Hoërskool Voortrekker (Boksburg)

Ds. James Murray Louw[1] studied for the ministry at Victoria College, Stellenbosch. The first Nederduitse Gereformeerde church in Boksburg was a wood and iron building on the corner of Market and Trichardts streets, opposite Market Square, where the Old Town Hall is situated. Ds. Louw was the second minister for the Boksburg congregation.[2] He assumed duties in December 1898. When the Anglo-Boer War broke out, Ds. Louw left for the Natal front with the Boksburg Commando on 12 October 1899. For the next two and half years Ds. Louw stayed with the Republic forces. On 5 June 1902 Ds. Louw and the remnants of the Boksburg Commando laid down their weapons finally at Kraal station, just south of Heidelberg. Under his leadership, the "Klipkerk" was built in 1912. Ds. Louw was especially concerned about education and welfare of orphans. Immediately after returning from the war, he arranged housing for 20 Boksburg war orphans.

The scoured earth policy of the British government had the consequence that there was an influx of Afrikaners looking for work on the coal and gold mines on the Witswatersrand.

After the war Ds Louw started campaigning for the establishment of a secondary school for Afrikaans speaking children on the Witswatersrand.

By 1938 Louw[3] was frail and in poor health. As one of the last surviving preachers who had stayed with the Boer forces throughout the war, he was asked to deliver the sermon at the foundation stone laying for the Voortrekker Monument on 16 June 1938

Voortrekker High School[4][5] was the first Afrikaans school on the Witswatersrand. The school was started by a group of Afrikaners, under the leadership of Louw, who wanted their children to have an alternative to English schools.

In April 1918 the East Rand School Council undertook a feasibility study to see if there are sufficient Afrikaans speaking pupils past standard five to justify an Afrikaans medium school.

The survey confirmed the need for an Afrikaans secondary school. Through the hard work of Louw, the OOSRANDSE HOLLANDSE MEDIUM HOËRSKOOL was established on 29 January 1920. The school started in Nobby's Bar [6] next to the Boksburg Lake with 67 learners and 6 educators. Mr. an Wyk was the acting principal. At the start of the second quarter Mr. AM Muller became the first permanent principal. At the start of the third quarter the school was renamed Hoërskool Voortrekker. In 1922 the school relocated to a shop in the Morris arcade.

Image of Morris arcade

In 1923 du Toit became the new principal and shortly afterwards the erection of a permanent school building began.

On 30 July 1924 the new school buildings were officially inaugurated by Professor J. H. Hofmeyer, Administrator of Transvaal.

Die Ark

In 1935 a fund raising was started to build an assembly hall and domestic science centre. Bernard Stanley Cooke was appointed as architect. Cooke[7] died in January 2011 at the age of 100. Mr Cooke was responsible for many Art Deco buildings in Johannesburg including Escom House and buildings of the Rand Easter Show grounds. He was also responsible for the drawings of the Tower of Light at the show grounds. Anton van Wouw, South Africa most renowned sculptor was commissioned to create a bas-relief depicting the "Groot Trek".

Die Groot Trek

Anton van Wouw’s work includes the statue of Paul Kruger on Church Square Pretoria, the Woman Memorial in Bloemfontein and statues at the Voortrekker Monument. Building of the hall started in July 1936 and the building and bas relief was inaugurated on 9 December 1938.

In 1974 a statue of a Voortrekker Boy and Girl by the sculptor P Potgieter was unveiled.

Voortrekker Boy & Girl

In 1976 a new hall was inaugurated. The hall was named after the principal T. S. Welman.

In 1999 Voortrekker became a dual medium school.

