Episode 57 - St John Brodrick’s poisoned chalice & Jan Smuts hatches an outrageous plan

The guerilla campaign is now under way in late October 1900 and the leaders of the Boer commandos and their remaining political icon, Andries Styen the president of the Free State, are due to meet one hundred kilometres west of Johannesburg in the last week of the month. The gathering was scheduled to take place on the farm Cyferfontein where Louis Botha, Koos de La Rey and other commanders were heading determined to finalise the new strategy for the coming insurgency. Absent was General Christiaan de Wet, who’d almost been captured by General Knox at Schoemansdrift and the Boer General was now lying low in the Free State. Unfortunately for de Wet, General Knox and his men were going to attack de Wet once more, and this time, the November engagement would deal de Wet one of his worst defeats of the war. Meanwhile, in the northern Transvaal town of Pietersberg, Boers had begun to congregate determined to continue the war. Young leaders like Beyers and Kemp arrived in the town, while Koos de La Rey was active to the west, as he prepared for the late October pow pow. It was here that Louis Botha met with the new youthful and passionate leaders, and laid out his initial plan. Botha would maintain command of South East Transvaal, Ben Viljoen the north east, and the West would remain Koos de la Reys hunting ground. They all continued to make strenuous efforts to keep their men in the field, but it was difficult. And if you think it was just the British burning farms in order to send a message, you’re wrong. Louis Botha had also been indulging in a little arson to make a political point. “I will be compelled…” Botha wrote to one of his commanders later, “If they do not listen to this, to confiscate everything moveable or immovable and also to burn their houses…” Botha also revealed another plan he’d long been working on. To attack the Cape. This seemed impossible, rather like Stalin ordering an attack on Germany while fighting his defensive campaign in 1941 and 1942. But Botha was aware of the strength in mobility, and also that the Cape Afrikaners may decide to turn out and fight against the British if their brethren achieved successes in the Colony.