Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
In order to spare the hardships of missionaries of the Society of Jesus on their journey from Grahamstown via Kimberley to the Zambezi river area, in 1884 the farm Kalkfontein, know to local hunters as Vleeschfontein, was bought for the purpose of establishing a way-station. The Vleeschfontein Mission was then opened on 8th December 1884. During the 1890s, a railway extension from Kimberley to Bulawayo made the need for the way-station obsolete. In 1894 the Jesuits handed the mission over to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the mission ultimately closing in 1950. This book is a history of the mission, the surrounding area and peoples. The school built there in 1926 today serves as the South African National Parks Headquarters in Madikwe.