South African troops were mobilised along the border between the two countries under the command of General Henry Lukin and Lieutenant Colonel Manie Maritz early in September 1914.

[7] The Commandant-General of the Union Defence Force, Brigadier-General Christiaan Frederick Beyers was opposed to the South African government's decision to undertake offensive operations.

A nominated senator, General Koos de la Rey, who had refused to support the government in parliament over this issue, associated himself with Beyers.

On 15 September they set off together to visit Major JCG (Jan) Kemp in Potchefstroom, who had a large armoury and a force of 2,000 men who had just finished training, many of whom were thought to be sympathetic to the rebels' ideas.

[9] According to General Beyers it was to discuss plans for the simultaneous resignation of leading army officers as protest against the government's actions, similar to what had happened in Britain two years earlier in the Curragh incident over the Irish Home Rule Bill.

The Lydenburg commando under General De Wet took possession of the town of Heilbron, held up a train and captured government stores and ammunition.

General Kemp, having taken his commando across the Kalahari Desert, losing 300 out of 800 men and most of their horses on the 1,100 kilometre month-long trek, joined Maritz in German South-West Africa, but returned after about a week and surrendered on 4 February 1915.

Compared to the fate of the ringleaders of the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916, the leading Boer rebels got off relatively lightly with terms of imprisonment of six and seven years and heavy fines.

One notable exception was Jopie Fourie, a Union Defence Force officer who had failed to resign his commission before joining the rebellion.

In a letter written hours before his execution, Fourie wrote, "The tree which has been planted and which is wetted with my blood will grow large and bear delightful fruit.