Noenieput is a small town located in the Kalahari Desert in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, approximately 14 km east of the South African border with Namibia.
The name “Noenieput” originated from a well that was dug near a Noenie tree (smelly Shepherd tree) by Johan Velskoen Engels.
Noenieput falls within the Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality and the ZF Mgcawu District Municipality.
This small town also has a police station.
History
This small town was established on the farm Diamantputs, which was owned by De Beers in the 1900’s. After unsuccessful prospecting for diamonds, De Beers sold the farm to Lewies Engels and Piet vd Westhuizen. Piet started a school in a single-room building, erected from roof sheeting. The parents added another room for the 13 children (all boys). A dam and crib next to the school building were used as a bathing facility for the boys.
Between 1929 and 1930, Frikkie Engels and Jaap Arangie built a single-room school with bricks and divided the room with a wall made from wood. Miss Nellie Luyt joined Piet vd Westhuizen as a teacher.
In 1934, the Molopo River was in flood and embanked at Abiquasput and Springbokputs. People as far as Namibia (the old South-West Africa) came and stayed for months around the water areas, ploughed and planted watermelons, wheat, maize, and peas. Mrs Hester Engels (owner of the farm) had every man surrender 2 out of every 10 bags of wheat to her. It was a big success and helped the farmers a lot after the terrible drought of 1933.
The chairperson of the school committee, Adriaan Badenhorst, Jack Fourie, and Dawid vd Merwe succeeded in their negotiations with the Government to build a new fair-sized school and hostel.
The old school was then used as a church, and people used lucerne bales and maize bags to sit on and brought their own candles for light in the evening. In 1934, Dawid vd Merwe of the farm Springbokvlei, donated a morgen of his farm to build a church for the Noenieput community.
In 1953, Adriaan Badenhorst donated ground on his farm in Noenieput to build a new church. The farmers’ wives sold pancakes and food at every opportunity to generate income for the funds, and on 18 August 1962, the church was initiated.
The police station, which was stationed at the farm Obobobgorag, moved to Noenieput in 1950, without the camels. (They used to patrol the Kalahari with camels they got from Witdraai Police Station near Askham, which was the breeding station for camels).
In 1939, South African Railways incorporated a bus service to transport travelers, mail, and goods to Noenieput and surrounding farms as a service to the community. Each farm owner had a canvas bag for postal services, which were delivered on Mondays and Thursdays and collected again on the following day, with return postage of the farmers.
This was the only road to the Gemsbok National Park. After the R360 Regional Route was built to the Gemsbok National Park (a much shorter road) and later tarred, and the closing of the Namibian border, Noenieput struggled to survive economically. The school was subsequently also closed in the 1990’s and to date, local businesses are supported by only a few farmers in the region.
