WW I – Capt. Andries Johannes Weeks (Africa)

by douggieweeks WW I Africa, WWI

Capt Andries Johannes Weeks

Corporal, South African Constabulary – Anglo Boer War
Captain, Potchefstroom Commando
Captain, 1st South African Horse - WWI
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- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Transvaal and Orange Free State to 1327 Cpl. A.J. Weeks, S.A.C.
- Kings South Africa Medal with clasps South Africa 1901 & 1902 to 1327 Cpl. A.J. Weeks, S.A.C.
- 1914/15 Star to Capt. A.J. Weeks, Potch. Cdo.
- British War Medal to Capt. A.J. Weeks
- Victory Medal to Capt. A.J. Weeks

Captain Andries Johannes Weeks, son of James William and Margaretha E (Wolhurter) Weeks and husband of Alida Francian (Malan). Andries Johannes was named after his mother father and Andries sister Martha Magdalena named her son Andries Johannes Weeks Birkenbach Andries Johannes's grandfather, William Weeks, son of James and Mary Ann (Shepperson) Weeks were frontier 1820 Settlers to South Africa. Andies en Alida Weeks has five children Magaret Francis, James Herbert, Johannes Francois, Andrew Cyril, and Walter Waymouth. Lt Andrew and 2Lt Walter Waymouth served in the SA Air force and paid the highest price during WW II. The Weeks street in Klersdorp was named after Andries Johannes Weeks.

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Andries Johannes WEEKS was born in Potchefstroom in the North West Transvaal on 7 July 1879. He was another of those men who shared a combination of Dutch Christian names with a decidedly English surname brought about, most likely, with fraternisation between his forebears on both sides of the cultural divide. Weeks was, as events were later to show, a product of his times, where other races were deemed to be inferior and were treated thus accordingly.
` Of farming stock Weeks did what most young men of his age did in the last quarter of the 19th century – he joined a local militia outfit. In his case the “Wellington Volunteers”, in 1895. Wellington is a small town in the western part of what was then the Cape Colony and far removed from Potchefstroom. The likelihood thus exists that he was sent down to complete his schooling there joining the local defence force at the age of 16.
` Returning home he joined the Potchefstroom Provisional Police at the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War. This war which erupted between the might of the British Empire and two obscure little Dutch or Boer Republics in South Africa – the Transvaal and Orange Free State – in October 1899; caused great psychological hardship between families many of whom had divided loyalties with some siding with the Boers and others preferring to support the British. It can well be imagined that this was the situation in Weeks’ family circle.
` Whatever the situation Weeks decided to transfer to the South African Constabulary. This august body numbering some 10 000 men at its zenith, was the brainchild of the hero of Mafeking, Robert Baden-Powell, who realised that there was a dire need for a police force to take to the field which could combine elements of policing with the dual role of assisting Imperial and Colonial forces in a combat capacity. The war had been raging for quite some time before Weeks enlisted on 20 April 1901 and, with the first conventional phase a thing of the past, had developed into a guerrilla-style conflict with small but highly mobile Boer Commandos harassing the British lines of communication and generally making a nuisance of themselves. They were proving very adept at surprising small and isolated Imperial patrols who, once they had denuded them of whatever they had in the way of supplies (including the very uniforms they wore) would set them free in the veld (on some occasions) as naked as the day they were born.
` There was a certain amount of logic to this as the Boers were no longer able to take prisoners and disarmed men were unlikely to pose a threat to their escape. Weeks would have played his part in this earning for himself the clasps Orange Free State and Transvaal to his Queens Medal but, and this speaks to the measure of the man, it was the way he handled the entire issue around the award of the Kings Medal that was to raise eyebrows. Weeks served, as has been stated, from 20 April 1901 and took his discharge exactly a year later on 21 April 1902. This implied a total service of 365 days or 12 months with a recognised unit – 6 months short of the minimum required to be eligible for the Kings Medal.
