Riemvasmaak

Riemvasmaak is a settlement in ZF Mgcawu District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The name means ‘tighten the strap’ or ‘tied with straps’.

Riemvasmaak is located near the Orange River, close to the Namibian border. It was originally settled in the early 1930s by people of Xhosa, Damara, Herero, Nama, and Coloured origin, but in the early 1970s the community was sent back to their ethnic homelands by the apartheid government. The Damara group was sent to Khorixas in South-West Africa (today Namibia) and became known as Riemvasmakers. They were given land by Damara Chief Justus ?Garoëb to settle in that area.