 The original farmhouse in Bez Park today
One of the early white settlers on the Witwatersrand, the Bezuidenhouts, built their farmhouse on the farm Doornfontein in 1863. The farmhouse, that is still in the park, started as a simple rectangular building with a front stoep. Extensions were made in the 1890s to the south side, giving the house an attractive bay window, and a further wing was added to the north side in 1910.
It is now the home of the community service club, the Lions, although it belongs to Johannesburg City Parks.
Frederick Bezuidenhout had settled in the area in the 1850s, and in 1861 part of the farm Doornfontein was ceded to him after he married Judith Viljoen (who gave her name to the suburb Judith's Paarl), whose father owned the farm. The farm was extensive, a beautiful green valley with a vlei or marsh at the bottom of the farm, stretching from Judith's Paarl, up to Cyrildene, over to Gillooly's Farm, and the Kensington ridge in the south.
Doornfontein was one of 20 farms which made up the future city of Johannesburg.
 A view of the farm during the war
The Bezuidenhouts were to own most of the land in the area for over 30 years, gradually selling off pieces of it. A popular social spot was the bandstand, built around 1913 in what is today Hofland Park.
One of Frederick's grandsons, Barend, who did most of the subdividing and selling, lived in Kensington in a house called Cosmos, now an old-age home.
Willem, one of Frederick's sons, lived in the farmhouse until around 1950. In March 1949 he sold 133 hectares to the city council, stipulating that it was to be a park named Bezuidenhout Park, and that the farmhouse was to be maintained by the council. The park has been developed, and now has a miniature railway, a pool, a caravan park, and multiple sports facilities.
In the 1980s the Bezuidenhout farmhouse had a bit of a renaissance when Alan Buff, General Manager of Technical Support and Training at City Parks, lived in it for eight years. He pampered the garden, producing a spectacular wonderland where people came to have their photographs taken, and the mayor held garden parties, and historical societies brought tour groups.
A formal Bezuidenhout reunion was held there in 1982, to which some 50 Bezuidenhout family oldies turned up. One of them, says Buff, was an old woman in her 90s, the granddaughter of Frederick Bezuidenhout. She was pushed around the house in her wheelchair, pointing out where her grandparents used to sip champagne by candlelight in the study (now a bedroom), gossiping about other family members.
She told other stories. One of the old men in the family shot a lion down in a vlei - now a sportsfield - from the stoep of the farmhouse.
She remembered a mural of Cape Town harbour, now long erased by a coat of paint. She recalled the "Dassie Trail". Farmers used to alternate being hosts for Sunday lunch, walking across the veld to one another, and on the Observatory ridge there were lots of dassies, which were shot and taken along to be included in the lunch menu.
 Some of the Bengal Lancers who were stationed at Bez Park during the war
Bez Park’s role in the South African War of 1899 to 1902
There were 7 000 non-combatant Indians, most of whom came out from India with their horses to fight for the British. They were based at the top of the Observatory Hill (now the Observatory Ridge) and their horses were kept down the road in Bezuidenhout Park, at a remount camp where at one time there were some 4 000 horses.
The park, originally part of the farm belonging to the Bezuidenhout family, was ideal for horses with its acres of green meadows, large oak trees and a stream running down the valley.
Breaking in and training horses was performed by the Indian auxiliaries. As the war progressed and became more guerrilla-based, with Boer parties making hit-and-run recces on the Brits, the latter retaliated with the same tactics, requiring a ready supply of horses.
In February 1901, the Boers raided the camp and stole all the serviceable horses.
 The grave commerating the four unknown Muslims.
Their cemetery was demarcated with a stone wall and black wattle trees, and a sandstone headstone. The graves were marked with an inscription in shale reading: "There is no God but Allah and Mahomet is his Prophet".
In 1964 the City planned Bez park and needed to remove the graves, developing the spot into a protea garden. The bodies were exhumed and taken to the Braamfontein Cemetery.
However, the Muslim section was full and the remains were placed in the section normally reserved for whites. They were reburied near the graves of white soldiers and victims of the war.
The tombstone has the following inscription: "1899-1902 In memory of four unknown details from India who died during the South African War. Originally buried at Observatory Park and now laid to rest here."
Copyright: www.joburg.org.za
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