Jan Bantjes

Jan Gerritze Bantjes (Beaufort West, July 8, 1817 - Potchefstroom, March 10, 1887) was a Voortrekker.

He joined the trek on New Year's Day 1837 at the Voortrekker Bearer at Thaba Nchu and accompanied Andries Pretorius the next year on his Wen Commando and wrote the diary of the expedition. In 1839 he settled in Pietermaritzburg as an attorney but returned to the Cape Colony in 1840. In 1848 he acted as teacher and Clerk of the Church Council at Fauresmith. He became a teacher in Potchefstroom in 1865 where he died in 1887.

The Bantjes gold mine was named after his eldest son, Jan Gerritze (1843-1914), a prospector who claimed he had discovered the main ridge on the Witwatersrand.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Jan Gerritze Bantjes op sahistory.org.za, besoek op 8 Julie 2012
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