Executed for Speaking the Truth
Cornelis Broeksema
 

The barely-known Cornelis Broeksma was born on 13 August 1863 in Assen, Drenthe Netherlands. He visited concentration camps in Johannesburg and smuggled out information to European newspapers concerning the horrifying conditions of detention of women and children. Cornelis Broeksma exposed these conditions - for his effort he was executed by firing squad at the Johannesburg Fort.

Little is known about Broeksma's childhood or adolescence. Born in Drente, Netherlands, he received his early schooling in Holland before emigrating to South Africa in early 1882 at the age of nineteen. In the Orange Free State, he became a clerk in the office of the state attorney in Bloemfontein and studied law. In 1886, having qualified as a "law agent," he moved to Dewetsdorp where, for some time, he ran his own practice. In 1891 he married seventeen-year-old Francina Vionel. The couple's first child was born in 1892.

In 1895, by the time that the Broeksmas' second child was born, the couple were living in Pretoria. It was presumably just after the Jameson Raid that the Broeksmas moved across to Johannesburg. Second in rank only to the first public prosecutor, Broeksma soon earned the confidence and respect of his peers.

Broeksma, a man with profound republican loyalties, was deeply religious, closely associated with local Dutch Reformed Church initiatives, and strongly opposed to the abuse of alcohol.

During the Anglo-Boer War, after hearing rumours of the horrendous conditions at the concentration camps, he proceeded to visit the camps in the city. Appalled by what he saw, he started recording the number of deaths. This information made its way in code to London, via Amsterdam, but along the way it got into the hands of the British.

Broeksma was arrested and tried for treason. Kitchener, with customary ruthlessness, wanted Broeksma to be publicly executed. He was executed at Johannesburg Fort on September 30, 1901. Broeksema was buried at the Fort, but later the Dutch asked that his body be exhumed and reburied at the Braamfontein Cemetery, where he now lies.

The grave of Cornelis Broeksema