The monument in Sandown is in the form of a granite pillar, bearing inscriptions to the Esterhuysen Family. It stands on a small plot of land tucked away near the top of South Road, as part of the cemetery of the first family of Voortrekker settlers in the area.
The first Voortrekkers to settle in what became Sandton, the Esterhuysen family, arrived at the farm Zandfontein in 1836. Buried near the monument site are Jan Christoffel Esterhuysen and his wife, Maria Magdalena, and other members of their family, Voortrekkers who settled on their farm Zandfontein.
In her book Sandton: the making of a town, Jane Curruthers writes:
“The Sandton Voortrekker family about which most is known is that of the Esterhuysen’s of Zandfontein. Judith, the sister of Andries Pretorius, married an Esterhuysen and three of her sons accompanied Piet Retief’s party into Natal. There, two were killed with Retief by Dingane in 1838. The young teenage brother, Jan, escaped this fate and by 1859 was in possession of the farm Zandfontein, the homestead being close to where the Sandown High School is today. Jan Esterhuysen married Maria Buitendag and they had seven children – four sons and three daughters. A memorial stone on their graves, now in the suburb of Strathavon, was erected by their descendants at the time of the Voortrekker Centenary in 1938. This existence of this monument, once threatened by property developers, in a sea of suburbia, bears witness to an era in which the view to almost every horizon was in the possession of a single pioneering family”.
The name of Sandton is derived from the farm Zandfontein, consisting of the area around Sandown and its environs. Zandfontein was one of five Voortrekker freehold farms which later went to make up the municipal area of Sandton. It was on a portion of this farm that the skyscrapers of Sandton later arose.
For many years, the Sandton Historical association was instrumental in ensuring that the site of the Esterhuysen monument and graves were preserved. On 30 October 1982, the Monument was officially handed over to the Sandton Municipality.
Protected under Section 37 of the National Heritage Resources Act (Public Monuments and Memorials). “Public monuments and memorials must, without the need to publish a notice to this effect, be protected in the same manner as places which are entered in a heritage register …”
A culmination of research gathered over many years, the Online Johannesburg Heritage Register is being launched on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2025.
Among the many heritage sites featured is Chancellor House, the downtown offices of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys in the 1950s. After having been vacant and shuttered for more than a decade, this iconic building is being revived and brought to life once again as offices for the Community Development Department, which oversees the City’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Services.
