Perdekop is a small town situated along the R23 Provincial Route between Standerton and Volksrust in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.
The town’s name Perdekop means “horses hill” in Afrikaans. Perdekop town owes its name to an environmental oddity that occurred in the days when horse sickness prevailed.
Perdekop is situated on top of a 1,889 m peak, approximately 34.6 km north-west of Volksrust and 48.6 km south-east of Standerton.
The town is part of the Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Local Municipality in the Gert Sibande District of Mpumalanga.
History
Formerly Paardekop, ‘horses hill’, from the practice of keeping horses there when horse-sickness prevailed in lower lying areas.
The town was established during an equine sickness epidemic when farmers found that when they brought their horses to the top of this hill they were protected from the sickness. During the Second Boer War, the British operated a lookout balloon here to monitor Boer activities.
