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History

The first attempt to establish a town in the area was already made in 1862, but it took until 1873 before this became reality. The town was surveyed and laid out on the Farm ‘De Put’ in 1873, the first 30 stands sold in May 1875, which brought in £2300. During the auction it was decided that the town should be named ‘Senekal’, after commandant Senekal who was from this area and died during the 2nd Basotu war in 1866. 

The picture shows a view of the town in 1884, indicating that it grew fairly fast to reach this size in only 10 years. An interesting observation in connection with this picture is the hill behind the village. In this picture it is bare of any vegetation more than grass. Nowadays this hill is covered with bushes. A phenomenon which I have observed at many places on the highveld. I am not sure what the reason could be.

When the settlement was first established it was administered by a village management board. But in 1892 that changed to a town council when it was declared a municipality.

Origin of the Name

The town is named after Commandant Frederik Petrus Senekal who died in 1865 in the skirmishes with the Basotho people. Commandant General Frederik Petrus Senekal, is quite a famous person in South African history, and led many Vrystaters during various wars. The town Senekal in the Free State was named after him in 1877.

http://www.fredsenekal.net/tag/frederick-petrus-senekal/

Dutch Reformed Mother Church

The church is located in the town center and can its tower can be seen from the main road

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Of interest in the church is the organ, installed in 1911 and in the tower the clock. Unfortunately there is no name plate visible on the clock work. It is a common works driven by weights, but doesn’t work any more. To me it looks like it could still be functional, but one would have to evict the pigeons from the mechanism.

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The Petrified Forest

Most likely the best known feature of Senekal. That is the wall of petrified trees around the church square. I don’t have to write the whole story, its all written already on a plaque at the longest tree on the east side of the square.

A.D. Keet

AD Keet on the porch of his home in Senekal

AD Keet (1888–1972) was a doctor and a Afrikaans poet. He wrote some of the first love poems in Afrikaans. His first poetry collection, Gedigte van A. D. Keet, appeared in 1920.

In 1931 he published “Verspotte gediggies vir Verspotte Kinders”. Several of his poems have been set to music in South Africa, the Netherlands and Flanders.

On 11 October 1943, a Heroes’ Day celebration was held on Senekal in the form of an A.D. Keet evening, with the entire program consisting of readings and singing from his work.

The radio journalist Bettie Kemp makes a radio program in the program series Ink in our ares, which is dedicated to him and is broadcast on Radiosondergrense.

AD Keet has been a member of the South African Academy of Science and Art since 1929 and was honored in 1969 with honorary membership of this organization as well as with honorary membership of the Afrikaans Writers’ Circle.

In December 1970 he sold his farm Noorskloof and the buyers developed a residential area here which they called Wavecrest. One of the streets in this residential area is named after him and one after his first wife, one after his third wife and one after his brother, the Bible translator B.B. Keet.

His health deteriorated rapidly at the end of his life and from 1968 he was plagued by many illnesses, which included pneumonia, a broken rib, lung and heart complications after a flu attack and narrowing of the heart valves. In 1971, he spent a long time in the Karl Bremer Hospital in Bellville due to osteoporosis, which hampered his movement.

On 12 February 1972, he died in his home on Senekal, after suffering a heart attack the previous week and then being in a coma.

(His home is located in the town canter and his grave can be found in the Senekal old cemetery)