Second Kruger House
The private home of President Paul Kruger until he went into exile in 1900.
by Robert Forsyth, owner of Kedar Heritage Lodge.
Locality
Take the N4 west through Rustenburg and take Exit 169 to the Ottoman Highway north. After 10km take the 1st exit at the roundabout onto the R565. After 2.3km the entrance to Kedar Heritage Lodge is on the left. Enquire at reception for access to the Kruger houses.
What can be seen
The house has been restored to its original condition when it was Kruger’s private residence from 1873 until his exile in 1900. It has several rooms all furnished with items associated with the Kruger family, and kitchen equipment and furniture appropriate to the late 19th century.
PAUL KRUGER’S PRIVATE HOME AT BOEKENHOUTFONTEIN
The Main house at Boekenhoutfontein built by Paul Kruger in 1872/3.
Narrative
Paul Kruger was 48 years old when he built the main house at Boekenhoutfontein and moved into it with his family in 1873. The double-storey house is said to be based on the vernacular architecture found in Cradock-Colesberg region where Kruger’s family were trekboers before joining Potgieter’s trek when Paul was eleven years old. Irrespective of its provenance, it was considerably more elegant than most rural dwellings in the Transvaal at the time. The rooms were spacious, the windows glazed, and a decorated staircase led to the upper floor in a land where double-storeyed houses were rare.
In the 1870s Kruger was implacably opposed to President Burgers’ liberal views on theology, education, and the economy, and had resigned from public life after a number of disagreements and political setbacks. However, he remained engaged in opposition politics from his home at Boekenhoutfontein, criticising the Present’s policies at every opportunity.
His major opportunity came when the British annexed the Transvaal in 1877. The country was bankrupt, and Burgers was forced to accept the annexation and resign. The new British administration did little to endear itself to the local burgers. Kruger led the resistance which eventually resulted in the Boer victory in the First Anglo-Boer War of 1880/81 and the restoration of Boer independence in 1883. Boekenhoutfontein would have been pulsating with activity during that time.
Adjacent to Boekenhoutfontein was the farm Kookfontein which was also owned by Paul Kruger. On it lay the village of Phokeng, the ancestral home of the Bafokeng, and the people of Phokeng depended on Kookfontein for grazing and cultivation. Kgosi Mokgatle, chief of the Bafokeng, was therefore both Kruger’s neighbour and his tenant. The rapport between the two men was generally good and mutually respectful. However, during the 1880/81 war the relationship deteriorated when word reached Kruger that Mokgatle proposed assisting the British garrison besieged in Rustenburg. On the eve of the battle of Majuba, Kruger rode from Heidelberg where he was conducting the war and challenged the chief. Details of the confrontation differ slightly, but in essence Kruger attempted to assault Mokgatle whose men fell on Kruger and might have killed him had it not been for the intervention of the missionary, Ernst Penzorn, who was present. Days later the war was over with the Boers victorious and the friendship between Kruger and Mokgatle was repaired.
Kruger was elected President of the newly independent South African Republic in 1883 and two years later he left Boekenhoutfontein to live in Pretoria. The old farmstead remained his private home, however, and he visited it periodically until his exile in 1900.