In ancient times, the land between the Auob and Nossob rivers was the hunting ground of the Bushmen. In 1866, Dirk Vilander and his Baster followers moved up from the Cape and settled at waterrich Rietfontein, where Vilander established the Mier Republic.
Dirk Vilander held this land in an informal communal trust for the benefit of his people. He passed away in 1888, leaving it to his son Dawid. Dawid started informally: subdividing and selling the land to individuals, including white farmers like Christoffel le Riche. In 1891, out of the blue, the British colonial government of Bechuanaland seized control of a large part – or even all – of Vilander’s land and incorporated it into Bechuanaland. Many of Vilander’s people, also known as the Mier Basters, reacted by moving to faraway Rehoboth (in modern-day Namibia) or by joining up with Hendrik Witbooi’s Namas in German South West Africa.
It is not recorded that the British colonial government of the Cape Colony objected to this seizure, perhaps because both colonies were British anyway…
The occupants of the seized farms were worried about the Bechuanaland action and their own lack of proper title deeds. Accordingly, they lodged land claims. The Bechuanaland Court accepted these claims and informed the authorities in Cape Town. In a document dated 7 December 1893, the Surveyor General of Cape Town acknowledged a number of these claims, for example, Twee Rivieren, in favour of Hendrik Mathys; Kameelsleep in favour of Paul Bok; Kaspersdraai in favour of Albert Louw, among others.
The fact that the Surveyor General of Cape Town accepted this letter without dispute suggests that the border between South Africa and Bechuanaland had not been surveyed at that stage.
There followed an attempt in the late 19th century to survey the
