Kruiskoppie op Saartjiesnek – Monumente, Gedenktekens en Interessanthede in Suid Afrika
Monument van vrede en versoening
Witwatersbergreeks suid van Hartbeespoortdam.
Granietkruis opgerig in 1955 deur familie ter ere van ñ voorvader Generaal Hendrik Schoeman wat misverstaan is.
Oorsprong van naam nie definitief uitgeklaar nie maar volgens oorlewering was dit ñ moeilike onbegaanbare nek en slegs die dapper Martiens Jones het dit gewaag om met sy muile en skotskar die nek aan te durf om groente vir die boere aan te ry. Al die ander het maar die ompad gery deur ñ poort by die rivier.
Tant Saartjie Mocke, ñ ongeduldige tante, het besluit om nie langer vir Martiens te wag nie en haar perdekar ingespan en nek aangedurf. In haar haas het sy nie halfpad gevorder nie toe breek die disselboom. Sy het alles net so daar gelos en te voet verder gestap. Martiens het later die perdekar gaan herstel en perde teruggebring. Daarna het nek as Saartjiesnek bekend gestaan.
Hendrik Schoeman het in 1868 in hierdie omgewing van die Krokodilrivier kom boer. Hy is verskeie kere deur die ZAR aangestel as vredemaker en onderhandelaar tussen strydende partye en het veral groot sukses behaal met Bantoe Stamhoofde. Hy het verskeie pogings aangewend om vrede te bewerkstellig tussen Boer en Brit gedurende die ABO. Sy pogings is met gemengde gevoelens ervaar.
Hy en sy seun Johan Schoeman was later van die grootste boere in die omgewing en van die dorpe soos Meerhof, Ifafi, Kosmos en Schoemansville het hulle ontstaan aan Schoemans te danke.
Hendrik is oorlede in 1901 in ñ bomontploffing in Pretoria en begrawe in die ou begraafplaas Pta.
Johan Schoeman het ñ obsessie gehad om sy pa se onderhandelingsvermoë te gedenk en die miskenning daarvan reg te stel. Hy het in sy boek , “Was hy ñ verraaier?”, sy pa se balangrike rol in die politiek van ZAR verduidelik in ñ poging om sy pa se beeld reg te stel.
Hy het hierdie massiewe 4 meter hoë granietkruis gemaak en teen die koppie opgesleep met ñ span osse. Kersdag 1955 het hy die kruis opgerig op die opvallende koppie langs Saartjiesnek ter ere van sy pa en ander miskende vredemakers. (Name van ander uit verlede soos Hess(WWI) en Petain(WWII) word ook op plaat genoem en Jesus se rol as Vredemaker en Versoener word ook uitgewys).
Dit dien as Monument van Vrede en Versoening.
Die inskripsie op die plaat lees as volg:
Hierdie simbool van tragedie en triomf,
van oorwinning in neerlaag is opgerig vir Generaal Hendrik Schoeman deur ñ groep bewonderaars. Wreed is die lot van die siener en vredemaker. Sy eensame weg voer steeds deur Getsemane na Golgota. Dink aan Hess, aan Petain, aan die Gekruisigde. Maar tragieser is die lot van die wat sy raad met veragting verwerp. Opgerig 1955.
Johan Shoeman en heelwat ander Schoemans is aan die voet van die koppie begrawe.
Bron: Kormorant. Hartebeespoort.
Bydraes op Facebook blad:
Pierre Rossouw The case of General Hendrik Schoeman, whose name is commemorated by the district of Schoemansville around Hartbeespoort Dam, is revealing.
About sixty years of age at the outbreak of the war, he caused trouble on Impati mountain at the battle for Dundee, and departed in high dudgeon for Pretoria where he persuaded Kruger to appoint him to the command of the Free Staters at Colesberg. Again he interfered to his side’s disadvantage at a decisive juncture in the war.
After the fall of Pretoria he surrendered to General French and promised to take no further part in the hostilities. Blandly he sat on his stoep and watched the skirmish at Silkaatsnek a month later. He was subsequently arrested by Commandant Coetzee, the victor of that engagement, for refusing to serve again, this time as an ordinary burgher. He was delivered to State Attorney Smuts who sent him to Barberton for trial on two counts:
for having taken the oath of neutrality,
and for having discouraged burghers from further resistance.
The charges were however withdrawn, apparently under pressure from influential quarters and, in any event, French soon occupied Barberton, whereupon Schoeman, being found there in the wake of the retreating Boers, was allowed to return to his farm, only to find it burnt to the ground. The British had taken his absence as evidence of his disloyalty.
He moved to Pretoria but, a little later, he seems to have been prevailed upon to act as an intermediary to take messages from influential Boers in the capital to the fighting burghers in the field, presumably impressing on the latter the folly of further resistance.
This episode is not altogether clear but, in company with an English captain, who seems to have been acting as his escort to Rustenburg, he was again taken captive and incarcerated in Pietersburg for many months, to be finally brought to trial on a charge of high treason.
On this occasion he was less lucky: the court upheld the charge, and he was sentenced to death but, on account of some dispute about the constitution of the tribunal, the sentence was not immediately enforced, and he was still languishing in the Pietersburg gaol when the town fell to the British forces.
Released again, he returned to his home in Pretoria. Alas! his tribulations were in vain for, soon after his homecoming, he and some friends were blown to smithereens when a lyddite shell, which he had brought back from Colesberg and which graced his parlour, exploded when it was used as an ashtray – an occurrence which pious Boers saw as the ‘finger of God on a traitor’Frik Brits n Enigmatiese verhaal en konflik tussen hom en van Rensburg wat gelei het tot n burgeroorlog in Transvaal, n uitsonderlike verhaal. Genl Schoeman was vir n wyle aangehou in Pietersburg Tronk waar ek werksaam was …..ek het nagelaat om van sy aanhoudings dokumente afskrifte te maak