The congregation was founded in a climate of grave dissatisfaction by Rustenburg Voortrekkers with the state of the church in the South African Republic (ZAR).
The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NHK) was the only congregation in the town that was founded in 1850 and named for its inhabitants’ relative safety from Bantu raids (it literally means “city of rest” in Afrikaans).
The schismatics had tried several times to find a suitable preacher from the ranks of the Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, ultimately succeeded with Rev.
Van der Hoff began refusing use of the Rustenburg NHK church, they had no place of worship and had to gather under a large chinaberry tree cut down in around 1970 after storm damage.
Postma openly declared “the ministry of the Shepherd and Teacher incorporated in the Name and Power of the Lord.” Elders and deacons were elected and ordained thus, and the foundation of Rustenburg soon gave rise to other congregations in Pretoria and Potchefstroom.
As the “state church,” the GKSA had to offset government tax funding, marriages could only be proclaimed therein and the license fees paid thereto, and only members had the right to vote.
Postma informally taught several pastors, including Jan Lion Cachet and future State Secretary of the South African Republic Nicolaas Swart.
The calmer political environment and wealthy surrounding congregations for funding assistance were among the factors influencing his choice.
Cachet was hired as catechism teacher in Ladysmith in Natal Colony on October 3, 1863 for £25 a year and was considering a missionary career.
This was against the backdrop of his 1862-1863 power struggle at the Cape Synods against liberal pastors J.J. Kotzé and Thomas François Burgers, and his Transvaal-based brother’s conflict with Rev.
The congregation lost population on April 15, 1875, when a large group of Doppers left for Portuguese Angola across the Kalahari Desert in what was known as the Dorsland Trek.
In 1880, he left to serve the Colesberg congregation, founded by his father Izak David du Plessis and his mother Hester Venter on their Hamelfontein farm on December 8, 1860.
Johannes de Ridder (1833-1896), who served as Rustenburg’s fourth pastor from 1880 to 1896, had arrived from the Netherlands in 1857-1858 as a young teacher.
Trying in vain to win back the frock, he made a living as a traveling peddler of books and other goods in the local countryside.