Kwa Noheleni

History

Nieu Bethesda is situated on the farm, Uitkyk, which belonged to BJ Pienaar. There was a very strong water supply on the farm and BJ Pienaar changed the course of the Gats River to drain the marshes and turn the area into fertile fields – where Nieu Bethesda stands today. The original marshlands were known to indigenous people as "/hue≠ga", possibly a San word meaning either wide-marsh or baboon-marsh. On 15 December 1874, the farmers of this area met for the first time with a view to establishing a village and Dutch Reformed Church congregation. A town council was elected. In February 1875, a petition group of 169 men met the church council of Graaff-Reinet, headed by the Reverend Charles Murray, son of the first preacher Andrew Murray. On the same day, negotiations were concluded to buy Uitkyk from Pienaar's sons. It was not until 1878 that Graaff-Reinet agreed to the petitions of the Nieu Bethesda people. Rev. Charles Murray named the new settlement Nieu Bethesda in reference to the strong fountain and its biblical reference. In 1880, the church struggled to run the village so, in 1886, it became a municipality, but with administrative rights only. The church retained the properties. This meant that residents had to pay two taxes, an arrangement that led to friction for many generations. The town experienced a period of growth from its establishment in 1870s to about 1930. Nieu-Bethesda was eclipsed by larger towns during the 1930s and ‘40s. Improved transport and the town's isolated location led to a mass exodus during the Great Depression, leaving the town in an impoverished and depopulated state. In 1976, Martins aged seventy-eight, took her own life by swallowing caustic soda.

Most-observed species

• African Pied Starling

  Lamprotornis bicolor (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  81
• Familiar Chat

  Oenanthe familiaris (Wilkes, 1817) · Aves
  75
• Blue Crane

  Anthropoides paradiseus (A.A.H.Lichtenstein, 1793) · Aves
  74
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  72
• Southern Masked-Weaver

  Ploceus velatus Vieillot, 1819 · Aves
  70
• Hadada Ibis

  Bostrychia hagedash (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  66
• Cape Sparrow

  Passer melanurus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  66
• Black-fronted Bulbul

  Pycnonotus nigricans (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  65