de Vries) on 24 May 1870.
Bovenplaats by A Pretorious, 1986 (Collection University of Stellenbosch, R72)
Jacobus and Catharina Smuts, 1893 (by J Gribble, Paarl. Wikimedia Commons)
A picture of Mary Tait, one of Smuts’ granddaughters on a visit to Ongegund in 2019 (Chris Murphy)
The house in which he was born still stands, somewhat incongruously as part of the PPC Riebeeck facility after the farm was purchased for its lime deposits in 1946. After a period of neglect the main farmhouse was demolished, but Smuts’ birthplace was restored under the guidance of renowned architect Gawie Fagan, in...
