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There are different stories about how the fort got its name.
Lucas Meintjes from the farm Quagga’s Kirk, near Dundee, writes: The Fort Mistake Motel is next to my farm.
The name comes from Fort Mistake itself, which was built in the 1880s. The ruins are still visible on my farm.
There are different stories about how the fort got its name.
Here’s one of them: During the First Anglo-Boer War, the British forces had a base in Durban.
A battalion was sent to build a fort on top of Majuba, a mountain to the north of Dundee.
However, the commander confused Majuba with a range of low hills closer to town, and that’s where work on the fort began.
There used to be a plaque on the site that read: “This fort was built by the Royal Engineers, 1881–1883; never been completed”.
They must have realised their mistake and halted construction, but the name stuck.
Back to the motel: Work began on the structure in 1952 and was completed a year later.
The motel was the first of its kind in South Africa, positioned on the old national highway (now the N11) exactly halfway between Johannesburg and Durban – the ideal overnight stop.
The road had been built in the years following World War II. To get gravel for the road surface, workers had dug quarries at regular intervals.
My father, Charles, ended up with one of these quarries at his front door!
He wasn’t too pleased, and made an appointment to meet with one of the road company bigwigs, who drove out to the farm in a fancy car – a rare sight in those days.
My father explained that the open pit was unacceptable, but the man wasn’t very accommodating.
“Mr Meintjes,” he said, “it doesn’t affect your ability to farm here in any way.”
“I know,” my father replied. “But it’s unsightly.”
Still, the man wouldn’t budge, so my father walked over to his toolshed and returned with a hammer.
He told the man: “Listen carefully. I’m going to take this hammer and make a dent in your car.
It will still run; it just won’t look as beautiful.”
This made the man change his tune! The company turned the quarry into a dam, and the motel was later built next to this dam.
By that time, my father no longer owned the land where the motel was built.
He’d sold 30 acres to another farmer from the Dundee district, Andrew Swart.
The motel was Andrew’s idea.
He even travelled to the USA to research what a motel should look like. The original place, then called Andrew’s Motel, was great.
He later built three more: near Estcourt, on Van Reenen’s Pass and near Volksrust.
In the 1960s, Andrew retired and sold his motels to the Rondalia Touring Club. The motel next to our farm changed ownership again, and it gradually fell into disrepair.
In 2013, the place was rescued by my nephew Schalk Meintjes, who bought it and restored it. It’s now called the Fort Mistake Country Lodge and it also has a farm stall.
Fort Mistake Country Lodge is next to the N11, about 35 km west of Dundee. The farm stall is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm and on Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
Contact 078 086 0758; facebook.com/FMFarmstall
