On 24 April 1772, Abraham van der Weijden, Deputy Grandmaster Abroad under the Grand Orient of the Netherlands, arrived in the Cape of Good Hope. He issued a warrant allowing for the founding of a lodge, “De Goede Hoop”, ten days after arriving, which was ratified by the Grand Orient on 1 September 1772. The founding members of Lodge de Goede Hoop were Abraham Chiron, Jacobus le Febre, Johann Gie, Pieter Soermans, Christoffel Brand, Jan van Schoor, Olof de Wet, and Petrus de Wit. While in 1774 the first two native-born candidates were initiated into freemasonry, the lodge failed to gain a foothold among the local population, and was dependent on visitors, which led to the lodge becoming dormant in 1781 until it was revived in 1794, when more local residents were attracted to the fraternity, such as J. A. Truter, who was Chief Justice., In 1795, the British occupied the Cape, bringing with them military Lodges, but no new lodges were established in Cape colony during this time.
British Rule
Another lodge was formed in 1800 by the Dutch called "De Goede Trouw" Lodge, and in 1802 Jacob de Mist arrived from the Netherlands and was installed as the first Deputy Grand Master National in South Africa. The Napoleonic Wars brought a second British invasion of South Africa. With the beginning of British rule over the region, Dutch lodges saw an increase in members of English origin. Tensions arose between the British masons and their Dutch speaking counterparts, leading the English masons to form their own lodge in the Cape under the Moderns' Grand Lodge of England in 1811, "British" Lodge. The Antients established a rival lodge, "Cape of Good Hope", the following year in 1812. The British and Dutch freemasons started to work together and became one. The advocate CJ Brand, the first Mayor of Cape Town, M. van Breda and the Master of the Supreme Court, J.H. Hofmeyer, were some of the prominent Grand Masters through the early years. C.C. Silberbauer was Grand Master in the times when the organization in South Africa, had financial problems. T.N. Cranstoun-Day was adamant that lodge stayed pure English. Cranstown-Day could not speak Afrikaans.
Grand Lodge of South Africa
It was formed independently from the Netherlands and the UK. Under Colonel C.G. Botha it was established on 22 April 1961. Botha was named Grand Master. The motto of the Southern Africa Grand Lodge is: "Deo et Collegio". It is Latin for "God and Order" In November 1977, the Lodge admitted non-white members for the first time, as the South African Freemasons, previously were exclusively a white organization.
Grand Masters
Note: Until 1961 the Grand Masters were called Deputy Grand Masters, because it was either part of the Netherlands Lodge. There was close cooperation with Thomas Nathaniel Cranstoun-Day from the British Freemasons during the years up to 1961.
