The Diggers’ Six-Point Charter
Kaapsche Hoop’s appeal for survival, 1913.
In 1913, more than a decade after the war, the diggers of Kaapsche Hoop took their case to Pretoria — six points to secure the village’s future.
By 1913, more than a decade had passed since the Anglo-Boer War. The war was over; the military camps had gone quiet, the telegraphs stilled, the soldiers departed. Mining continued, but Kaapsche Hoop was no longer the thriving frontier settlement of the gold years — the Hester Mine, one of the principal post-war operations, had entered liquidation, and South Africa’s mining capital and labour were flowing north to the Witwatersrand, away from small mountain settlements such as this one. Residents feared that decline, and government decisions, might weaken the community further. Yet the diggers of Kaapsche Hoop had not stopped advocating for their future.
When the miners went to Pretoria
Rather than accept decline, the people of Kaapsche Hoop took action. In 1913, on the occasion of a visit by the Under-Secretary for Mines, village representatives presented a formal six-point appeal — filed in the record as “Diggers of Kaapsche Hoop: questions at meeting with the Secretary for Mines.” It remains one of the clearest examples of community advocacy in the village’s history.
The six points
The charter asked the Government:
- to erect a phthisis sanatorium, granting one morgen of ground to each patient;
- whether patients could be given a surface blasting certificate;
- regarding native labour, especially on the Hester Mines;
- about ground held under base-metal licences where only gold occurred;
- whether water could be laid on to the village;
- whether the Godwan River bridge could be built, at about £500.
Rather than accept decline, the people of Kaapsche Hoop took their case to Pretoria.The Diggers’ Six-Point Charter, 1913
What came of it
Three of the six points had substantial afterlives in the record. The phthisis sanatorium (points 1–2) was built from 1914; the water question (point 5) and the Godwan River bridge (point 6) both recur through the village’s later files. The charter is among the most substantive civic documents Kaapsche Hoop ever produced — a village refusing, in writing, to fade quietly away.
Sources: Union Mines Department records — the Under-Secretary for Mines visit (MM3214/13) and the charter itself (MM3218/13, “Diggers of Kaapsche Hoop”). Detailed citations are held in the project research file.