TOPIC:

In researching the Gouvernement’s Noten issued by the ZAR during the Boer War I stumbled onto a little-known aspect that proved nonetheless very important for the political future of the Boer Republics.

During the final stages of the war Lord Kitchener had come to the conclusion that the Governments of the Boer Republics would (and could) never sign an Unconditional Surrender and that to reach peace, certain terms needed to be agreed upon with the Boers. Lord Milner was also aware of this, but nonetheless kept pushing for an Unconditional Surrender as he knew that prolongation of hostilities increased the likelihood of achieving his true objective: The permanent elimination of the Boers as a relevant economical, military and political power in post war South Africa.

Aided by shifting political powers in Great Britain, a general war fatigue on both sides and other factors such as the concentration camps and the large number of Boers who had hands-upped or joined, Kitchener’s viewpoint eventually won out and ultimately resulted in the signing of the Peace Treaty in May, 1902.

One of the terms agreed upon was the establishment of various compensation schemes for war losses suffered by the Boers. In simple terms, one fund was established to recompense Boers who had remained loyal to the Boer cause (The “Ex-Burger Fund”), another for pro-British subjects, Boers who had hands-upped and Joiners (the so called “Protected Burgers Fund”)

Interesting in this context, and reason for this post, was that the aim of two-tier compensation scheme -pacify the conquered population and endear it to the occupier- backfired massively and eventually formed the nucleus for the unthinkable unification of Joiners and Bittereinders, just four years after hostilities were ended.

The Compensation Schemes proved problematic from the word go. They were grossly under-funded, the process was slow and strict and payout rates were as a result derisory. Although the “Protected Burgers” were relatively better off, their dissatisfaction was sometimes even more profound as many had been promised “full compensation of war losses” at the time they had hands-upped or joined.

One of these latter indignants was an early (May, 1900) hands-upper, a Free Stater by the name of Vlotman. Vlotman was incensed that his compensation claim was treated under the “Ex-Burger Fund” and not under the one for “Protected Burgers”. He convened a meeting in 1904 with 19 other claimants (including a Bittereinder) who were also aggrieved about one or more aspects of the Compensation Schemes. This meeting eventually resulted in a manifesto which also addressed other matters such as the use of the Afrikaans language in schools. The movement of aggrieved Burgers grew quickly and over the course of 1904 and 1905 the original Compensation claim issues took a backseat to much broader political issues and attracted such political heavy weights as Christiaan de Wet, Abraham Fisher and James Barry Munnik Hertzog. The movement got traction in both the former Orange Free State and South African Republic and directly led in 1906 to the establishment of an Afrikaner political party by the name of Orangia Unie. This party overwhelmingly (81,5% of the vote) won the legislative election in the Orange River Colony and heavily influenced the political course of South Africa over the following 9 decades.

Badge of the Orangia Unie, circa 1906



Part of the information came from: Of Gold and Iron: Collaborators in the Winburg District by John Boje and Fransjohan Pretorius.