` Possibly a clerical error but Weeks was issued with a Kings Medal he clearly was not entitled to. The authorities, rightfully, asked him to return it but the Kings medal roll has an annotation in the column which reads, “See memo to Van Graan. Medal has been issued but Weeks declines to give it up. 1/5/07.” So Weeks, possibly viewing his service with the Potchefstroom Provisional Police as counting towards the eligibility criteria, defiantly decided to keep what he wasn’t entitled to. This was the first of a number of small controversies in which he was to be involved. Sporting a “pair” for his Boer War service Weeks re-entered civilian life in his native Potchefstroom where he obtained employment with the Department of Justice as a Messenger of the Court. It was in this capacity that he was employed when the Great War broke onto the world stage in August 1914. As a precursor to this Weeks had been appointed Field Cornet in the Potchefstroom Dorp (Town) Commando, a Defence Rifle Association organisation, on 31 July 1914 but his association with the military went back further to the end of 1912 when, so he claimed, he founded the Unitas District Rifle Association. A P.E. Malherbe had been elected Commandant of this operation. Weeks claimed that, in January 1914, he had turned out with his unit “for service on the Rand during the strike, and was Acting Commandant of the Potchefstroom Commando with Headquarters at Roodepoort Station”. He was thus already in uniform when the war broke out.
` Weeks joined Commandant P.F. Visser’s Klerksdorp Commando as a Field Cornet (Lieutenant) with no. 200 on 15 October 1914 providing his wife, Mrs Alida Francina Weeks of No. 762 Camp Street, Potchefstroom as his next of kin - entering German South West Africa with the rank of Captain where, on 5 January 1915, he was transferred to the 1st Brigade (Right Wing) for further service. On 11 June 1915 he was released, his services being no longer required. The war in that theatre over with the German surrender on 9 July 1915 Weeks scouted around for something else to do.
` The war had now moved eastwards and on 5 December 1915 Weeks was appointed to the 1st South African Horse (part of the 1st S.A. Mounted Brigade) with the rank of Captain. On Christmas Eve 1915 he embarked at Durban aboard the H.M.T. “Armadale Castle” for German East Africa where he commenced operations against the Germans under Otto von Lettow-Vorbek and his Askaris.
` The role he played in this theatre is amply illustrated by a letter written by a soldier who served under him at the time. The letter, written by a Corporal Gabriel John Erasmus (or Boyd) from New Zealand on 21 June 1952 referred to an incident in the field in which Weeks was involved – a summarised extract is provided below:
` “I made my way to Pretoria and enlisted with the 1st S.A.H. We were trained there and things going bad we were hurried away in December 1914 to German East Africa under the command of Generals Smuts and Van Deventer, arriving at Nairobi in early 1915. We trained outside Nairobi for a while and then went into action shortly afterwards. We had several little actions till we got to a place called Lokilsalie (Selata), a hill with a big crater, and it formed a beautiful lake.
` That was about the end of April. I contracted malaria and was hospitalised for 12 weeks when I was able to join up again with my regiment. I was transferred to the 3rd S.A.H. as most of the officers and men were from Potchefstroom. The Adjutant was Captain Short. My Commander was Captain Weeks. We moved on to Dar-es-Salaam and got into action about 70 miles from there. It was the 4th August, when Captain Weeks and myself with the Sergeant, I was then a Corporal with eight other men, were detailed to do a bit of scouting etc.
` We were about two miles ahead of the regiment, and well scattered, when I spotted a machine gun. I fired immediately and killed the gunner, another Askari took his place, but I got him as well, from the corner of my eye I spotted Captain Weeks being attacked from behind, I shot his attacker, a German, and ran to the machine gun then manned by a German sighting on Captain Weeks. I butted him with my rifle as I was too tired to aim anymore and thus gained the post, with only two of our men wounded but the Sergeant was killed.”
` If this account is true, and there is no reason to discredit it, then Weeks was in quite a bit of life-threatening action!
