Timeline

Ngema Family acquired their land from the Boer before 1902.

Braklaagte farm bought by BhahurutsebaSebogodi Tribe in 1907 before the 1913 Land act, during the time when it was still illegal for black people to buy land in the white community.

TRAC (Transvaal Rural Action Committee) records state that 60 men donated cattle to raise money to buy land in the Amersfoort district (farm Driefontein).

Dr Pixley ka Seme urged people to sell their cattle to buy farms prior to the 1913 Land Act.

First title deeds issued to Ncube & Vilakazi family.

Farms situated in the Ventersdorp area. This farm just like Braklaagte and Driefontein was also bought by the ancestors of Dispossessed Mogopa in 1912, 1931 respectively. The land was bought just before the 1913 land act was put in place.

LANDACT LEGISLATION LAND ACT LEGISTLATION IMPLEMENTED 1913 Land Act restricted black people from buying land.

LANDACT LEGISLATION LAND ACT LEGISTLATION IMPLEMENTED 1913 Land Act restricted black people from buying land.

LANDACT LEGISLATION LAND ACT LEGISTLATION IMPLEMENTED 1913 Land Act restricted black people from buying land.

Mrs Trusty Manama , one of the eldest residents is born. She is interviewed in 1994.

Marks the first time the Braklaagte community was first threatened with forced removal. They successfully avoided it, but a headman of 40 families from neighboring villages were forcibly removed by the Apartheid government ,as to get rid of the African population residents in that Area. This happened in the early 1940s.

There was only one shop nearby, which entailed crossing the land of a white farmer. This farmer made a step ladder over the fence and if you didn’t cross there he would shoot next to you and make you stand still until he picked you up and dropped you far on the road to Amerfoort. This happened in the early 1940s.

There was a school in Driefontein but it had only one class. This school was also used for community meetings.

The Native farmers Association in Braklaagte divided the land and sold it to individuals and by 1985 it had 250 plot owners.

John Sebogodi‘s wife, Maria was one of the women who led the protest against women moving with passes. They refused to carry passes as some of them were beaten up and locked up in jails. (detentions).

Again Braklaagte resisted to forced removal under Chief John Sebogodi then later on Chief John Sebogodi was arrested.

Tshegofatso of Braklaagte (Interviewee) recalls a time when men of the villagers stopped ploughing and moved into town to go work in the mines hoping to make more money.

People worked in the nearby forests cutting 8 foot poles for which they were paid 2c per pole.

Again while the Braklaagte men were still in the city in Johannesburg they joined ANC (African National Congress).

When Mrs. B Manama arrived in Driefontein there was no food, no houses no shops, no transport to town. People kept cattle which they used for ploughing. With more and more people coming, there was no space on the land for grazing. Also adjacent farmers planted trees which used up grazing land.

During this time there were already plans for forced removal targeting black communities which settled at Driefontein.

Men were elected to patrol at night, to protect everyone. This continued till 1972.

Government officials painted numbers on people’s doors, which was an ominous precursor of an intended removal.

Farmers evicted farm workers in large numbers. These people were given a place in Driefontein.

Both landlords and tenants were jailed if there wasn’t a house number on their door. A Pietersburg (?) magistrate set up a temporary office to examine title deeds, and to collect details of land ownership and family members.

When Bophuthatswana became independent, all Tswana people then lost their South African citizenship. Braklaagte and Leewufontein remained owned by the Bahurutse community. They resisted being part of Bophuthatswana.

First high school, built by the community not the government.

Police check dompas, buses stopped in town looking for pass book, police regularly check homes for strangers.

The first Driefontein killing occurred when a Ndlovu was gunned down.

In the early 1980s it was investigated and planned that Marico should be added into homelands and that white farmers in that land should be bought out.

A tornado brought floods, roofs including the hospital (?clinic) roof were blown off, as well as the opening up of graves.

Early 80s in Magopa two schools were built, numerous shops, a reservoir, clinic and a thriving agriculture sector.

The government decided to remove the Mogopa people in the interest of grand apartheid working with Jacob Moore.

Officials of the department of Co-operation and Development announced that Moore had agreed to the removal on behalf of the tribe. The Mogopa people reject this plan.

Severe drought meant that cattle died and there was no food.

The government painted more numbers, this time on gravestones. The total crassness of this action caused outrage in Driefontein and evoked sympathy for the community further afield. In an interview with Saul Mkhize, which was published in the New York Times, he was quoted saying: ‘When we bury our dead we expert them as all other people do, to rest in peace…. We paid for our land and we wish to keep it’

Saul Mkhize is shot dead at Qalani primary school after he was told not to conduct a community meeting.

Black Sash gives advice and support to pensioners.

The Departments truck arrived to begin removal and ten families left with Jacob Moore.

14 February marked the final removal which was done at gunpoint.

Meeting at Bethanie with Paramount Chief. TRAC Black Slash members, Dr W Kinster (SACC) and Peter (Soal, MP PEP) were present.

COSAS members from Tembisa hold meetings with Driefontein youth in Mkhize homestead.

The new Medical Clinic,which was built with donated funds, is opened. Enos Mabusa, President of Kangwane attends.

People from Modikwe were move to Ondestepoort.

Under acting Chief Pupsey, Braklaagte challenged the incorporation in court but lost the case. eg when the pupils and youth were arrested by Bophuthatswana authorities.

