Treasure hunters take interest in Bela-Bela’s heritage sites
There is great excitement amongst members of Bela-Bela Heritage Organisation after it became known that a group of treasure hunters will be searching for artifacts in August.
The Post accompanied Johan van Niekerk, Heritage founder, on Friday 9 June to meet up with Cherilyn Donnelly-Gomes, who represents the Gauteng History Hunters organization. A group that specializes in unearthing artifacts by use of metal detection.
“We have made quite interesting discoveries over the years. We dug up relics of the Eastern Cape Frontier war, the Boer War, as well as Victorian artifacts in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth),” says Donnelly-Gomes. “We always give the owner of the property the option to keep what we find and negotiate what we can keep during the operation.”
Van Niekerk, who’s been researching the Boer War as well as Voortrekker sites in the area, says he invited the organization to help find any lost history from the area with the hope of finding and safeguarding items in the process.
Although there is much potential in the town’s catchment area for the discovery of lost Boer War relics, Van Niekerk decided that the history hunters should start at a homestead that was built in 1852 in the Spa Park area.
The home has been in the family of Paul Mathews, a businessman, and member of the Roodepoort community safety forum for the past 99 years.
Van Niekerk believes that the home was originally built by a family member of Hendrik Potgieter, a Voortrekker leader.
“The Potgieter lineage is still being unraveled, yet it is known that most of their family members are buried in the graveyard behind the Bela-Bela municipality,” said Van Niekerk.
Mathews mentioned during Friday’s visit that several interesting objects were found on the property on previous searches.
He is in the process of restoring the property to its original condition and is interested in safeguarding any items that time have been concealed beneath the soil.
After paying a visit to potential dig sites on the property, Donnelly-Gomes said they are excited about their next visit in August where teams with metal detectors and
shovels in hand will descend on Bela-Bela.
