Manie Maritz
| Salomon Gerhardus Maritz | |
|---|---|
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| Nickname(s) | Manie Maritz |
| Born | 26 July 1876 Kimberley, Cape Colony |
| Died | 20 December 1940 Pretoria, Union of South Africa |
Manie Maritz (1876–1940), also known as Gerrit Maritz, was a Boer officer during the Second Boer War and a leading rebel of the 1914 Maritz Rebellion.
Maritz was born in Kimberley, Northern Cape then in the British colony of the Cape of Good Hope. He was christened Salomon Gerhardus Maritz. He was therefore born a British subject. When he turned 19 he went to Johannesburg and was employed as a cab driver by his uncle. During the Jameson Raid he volunteered as a guard of the Johannesburg fort. This entitled him to become a citizen of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). This, in turn, permitted him to join the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Politie (ZARP), the police force in Johannesburg.
Maritz joined the Boksburg commando and proceeded to the Natal front. Later he joined Danie Theron's crack reconnaissance corps and then participated in the invasion of the Cape Colony. He eventually landed up in the desert-like terrain of the North-western Cape. Maritz claims that Jan Smuts appointed him as a "veggeneraal" (fighting-general). Deneys Reitz was there. At that time Reitz was on the staff of General Jan Smuts. Reitz writes that Maritz was only a "leader of various rebel bands". If Smuts had appointed Maritz as a fighting general, Reitz would have known about it.
Near the end of the war Maritz ordered the killing of 35 Coloured (Khoikhoi) in what became known as the Leliefontein massacre. Gideon Scheepers and Breaker Morant were court martialled and shot for similar crimes. When peace was made, the burghers of the erstwhile republics were obliged to lay down their arms and sign an oath of allegiance to the British monarch. Instead Maritz slipped over the border to German-South-West Africa. In his autobiography Maritz does not say why he did so.
He went to Europe and then to Madagascar and back to Europe. He returned to South Africa, where he farmed horses in the Cape and also helped the Germans during the Herero and Namaqua genocide. When he returned he went to the Transvaal, but was arrested for entering the colony, not having signed the oath of allegiance. He departed for the Cape. When the Free State received responsible government, he went there and later joined the police in the Transvaal.
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