` With effect from 8 October 1916 he was given command of the portion of his regiment in camp at Ulcia. After a lengthy stint in German East Africa Weeks succumbed to the inevitable Malaria and, after treatment, was repatriated to the Union on 7 November disembarking at Durban ex H.M.T. “Aragon” on 15 November 1916. Having been admitted to No. 3 General Hospital he was discharged and granted leave pending release from service on 23 November 1916 until 21 March 1917 relinquishing his commission on ceasing to be employed. He had been awarded one Red and one Blue Chevron for his efforts. On 7 March 1917 he proceeded to Johannesburg for a Specialist opinion regarding the condition of his ear.
` Was Weeks’ war over? Not by a long shot, this indefatigable man was relishing life in uniform. On 4 April 1917 he penned a letter to the Director of War Recruiting as follows:
` “With further reference to my conversation yesterday with Colonel Burgess, I now wish to submit the following facts relative to my case and to ask for your ruling:-
` On my arrival in Durban from East Africa I was given three months recuperative leave which ended 22 February last. Two days before the expiration of my leave I came before the Medical Board but no decision was arrived at until I was examined by a specialist, who has recommended further treatment at the General Hospital, Johannesburg. It took the Board nearly six weeks to decide finally what to do.
` For your information I wish to state that according to Medical opinion I am suffering from a disease for which there is little or no hope of a complete recovery. Since my arrival at Potchefstroom on the 25th November last I received treatment at the Military Hospital for Malaria and ear trouble and it is evident that it will be some time before I shall be discharged as fit again. The matter for you to decide as to whether I am entitled to my pay and allowances for the period from 22 February until I shall be discharged from hospital.”
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Things were about to get nasty – the Army wrote back stating that, “I am informed by the Director of Medical Services that an operation was recommended for your disability, but that this was refused by you. According to the opinion of the various Medical Officers who examined you, this is the only treatment which is likely to prove effective and we are unable to grant an extension of recuperative leave unless you are willing to enter hospital and undergo the necessary operation.”
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On 10 July 1917 the Chief of the General Staff received a letter from the Director of War Recruiting wherein it was “Proposed to appoint Field Cornet A.J. Weks, D.R.A. Potchefstroom, as Recruiting Officer for a short period. This office is unaware that Field Cornet Weeks is an officer of the Active Citizen Force and will be glad therefore, to know if there is any objection to his appointment.” The reply came on 14 July confirming that Weeks could be appointed as a Recruiting officer in Klerksdorp and District. This service, such as it was, was of a very short duration – commencing on 28 July, he was released once more on 24 August 1917. This signalled the end of Weeks’ uniformed service. He was placed on the Reserve of Officers on 11 February 1924 having been awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his efforts in the war. But Weeks’ was a fighter, on 29 May 1926 he requested his rank to be altered to Major “having fulfilled the conditions of such promotion.” The response was in the negative which prompted this reply from him, “During December 1921 I was called upon by Commandant A.S. Grimbeek to resign my commission as Captain of Unitas R.A. and did so under protest and the question of my resignation being only settled in February 1924 when I was appointed to the Reserve of Officers. In April 1922 I was called out for service during the strike on the Rand (a different one to that of 1914) and served with the Potchefstroom Commando. I am not very keen on this eleventh hour promotion, but I shall always fight for a principle. Suffice it to say that I am perfectly satisfied with the services I have rendered the Union both during the war and in time of peace, and if no proper records were kept of my services all I can say it is unfortunate and regrettable.” But it wasn’t only on the military front that Weeks was facing difficulties. After being finally released from service he and his wife had purchased a farm but, lacking the necessary skills, they ended up in financial ruin despite having found a diamond on the farm for which Weeks’ attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain “discoverer’s rights”. Weeks’ will however, go down in history for an entirely different reason. Given South Africa’s tortured track record with race relations; Weeks’ took inter-racial strife to new depths. An article of the rise of