The 140-year-old South African mountain town with only 182 residents where wild horses roam free

Kaapsehoop in Mpumalanga is one of South Africa’s oldest and tiniest towns, known for the free-roaming wild horses that graze over its iconic escarpments.

Situated 1,640 metres above sea level on the Drakensberg escarpment, Kaapsehoop traces its roots back to South Africa’s gold rush in the 1880s.

Prior to the discovery of gold, the area that is now known as Kaapsehoop was referred to as ‘Duiwels Kantoor’, which translates to ‘Devil’s Office’.

The town’s location on the Drakensberg escarpment means it becomes very misty, and its landscape is dotted with huge eroded sandstone pillars.

When the mist rolls in, these pillars look like giant monoliths or the foreboding desks of a devil’s office, which is how early European settlers came up with the name.

However, the town’s reputation quickly turned in 1882, when alluvial gold – surface gold washed into rivers and gravel – was discovered on a nearby farm.

After this discovery, the area became flooded with hopeful prospectors. By 1884, the population had grown to 4,000 residents, all hoping to find their piece of gold.

With this flood of residents came infrastructure, and the once-desolate landscape quickly began to resemble a full-fledged town, filled with shops, houses, bars, and hotels.

In 1886, the President of the Transvaal Republic, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, officially renamed the settlement Kaapshe Hoop, which translates to ‘Cape Hope’.

Having shed its moniker as a Devil’s Office, it appeared as though Kaapsehoop was set to become the permanent home to thousands of residents.

However, the town’s “golden era” was short-lived. In 1885, huge gold reef deposits were discovered in nearby Barberton. 

These deposits were far easier to mine than the alluvial gold found in Kaapsehoop, and attracted thousands of prospectors, who abandoned the town overnight.

While this left Kaapsehoop essentially a ghost town in the years that followed, it also proved a blessing in disguise.

The town is still largely empty, with only 182 permanent residents spread across 68 households, according to the 2011 Census.

Since the town was bypassed by industrial mining and has so few permanent residents, it has been able to maintain much of its historical Victorian character.

Today, this character is what draws visitors from all over the world, allowing tourists to step into what is essentially still a 19th-century miner’s town.

Wild horses in Kaapsehoop

Aside from its mists and famous escarpments, Kaapsehoop is also known for its wild horses that date back to the same gold rush that created the town.

When miners abandoned the town in the 1880s, many left their horses behind, with the animals forced to fend for themselves on the mountain.

During the Anglo-Boer War, dozens of military horses either escaped or were set free and landed up in Kaapsehoop.

This means visitors in Kaapsehoop can now see wild horses roaming free, living in small “harems” and grazing across the town’s more than 13,000 hectares of grasslands and pine forests.

The town’s website explains that its cool climate keeps the horses relatively free of ticks and parasites that are often found in Mpumalanga’s lower, warmer regions.

Many of Kaapsehoop’s residents have taken it upon themselves to look after these horses, while ensuring they remain free.

“Our principle is that only when human actions result in injury or sickness will the volunteers try to assist an injured or sick animal,” the Kaapsche Hoop Conservancy Initiative said.

Unfortunately, Kaapsehoop’s wild horse population has declined significantly over the past few years, from 180 in 2020 to only 36 horses today.

The Kaapsche Hoop Conservancy Initiative believes it is still possible to save them, “but the growth in their numbers will be very slow and needs time over many years in an environment of protection”.

---

Photos of Kaapsehoop

---