The Eighth Frontier War was the longest and most costly of the Frontier Wars.

It saw England 's favourite general, Sir Harry Smith dismissed and disgraced, and the British government toppled.

It was a treacherous betrayal with the desertion from the Cape Mounted Rifles, the Kaffir Police, the Rebellion of the Hottentots of the Kat River Settlement and their joining of forces with the Xhosa against the Colonial Government and their loyal black allies the Mfengu (Fingoes).  It was thus also commonly knows as the Bonte Oorlog (the multiracial War)

It has also been called Maqoma's War.  A particularly savage struggle with the Xhosa tribes united by prophet Mlangeni under Maqoma - the father of Guerilla Warfare.  It changed the rules of warfare forever!

At the close of 1850 the 8th Frontier War exploded into the Waterkloof Triangle, that area bounded by military Post Retief in the North, Fort Beaufort in the East and Adelaide in the West.

Historical Tours based at Post Retief will take you to the heart of the action.

Historical Tours Link