the Communist party in South Africa in the Potchefstroom area provides the details: In the mid-1920s African protest escalated throughout the Transvaal countryside. African labour tenants and farm workers, chafing under poor wages and working conditions, evictions from white farms, stock restrictions and Pass Laws, and Africans in countryside towns, weary of tightened restrictions and growing unemployment, began clamouring for black organisations to assist them. A chap by the name of Mofutsanyana drew one of the most daunting assignments when he was thrust into the lion's den - organising black protesters in Potchefstroom, a town of around 14 000 people about 80 miles south-west of Johannesburg. Mofutsanyana branded Potchefstroom 'the most backward place for mad people', an apt description for a town with a well-deserved reputation for its hostility to black people. Potchefstroom's black population of a little over 4 000 lived in a location just north of the downtown business district. Some were descendants of black labourers who had worked on white farms in neighbouring districts and who had migrated to Potchefstroom during the economic disruptions of the Anglo-Boer War and World War I. A severe drought in 1926 drove even more rural folk into Potchefstroom to eke out a living. The regulation that most angered location residents was the two shillings a month lodger's fee introduced in November 1927. The fee was targeted at individuals over the age of 18 who resided in the homes of standholders, whose rents had just gone up from 5 shillings to 9 shillings a month. Although the town council maintained it had to raise new revenues to pay for additional services - constructing a new health clinic, removing rubbish, putting in new roads and water taps, improving police wages, and treating venereal disease - the primary intent of the tax was to prevent the influx of more blacks into the location. The lodger's fee imposed a major burden on families at a time that unemployment was rising. The town council could not have found a more ruthless zealot to enforce the lodger's fee regulation than the recently appointed location superintendent, Andries Johannes Weeks. 'Oubaas' Weeks was an overbearing bully, who went out of his way to insult and antagonise black people. He ran roughshod over township residents, beating them with his sjambok, breaking up their meetings and leading night searches of people's homes for tax violators, 'witchdoctors', 'muti sellers' and beer brewers. He was especially crude and insulting when dealing with black women. When Weeks and his location police were in turn attacked on several occasions, he appealed to the town council for an insurance policy to cover assaults. Because of Weeks' ruthless assault on the 'security of persons and property', 1 232 location residents signed a petition in late 1927 to the town council calling for his removal. Weeks dismissed their petition as an 'example of Communist intrigue and misrepresentation'. In June the Party sent Mofutsanyana and Shadrach Kotu to Potchefstroom to reorganise the branch and start a 'school for the purpose of extending the knowledge of party work amongst the members'. They established a branch office outside the location. By August Superintendent Weeks was diligently working to expel Mofutsanyana and Kotu, and the Potchefstroom CPSA branch reported 'intense persecutions'. The town council prohibited all political meetings in the location. Mofutsanyana and Kotu were arrested once for illegally trading in the Indian bazaar and twice for sleeping in the location without a permit. The pair had to sleep in an open field outside the location. Although the magistrate dismissed the permit cases, Weeks still would not issue them with a permit. They appealed again to the magistrate, who ruled that a person could not be classified as an 'undesirable' solely because he was a Communist. Weeks was forced to issue a permit to Mofutsanyana and Kotu that was valid until the end of 1929. From the late nineteenth century Afrikaner nationalists had appropriated 16 December as a sacred holiday to commemorate their victory over the Zulu king Dingaan's army at Blood River on 16 December 1838. In 1929 the CPSA designated 16 December as the day to remember the freedom struggle against white domination and instructed Party branches around the country to hold rallies. Mofutsanyana diligently went to work organising the Potchefstroom location and using the occasion to protest the Pirow Bills being debated before Parliament and to burn passes. It was to be a day in which he and many others almost lost their lives. The day before Dingaan's Day Hilda Nyembeni, a worker in the location superintendent's office, told Mofutsanyana that she had overheard a police sergeant conferring with Superintendent Weeks about having Mofutsanyana shot. She warned him: 'You get the Johannesburg train at two o'clock. You mustn't be at that meeting ... She even told me the person who was going to shoot me.' Mofutsanyana's reaction was that the superintendent took him for a 'fool' and had sent Nyembeni with a 'bloody story' to scare him off. 