Schmidtsdrift is a town in Pixley ka Seme District Municipality in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. Situated 80 km west of

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

, it was originally a ford across the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocea ...

which is now bridged on the N8 National Route from Kimberley to Campbell and Griquatown. The history of Schmidtsdrift has been traced back to 1827 when it was declared Crown Trust Land, occupied by the Tswana-speaking Batlhaping and Griqua people. It was scheduled as the Schmidtsdrift Native Reserve in terms of the 1913 Natives Land Act. The threat of relocation in the 1950s forced some of the Griqua families to identify as Batlhaping, becoming known as the Kleinfonteintjie community. The Griqua families who did not align themselves with the Batlhaping were forcibly removed, subsequently. Ultimately the ‘black spot’ removal policy saw more than 1000 Tswana (Batlhaping) households removed in 1968, forced onto military trucks at gunpoint. The former Schmidtsdrift farms continued to be state land. The South African Defence Force (SADF) Infantry Battalion acquired use of it in 1974, establishing a military training base. After Namibia's independence in 1990 members of the 31 Battalion (the so-called Bushman Battalion) consisting of !Xun (also known as Vasekele) and Khwe (known also as Mbarakwengo), were settled in a tent town near to Schmidtsdrift. They had been recruited by the

South African Army The South African Army is the principal land warfare force of South Africa, a part of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), along with the South African Air Force, South African Navy and South African Military Health Service. ...

in northern Namibia to fight against

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

. In 2003 most of the !Xun and Khwe community relocated to Platfontein outside Kimberley following the successful landclaim on Schmidtsdrift by the erstwhile Batlhaping inhabitants. The town hosts an eponymous diamond mine, 80% owned by Lonrho Mining and 20% by the Schmidtsdrift Communal Property Association. In June 2008 an 18.39 carat diamond was discovered at the mine.'Exceptional' find at Schmidtsdrift - IOL News
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References

{{Pixley ka Seme District Municipality Populated places in the Siyancuma Local Municipality

See also

References