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This post is the result of a rather unusual Boer War document, the “Bijzondere Lastgeving” or Power of Attorney (mandate) made out in April 1900 by Phillipus Louis Kotzé in favour of Rocco de Villiers. This partly-preprinted form was completed in Kotzé’s hand at Harrismith and mandated de Villiers (who was at that time at Kroonstad) to “… receive in my name from the OVS Treasurer General the salary due to me from March 1, 1900 and acknowledge receipt therefor. This until cancelled in writing”.



Philippus (note different spelling) Louis Kotzé executed the Power of Attorney 4 days before his 21st birthday. Born on 28 Apr 1879 in Hoopstad (OVS) as the youngest child in the marriage between Abel Jacobus Kotzee and Anna Maria Magdalena Pretorius. P. Louis Kotzé was a gifted young man who studied law as well as Latin, Greek and Hebrew. During the war Kotzé was attached to the staff of OVS President Steyn as private secretary. I do not know much about his war time exploits. He didn’t receive an ABO or DTD medal, but many Free Staters never applied as they saw this medal business as vanity and pandering to British military traditions. After the war Kotzé made some name for himself in the Free State. He was Mayor of the town of Wesselbron (75 km south of Bothaville) from 1937-1940, had a street named after him and lived there until his death in 1966. Philippus Louis Kotzé married Johanna (“Jo”) Maria Pyper (Pijper,) in July 1903 in Philippolis, and together they had 8 children. Johanna merits some mention in her own right. She recounted in a 1980 (!)newspaper interview that during her youth in Philippolis, her father was frequently visited by Cecil Rhodes who “always was immaculately dressed, usually in the company of two elegant females and only drinking milk”. During the war she volunteered as a nurse for the Red Cross. Later-on she acted as Emily Hobhouse’s interpreter during Hobhouse’s visits to concentration camps and over time became good friends with her. Johanna Kotzé died a year after the interview at the respectable age of 101.

Rocco de Villiers was also a lawyer. Born in July 1877 in Bloemfontein he became a solicitor in the Free State. He participated in the Anglo Boer War as Secretary to the Executive Council of the OVS and was one of the men who was captured on July 11, 1901 when Brig. General Broadwood with 400 Dragoon Guards and Yeomanry overran Steyn’s laager near Reitz. With de Villers some important Boers were captured such as General J.B. Wessels, Loffie Davels T. Brain, Gordon Fraser and many members of the OVS Government. The President himself escaped in his pyjamas thanks to Jan Ruiter his achterryer. Rocco de Villiers was interned in Morgan’s camp on Bermuda. After the war Rocco worked as government employee and solicitor. In 1908 he married Esther Leonora Morkel. Rocco de Villiers was deeply involved in the economic, cultural and political advancement of the Boers in the former Republics and was one of the initiators (and later secretary) of the Orangia-Unie (see separate thread). With the schism between Botha and Herzog in 1912 de Villiers took Herzog’s side, was one of the founders of the Nasionale Partij and was active for that party until November 1926 when he committed suicide after he failed to get re-elected to the party’s governing body because of some false accusations.

Photograph of captured notable OVS government officials and military men taken by van Schoor (Bloemfontein) at Tin-Town camp near Ladysmith.
Photo Credit: Frances Curlewis Joubert’s Newspaper Collections of the Anglo Boer War & Pow’s Bermuda: “Two South African Curlewis men on Bermuda during the ABW”


A little tidbit as postscript which Ian hopefully will use to confuse the anonymous Tik Tok educated trolls who find pleasure in vilifying his Linkedin ABW posts: A descendant of Kotzé left the 1300-hectare family farm Rietkuil near Wesselbron to his black farmhand Clement Harejani. 13 square kilometers of Free State farmland, now that’s something for those race-baiting morons to wrap their tattooed heads around.

Thank you for posting this information. I found this very interesting indeed.