Is Klerksdorp die oudste dorp in Transvaal?

Abstract

This article refutes the claim that Klerksdorp (and not Potchefstroom) is the Transvaal's oldest town, mainly because the assumption that Klerksdorp was founded in 1837 rests upon memory and tradition. It argues moreover that the history of the Great Trek rules out the probability of White settlement in the Western Transvaal before mid-1838. It concludes by indicating that no archival sources or evidence could be traced to prove that a settlement existed at Schoonspruit before March 1840. The settlement which took place there afterwards was basically not a town but a farm. The word erf was not used until the end of the 1840s and indeed referred to arable land or cultivated fields. Although by 1850 the Schoonspruit-settlement did resemble a town and was called Klerksdorp it bore no resemblance to any early Voortrekker dorp. The founding in 1888 of Nuwe Dorp was therefore not merely an extension of Ou Dorp but in fact the establishment of a separate town to provide for the needs of the new gold-diggings at Klerksdorp.