Andries Hendrik Potgieter
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Andries Hendrik Potgieter (19 December 1792 - 16 December 1852) was a Voortrekker leader. He served as the first head of state of Potchefstroom from 1840 and 1845 and also as the first head of state of Zoutpansberg from 1845 to 1852.
Potgieter was born in the Tarkastad district of the Cape Colony, the second child of Petronella Margaretha and Hermanus Potgieter. He grew up to be a wealthy sheep farmer and fought in the Fourth and Fifth Frontier Wars. However, like many other farmers of Dutch, French, and German descent known as Boers living in the Cape Colony, he decided to leave the colony in 1834. Delayed by the Sixth Frontier War, Potgieter and a group of Voortrekkers under his leadership left in 1835. Other treks under Louis Trichardt and Johannes Hendrik Janse van Rensburg had preceded him. The Voortrekkers' spiritual leader. Sarel Arnoldus Cilliers, later joined Potgieter's trek.
He and his trek moved inland to the present Free State, where they signed a treaty with the leader of the Baralong, Moroka. The treaty stipulated that Potgieter would protect the Baralong against the Matabele raiders, in exchange for land. The tract of land was from the Vet River to the Vaal River.
The Matabele leader, Mzilikazi, threatened by the white incursion into what he saw as his sphere of influence, led to the Matabele attacking the Potgieter laager in October 1836 at Vegkop, near the Present day town of Heilbron. The attack was beaten off, but the Matabele made off with most of the trekker oxen, crucial draught animals for their wagons. The combined trek groups of Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz came to Potgieter's rescue. Moroka also helped with oxen. His group joined up with Retief and Maritz at Thaba Nchu, where they formed a Voortrekker government and decided to move to Natal. Potgieter was not in favour of this and stayed behind in the Free State In 1838, after Piet Retief and his party was killed by Dingane and Voortrekker parties were attacked at the Bloukrans- and Bushmen's Rivers, Potgieter and another leader, Pieter Lafras Uys, went to assist them. A military force was assembled, but to prevent schism and discord, the new Voortrekker leader in Natal, Maritz, diplomatically pronouced that both Uys and Potgieter were to command. A struggle emerged between the hot-headed Uys and Potgieter. This divided force was lured into an ambush by the Zulus at Italeni and both Uys and his son Dirkie, were killed. The surrounded and outnumbered force fled. Potgieter was criticized for his actions and the force was called " Die Vlugkommado" or Flight Commando. He was further accused, unjustly, of causing the death of Uys by deliberately leading the force into the ambush. He left Natal for good soon afterwards and moved to the Transvaal
He subsequently went on to found Potchefstroom (named after him) and served as its first head of state of the Potchefstroom Republic between 1840 and 1845.
Potgieter later also went on to found Ohrigstad (originally named Andries-Ohrigstad after Potgieter himself and George Ohrig) in 1845, as a trading station. Due to malaria the town had to be abandoned and the inhabitants, including Potgieter, moved to the Soutpansberg area, where he founded the town Soutpansbergdorp, later renamed Schoemasdal.
After the annexation of Natal in 1842 by Britain, a great deal of Natal Trekkers moved to the Free State and Transvaal. These newcommers and their leader, Andries Pretorius, refused to accept the authority of Potgieter, and power struggle emerged. War was averted, and in 1848 and peace treaty was signed in Rustenburg. Potgieter died on the 16 December 1852 in Schoemasdal.