A large contingent of Bophutswane police and personnel entered Braklaagte and set up a police camp in the village. Children schooling at Zeerust were on their way from school as they were stopped at roadblocks and asked if they supported Bophuthatswana or if they were under South Africa.

65 Braklaagte residents appeared in the Lehurutse magistrate’s court. Chief PupseySeboogodi was the first to be accused. The rest of the people are charged with public violence, arson and malicious injury to property.23 people-those under the age of 18years and women and children were released on free bail while the rest appeared on 03-04-89.

Court case in Pretoria lawyer (Fink Haysom).

All schools were closed in Braklaagte.

TRAC was told that SAP had raided houses in the Zeerust township during the night looking for Leeufontein and Braklaagte.

Pupsey Sebogodi, Braklaagte Chief appears in Lehurutse court. He is alleged to have contravened his bail conditions and state applying for bail to be reinstated.

Court case is won and the community was jubilant.

Meeting at Mogopa with TRAC.

Funeral of Themba Dlamini.

Some community members at Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal with Mam Lydia, Aninka Claasens, Fink Haysom.

Life Continues at Mogopa.

The ANC was unbanned but the violence continued in the community, Further ANC branch was launched in Braklaagte and violence intensified.On the day following the launching, police fired teargas randomly in the streets of Braklaagte and confiscated ANC membership cards, instigating the fighting between government supporters and anti Bophuthatswana factions that continued throughout January 1991.

People from Onderstepoort rebuild Mogopa again, Pantechnicon arrives with furniture etc.

Residents fled the area and have taken shelter at various churches in the neighboring town of Zeerust.

The Anglican Church, the Methodist Church and township residents were providing shelter for 1500 men, women and children. The following week the number grew to more than 5000 refugees. The resident Lutheran Minister at Braklaagte said that he had heard numerous shootings and seen heavy police mobilization and scenes of conflict during that week. When lawyers from the firm of Cheadle, Thompsom and Haysom visited the deserted Braklaagte village, the only movement they saw on the roads was that of Bophuthatswana police hippos and police vans. They recorded their impressions in a memorandum: “They also saw a tractor pulling a long flat bed trailer in which were at least 30 young men armed with sticks and clubs. The young passenger with them claimed that these were vigilantes and on seeing them they requested that they take him out of the area as soon as possible. They watched this tractor drive straight into the police camp.”

Vigilantes tried to set fire to the house of the chairman of the local ANC interim committee, Henry Saku.

Anti government faction torched four houses of government supporters.

Police raided the village, arresting and assaulting people randomly. Two ANC supporters were killed and more than 50 people were injured. Residents alleged that police took them to the police camp and assaulted them there before either releasing them or taking them to Motswedi police station. The incident followed clashes between the Braklaagte community and a vigilante group, calling themselves "Inkatha," led by the unpopular chief of the nearby Welverdiend village, Mr Gilbert Moiloa. According to Chief Pupsey Sebogodi, chairperson of the Anti Bophuthatswana Coordinating Committee and respected by the community as its leader and spokesperson, the vigilantes were colluding with the homeland police to eradicate opposition to Mangope's regime.

Pro government vigilantes torched the houses of two ANC supporters.

Two residents died in a confrontation between members of the community and the police.

Celebrating the reopening of the new school in Mogopa.

Vigilantes abducted and subsequently killed Mangole Saku, a villager from Mosweu near Braklaagte, who was travelling on a bus from Johannesburg. Bophuthatswana police have claimed that he died of bullet wounds, but his body, found in a mortuary at Lehurutse, had been mutilated.

Police have on occasion used torture. The following accounts come from statements, taken by lawyers working with TRAC: Police took one village woman into an empty room with black curtains, wherein nine men entered. They pushed her across the floor and when she fell on the ground, they kicked her in the waist, kidneys and buttocks. Later they brought a chair into the room and told her to "hide" under the chair, which she was unable to do. They continued kicking her in the buttocks and in the waist. They ordered her to do push ups with her fists on the floor, and when she got tired, they kicked her in the abdomen. They ordered her to do frog jumps and later made her spread her hands on the floor and beat her fingers with an iron bar. Finally they made her stand up and then beat her on the toes. She received no medical attention. Police slapped a male resident in the face when he denied their accusations against him. They then told him to lie down and whipped him on his back with a belt. One policeman then stood on his back and stamped with both feet, while others put a dustbin over his head and demanded that he agree with their accusations. He refused. They slapped him in the face, beat him on the chest, and punched him on one eye. He remained in prison for seven days without medical attention. On the seventh day police summoned him and again told to admit to the accusations. When he refused they beat him on his back with a sjambok. He was later released on bail.

The community lost, on technical grounds, an appeal challenging the validity of its incorporation.The government responded to numerous protests from the community with a letter stating that the decision to incorporate Braklaagte had been made in 1984, confirmed in 1985 and could not be "rescinded or renegotiated." Currently, a large police camp, consisting of 8-10 tents and at least 50 policemen, occupies the village.

Voter Education Workshop run by members of the RWM (Rural Women’s Movement) and Black Sash.

Mogopa speaks with the Department of Agriculture reps.

Mogopa conducts Voter Education workshop with RWM and Black Slash.

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Bread making project by women in Mogopa.

Attempt to buy alternative land (TRAC, SACC) thwarted by Apartheid government.

Diamond mines at Mogopa – then and now.

In Mogopa TRAC did an overview profile of the community as part of a Land and Agricultural Policy Centre (LACP) district case study.

The government reprieve Driefontein and people were happy.

Braklaagte got electricity.