THE MAN BEHIND KRUGER - PHOTO - Statue of Paul Kruger at Paul Kruger Gate - Kruger National Park
PAUL KRUGER (STEPHANUS
JOHANNES PAULAS KRUGER)
was born on October 10 1825 at his grandfather's farm, Bulhoek in the Steynsburg district and grew up on the farm, Vaalbank. He wasn't an well educated man and only had three months formal education. Growing up in a rugged farmarea he learnt alot about the wild. When the Great Trek started in 1836, Kruger's father, Casper Kruger,joined the trek party of Hendrik Potgieter and the family moved to what later became known as Transvaal, to try to establish an independant state.
Settling in the transvaal Paul Kruger's father decieded to settle in an area now known as Rustenburg. At the age 16, Paul Kruger was entitled to choose a farm for himself. He chose a farm at the base of the Magalisburg mountains and settled there in 1841. In 1842 he married Maria du Plessis and the moved to the Eastern Transvaal. Paul Kruger and his small family later returned to Rustenburg and Kruger's wife and infant son died soon after. It is presumed the double death is likely to have been caused by Malaria. Paul Kruger then married Gezina du Plessis, who bore seven daughters and nine sons and died in 1901. Many of Kruger's children died in infancy.
On 30 December 1880, at the age of 55, Kruger was elected President of the Transvaal.
In 1898, Kruger was elected President for the fourth and last time. In 1899 relations between the Transvaal and great Britain had become so strained, by the reason of the oppression of the forien population, that a conference was arranged at Bloemfontien between Sir Alfred Milner, the high commissioner, and Present Paul Kruger.
KRUGER PARK HISTORY
The first evedence of human occupation in and around Kruger Park stems from the one hundred rock paintings and 30 archaeological sites left by early humans thousands of years ago.
Francois de Cuiper, who led a Dutch East India Company experdition to the Kruger, was the first recorded European in the region. His experdition however was thwarthed by an attack by local tribesmen.
Europeans and local farmers were attract to the region by rumours of gold, and by then the trade in precious goods such as ivory and skins. The rapid obliteration of the wildlife was noted by then President Paul Kruger, and he urged the Transvaal goverment to establish a wildlife reserve for the protection of the species. In 1898 the Sabie Game Reserve, bordered by the Crocodile River in the south,the Sabie River in the north, the Lebombo Mountains in the west, was established.
In 1900, Bloemfontein and Pretoria having being occupied by Britsh troops, Kruger, too old to
go on commando, with the consent of his executive proceeded to Europe, where he endeavored to induce the Europeans powers to intervene on his behalf, without success.
From this time he ceased to have any political influence. He took up his residence at Utrecht, where he dictated a record of his career, publishing in 1902 under the title The Memoirs of Paul Kruger.
Stephanus Johannes Paul Kruger died on 14th July 1904 at Clarence, near Vevey, on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, where he had gone for the sake of his health. He was buried at Pretoria on the following 16th December, Dingaan's Day, the anniversary of the day in 1838 when the Boers crushed the Zulu king Dingaan - a fight in which Kruger, then a lad of 13, had taken part.
His second wife died in 1891. When he went to europe he left his third wife in Lord Robert's custody at Pretoria, but she gradually failed, and died in July 1901. It was in her grave that the body of her husband was laid. It is recorded that when a statue to President Paul Kruger was erected, it was by Mrs. Krugers wish that the hat was left open at the top, in order that the rainwater might collect there for the birds to drink.
Major JAMES STEVENSON-HAMILTON born October 2, 1867 in Ireland was the eldest of 9 children and heir to a family title and home at Fairholm, by Larkhall in Scotland.
He is considered the father of the Kruger National, in South Africa.
James Stevenson-Hamilton accepted a Britsh Army posting as a warden of what was then the Sabie Nature Reserve in 1902 after the Second Boer War. He proved to be a man of vision and fortitude, and eliminated poaching on the reserve. Not long after his arrival he was called Skukuzu - he who sweeps clean - by the nearby Moambique tribes.
A fierce administrator, he fought hard for the park's status and saw the evolution of the new science of nature conservancy. He was ruthless in carrying through the policyof clearing human habitation from within the reserve and fought vets over their preception of the reserve as a breeding ground for disease. A skilled diplomat, he knew that the adoption of the title 'Kruger Game Reserve' after the former national leader and hero would win great political suport - even though, as he often remarked, the 'old man' only ever knew antelope as 'biltong' (meat hung to dry).
By 1905, the Park had expanded to seventeen thousand kilometers and in 1920's it became clear that game reserves had tourist potebtial. Stevenson-Hamilton set out to expoit this new source of income. When he learned that the South African Railways had a nine day tour of the lowveld he immediately arranged an overnight stop at Sabie Bridge to be part of the itinerary.
As public knowledge grew so did funds.
He returned to his unit to serve in the First World War and at the end of the war, James was employed in the Sudan civil services and by 1921 the Sudanese game protection legistration was
drafted in which endured for a number of decades.
Stevenson-Hamilton married an artist, Hilda Cholmondeley who was 34 years younger than, she was an influence in having them move back to Kruger and bore him 3 children, Hilda born 8 November 1933 and died of meningitis at the age of 3, in 1966, secound born was James in 1933 who l was previlaged meet at the 40th Anniversary of the Honorary Rangers at Skukuza in Kruger National Park. The third born is Caroline in 1935.
In 1926 the long battle to establish the the area as a National Park was finally over when the Minister of lands, Piet Grobler, re-tabled the bill in Parliament and it was passed.
The Kruger National Park had been born.
Kruger National Park was offically opened to the general public in 1927.
Major James Stevenson-Hamilton remained with the park until his retirement on the eve of his 80th birthday in 1945 and this is what he had say; - ''I had at least brought up Cindererella and launched her on her career. I loved her best when she was pathetic and dust-covered little wrench, derided and abused. Always l felt that, give her a chance, and her attractions reconised, unlimited possibilities lay before her. Now that she had become a Great Lady it was fitting she should be provided with custodians better suited to provide her new requirements''.
In 1950 a rearch station was opened in Skukuza, which heralded a new era - research continues to this day, Skukuza is still where the main research centre is housed. Nine years later an eighteen hundred kilometers fence protected the animals from the Kruger National Park from the ouyside world. Since traditional migrating routes of the herds were now cut off this caused many problems, which needed careful management.
On the 31st May 1972 the Sabie and Shingwedzi reserves together with 70 privately owned farms were consolidated into Kruger National Park, one of the great game parks of Africa.
Important also was the act by which the park was established.
The last few years have seen the removal of fences that was seperating the Kruger Park from the neighboring reserves - Sabi Sand, Timbavati and Thornybush, allowing animals access to increased requisite resources and aloowing tourists increased access to the game.
In addition, the Kruger Park now covers 36 thousand hectares, 14 thousand hectares bigger than what it used to be is now a Peace Park - the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. This massive reserve incorporates the Kruger National Park, the Limpopo National of Mozambique and the Gonarezhou National Park of Zimbabwe larger than Switzerland.
The Kruger National Park has been lauded for the professional management of its wildlife and people. It is for a living monument to President Paul Kruger, Major James Stevenson-Hamilton and those that fought for the establisiment of a large wilderness reserve, where dwindling African wildlife may still find refuge.
The Kruger National Park offers, without a doubt, one of the bestwildlife viewing experiences in the world.
