Volksrust is a town situated along the R543 Regional Route between Vrede in the Free State province and Wakkerstroom in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.
Volksrust is also situated along the N11 National Route, specifically between the town of Amersfoort and the city of Newcastle.
Volksrust is located on the KwaZulu-Natal provincial border, approximately 50.2 km north of Newcastle, 83.2 km south-east of Standerton, and 239 km south-east of Johannesburg.
The town lies at an elevation of 5,429 feet (1,655 m), and 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the pass through the Drakensberg known as Laing’s Nek.
Volksrust is near the Land where the Battle of Majuba was fought, where the Transvaal won independence from the British. It was decided suitable for a new Town to be founded on the Mpumalanga / KwaZulu Natal border.
Volksrust has important beef, dairy, maize, sorghum, wool and sunflower seed industries.
History
Volksrust was laid out in 1888 on the farms Boschpad Drift, Rooibult or Llanwarne, Verkyk and Zandfontein, and proclaimed in 1889. Municipal status was attained in 1904.
Dorothea de Jager, daughter of Dirk Uys, one of the battle victims, named the town Volksrust (Nation’s Rest). The name probably refers to the citizens resting here after the Battle of Majuba on 27 February 1881, a decisive battle leading to the Transvaal’s victory against the British in the First Boer War.
During the Second Boer War the British authorities built a Boer concentration camp in Volksrust. Visiting officials and army officers described the conditions of the camp as poor, though it suffered a death rate below the Transvaal average. A memorial exists in Volkrust town square to the Boer women and children who died in the camp.
