Dr Susan Bester
Skool vir
Geesteswetenskappe
vir Onderwys
School for Human
and Social Sciences
for Education
On Monday 30 July 2014, President Jacob
Zuma, signed the Restitution of Right
Amendment Bill into law. The bill opened
way for the new tenure of land claims for a
period of five years until 30 June 2019.
Furthermore the bill also provides for the
lodgement of land claims before 1913.
That is within this time frame that various
treaties (tractates), such as the RetiefDingaan Tractate can be the trigger of the
submission of a multitude of land claims.
To put the Retief – Dingane treaty into the context of
the new legislation it is important to:
• give a brief history of the events that lead to
Dingane granting land to the Voortrekkers under Piet
Retief by means of a treaty (Tractate) and the
massacre of Piet Retief and his companions at
uMgungundlovu .
• give an overview of the history of the treaty, and to
put the different reproductions of it in perspective,
regarding the authenticity of the document and
• determine the territory which was granted by
Dingane to the Voortrekkers as set by the treaty, and
what implications it could have according to the
Restitution of Right Amendment Bill is also essential.
During September 1828
King Shaka was assassinated
by his half-brothers Dingane
and Mhlangana and a
co-conspirator Mbopa. Shaka was
succeeded by Dingane.
Dingane’s royal capital and stronghold was
uMgungundlovu - “the place of the
elephant
In February 1837 Piet Retief
left the Cape Colony with
about 300 people. By early
April 1837, he joined the
Voortrekker groups of
Andries Hendrik Potgieter and
Gerrit Maritz in the vicinity of
Thaba Nchu and the Vet river.
Since there were so many
trekkers together, they
elected a new government on 17 April 1837.
Retief was elected as Governor of the
Voortrekkers while Gert Maritz was
the leader of the Burger council
(Burgerraad). At the end of
June 1837 Piet Uys and his
group of trekkers also arrived and
strengthen the Voortrekker ranks.
For Retief it was important that the Voortrekkers
have their own port and he and his supporters
move to the Drakensberg on their way to Natal
to negotiate for land with Dingane.
In early October 1837 he left with a commission
for Port Natal (the present Durban). On 19
October 1837 the commission arrived at Port
Natal where they met about thirty British settlers
and a number of Zulu refugees. Retief sent a
letter to Dingane in which he requested an
interview because he wanted to negotiate for
land on which the Voortrekkers can settle.
Retief and his group reached
uMgungundlovu on 5 November 1837,
but it was not until three days later
on 8 November 1837 that an interview
with Dingane was granted to them.
During this meeting, Retief told
Dingane that the Voortrekkers wished
to buy land from him, but Dingane
accused the Voortrekkers of stealing
his cattle. Relief denied the allegations
and told Dingane that Sekonyela was the
culprit.
Dingane undertook to grand land to Retief
if he return the stolen cattle. The same
day Retief left uMgungundlovu so that he
could prepare for his action against
Sekonyela to get back the stolen cattle.
Dingane also sent some of his Indunas
with Retief.
On 27 November 1837, Retief together the
Indunas arrived at the laagers.
About a month later Retief left for
Sekonyela to get the stolen cattle back.
He was accompanied by about 50
Voortrekkers and the Indunas. During the
bloodless encounter with Sekonyela,
about 700 cattle, horses and rifles were
taken from Sekonyela.
On 25 January 1838, Retief together with
about 70 Voortrekkers volunteers and 30
servants left the laagers for
uMgungundlovu.
On Friday, 3 February 1838, Retief and his
group with the cattle arrived at
uMgungundlovu.
Retief wasted no time in discussing the
granting of land by means of a treaty with
Dingane. The next day, on 4 February
1838 both Dingane and Retief signed a
written deed of land transfer - from the
Tugela up to the Umzimvubu rivers.
On the morning of 6 February 1838, Retief
and his companions were invited, as
unarmed guests according to Zulu custom,
to a feast by Dingane, before they
returned to the waiting laagers. During the
proceedings, they were overpowered by
the Zulus and killed on the hill of
execution, Kwa-Matiwane.
On 20 December 1838, the commando of
Andries Pretorius arrived at the
abandoned and burned out
uMgungundlovu. Pretorius found the
treaty in a separate blue woven sachet in
a leather bag with Retief's remains,. The
following day they buried the remains of
Retief and his group in a grave.
Andries Pretorius brought the treaty
back with him to the waiting laagers.
After his death in 1853 the treaty was
the hands of his son Martinus Wessel
Pretorius and was placed together with
other documents for safekeeping in the
achieves of the Transvaal Government.
With the founding of the State museum of
the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR)
(forerunner of the Transvaal Museum), on
1 December 1892, the original RetiefDingane treaty was exhibited in the
museum and reproductions were made of
the document.
During 1900, Dr Willem Johannes Leyds
was the Special Envoy and Minister
Plenipotentiary in Brussels of the (ZAR).
He asked that the original treaty together
with certain other government documents
must be sent to him while he was in
Holland. Unfortunately the parcel never
reached him - a great loss to him and
South Africa.
The first primary handwritten copy was
that of Pretorius on the 22 December
1838 - the day after they found the
treaty.
Except for the handwritten copies,
facsimile and tracing reproduction was
also made of the treaty.
During 1891, printer Leo Weinthal got
permission from president Paul Kruger to
make a tracing reproduction of the treaty
and to publish a photographical
reproduction of it. This reproduction was
used to make other reproductions.
What the present KwaZulu-Natal, the territory
mentioned in the Retief-Dingane treaty, is
concerned, it can be expected that two land
claims will be submitted.
King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulus are
compiling a multibillion-rand land claim. This
claim will not only on KwaZulu-Natal but will
include Eastern Cape, Free State and a part of
Mpumalanga.
Research will be done to determine the exact
extent of the claim. The claim would cover land
taken from 1838 onwards.
On the other hand a claim, that can be seen as
a counter claim, will came from the other side of
the treaty, namely from the descendants of the
Voortrekkers. Not a easy task, because
research to locate them will be time consuming
and evidence to support the claim must also be
collected and certified.
However, there was confusion because the
Chief Land Claims Commissioner Nomfundo
Gobodo told Parliament’s rural development
and land reform portfolio committee that the
constitution prevented the commission from
accepting claims for land lost before 1913
BUT he said the Land Claims Commission
would research each claim to establish its
validity, no matter who had lodged it and
the Land Claims Court would settle
disputes.