"Nobby Henrey was the personification of the Rand Pioneer. He was open-hearted, generous to a fault, his good deeds can hardly be counted, and many a Boksburg resident down on his or her luck have reason to bless the day they met him." [8] Born in Cradock in 1861, Edward Barrett Henrey decided to try his luck at the gold diggings in Barberton at the age of eighteen. Unsuccessful, he returned home but the lure of gold got the better of him and he returned to the old Transvaal and eventually arrived in Elsburg in 1885. In 1886 when were auctioned off in Boksburg he selected a stand opposite the Old Post Office and there established what was to become the renowned "Nobby’s Bar." At the time he built the bar, he didn’t realise that his hostelry would eventually be situated in a prime position on the shores of "Montagu’s Folly," the Boksburg Lake, which became the "Beautiful Pleasure Resort of the Rand."

"From the very beginning, Nobby’s Bar was the centre of social life to the Boksburg pioneers. Here most of the meetings took place. It was from here that the first alumni from Voortrekker High School were sent out and it was in Nobby’s Bar that the various churches held their services right up until the time first billiard table on the East Rand was imported and placed in position. In one of the outhouses he kept a pet bear sent to him by a friend. Nobby's Bar was the first premises for two high schools namely Voortrekker and Boksburg High schools. Unfortunately this establishment did not stood the test of time and there is no sign of it left or the building - Morris arcade

• Mr. A.M. Muller 1920 — 1922
• Mr. A.E. du Toit 1923 — 1951
• Mr. G.H.B. Dykman 1951 - 1953
• Mr. J.P. van der Vyfver 1954 -1957
• Mr. T. S. Welman 1957 — 1978
• Mr. C.J. Joubert 1978 — 1989
• Mr. C.P Viljoen 1990 - 1992
• Mr. M.P. van Heerden 1993 — 2018
• Mrs. A.F. Black 2019 -

The badge was designed by Mr. Saville Davis (former manager of ERPM). In 1932 the badge in its present form was accepted and the first were imported from Switzerland. In the same year the new colours (blue, green and yellow) were accepted and the motto “Voorwaart” was changed to “Vorentoe”.

At the top of the badge is the ox–wagon a symbol of the Afrikaner nation and its rise. Beneath the ox-wagon is the Bible as the only light and guidance. The mealies are symbolic of the Highveld of Transvaal. The gold mine is the source of income and represents Boksburg.

Hier benoorde die Vaal, waar die duine verrys

In die hartjie van Voortrekkerland

Pryk die vrug van ons arbeid, die bron van ons krag

Bloei ons Voortrekkerskool op die Rand.

Hoera, vir ons Voortrekkerskool op die Rand

Ons hart en ons hand bied ons jou.

Beur vorentoe, Trekkers van Voortrekkerland

Wees sterk om te handhaaf en te bou.

Beur vorentoe, Trekkers van Voortrekkerland!

Wees sterk om te handhaaf en bou!

To the North of the Vaal, where the dunes reach up high

In the midst of our Voortrekkerland

Vaunts the fruit of our labour, the well of our strength

Prospers Voortrekker School on the Rand.

Hurrah, for our Voortrekker School on the Rand

We bid you our heart and our hand.

To the fore, you Trekkers of Voortrekkerland

Be strong to up - hold and to grow.

To the fore, you Trekkers of Voortrekkerland!

Be strong to up - hold and grow!

• 1923 Finalist Administrators Cup (Pretoria Boys High 17 Voortrekker 0)
• 1934 Finalist Administrators Cup (Zeerust 11 Voortrekker 8)
• 1958 Joint Winner of Administrators Cup (Voortrekker 6 Lichtenburg 6)- Rugby[9]
• 2013 Rugby (under 15) Beeld Trophy Winner
• 1958 Winner of Regional Inter-high Athletics Meeting

• Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-42742-4
• Kuit, Albert (1948). Kommandoprediker. Pretoria.
• Olivier, PJ (1952). Ons gemeentelike feesalbum.. Kaapstad en Pretoria: N.G. Kerk-uitgewers.
• Pieter Johannes Meyer (1984) Nog nie ver genoeg nie. Perskor
• Marius J. Swart. (1987) Ons voortbestaan: die kultuurstrewe van die Afrikaner.Oranjewerkers Promosies, ISBN 0-620-11257-3, ISBN 978-0-620-11257-4

• Official website
• http://www.Boksburghistorical.com