'I am organising people all over the farms to come here and they will find me gone. I thought she was just bluffing.' Although Mofutsanyana also heard rumours that a group of white vigilantes would try to break up their meeting, he went ahead with his planning. 36Because African politicians usually spoke English at meetings, he called on J. B. Marks, an Afrikaans-speaking teacher from nearby Ventersdorp, to interpret for him on the platform. When the meeting opened at 10 a.m. an estimated 500 Africans and 120 Europeans were in the audience, and another 20 policemen watched nearby. Mofutsanyana delivered some opening remarks, but as soon as Marks began translating, whites interrupted him, hurling insults. Marks did not back down. 'I am surprised to see Europeans here who have come to cause trouble, whereas others are at home having their holiday.' He contrasted their behaviour with that of black people, who did not disrupt white meetings. His comments struck a raw nerve among the whites. Some shouted in Afrikaans: 'Jy lieg' ('You are a liar') and 'Hou jou bek, kaffir' ('Shut your mouth, kaffir'). Then, someone alerted Mofutsanyana's attention to a white man who was pointing a revolver at him, and he and Marks dived head first to the ground. A wild melée broke out, and Joseph Henry Weeks, secretary of the school board and the location superintendent's brother, began wildly firing his revolver at the black crowd he later claimed were charging him. Later that day he was arrested and charged with murder. The police caught Weeks as he reloaded his revolver and charged him and 14 other whites with public violence. Throughout 1928 and 1929 Superintendent Weeks sustained his offensive against location residents. Zealously collecting the lodger's fee, he raised an extra £500 for the council during the 1929/1930 budget year. He brought dozens of court cases against people in arrears, and evicted many who could not pay. But location residents fought back. The Potchefstroom Party brought dozens of court actions challenging the evictions and the legality of the lodgers' by-law. A general strike was organised for 27 January 1930, the women organised pickets, blocking the roads and preventing any blacks from going to work. On the morning of the strike some four to five hundred black men and women marched to the courthouse and presented the magistrate A. W. Wilmot with a petition objecting to the fee and demanding Weeks' dismissal. The magistrate enjoined Weeks from arresting more residents, and the town council agreed to postpone trials for several weeks. D. W. Hooks, a representative of the Native Affairs Department sent to investigate the causes of the unrest, recommended that the city council scrap the lodger's fee, but keep Weeks on as location superintendent. Despite the continuing turmoil and mounting legal fees (£200 in 1930 alone), the council was in no mood to abolish an important source of revenue. However, in March 1930 it made two concessions: raising the age of the lodger's fee for males to 21; and exempting unmarried sons over the age of 21 who were the sole source of support for their mother's households. Not all white officials agreed with Weeks' tactics. In contrast to his aggressive enforcement of the lodgers' fee, Magistrate Wilmot sympathised with the plight of location residents. A number of location residents were prosecuted and convicted, but when they were presented with the choice of a fine of £1 or ten days in jail with hard labour, most chose to serve their sentences. Wilmot suspended payment of the fines for a month or longer, knowing full well that the fines would still not be paid; and he was lenient with those who owed back rent. Wilmot's behaviour incensed Weeks so much that he charged him with making 'me to look a fool in the presence of the natives'. In May 1931, after protracted debate, the town council finally abolished the lodger's fees. However, this was no victory for location residents because the town council recouped the lost revenues by increasing rents on both small and large stands. Although some location residents set up a vigilance committee to challenge the higher rents, their protests quickly died out.
` Weeks was placed on trial and acquitted in June, 1930, while eight of the fourteen charged with public violence were found guilty at a separate trial. They were reprimanded, but were discharged after being warned to stay away from African meetings.
` As can be seen from the above Weeks was a controversial man. He passed away in Potchefstroom on 18 September 1945 at the age of 66.`
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Acknowledgment:
https://www.angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-awards/27215-oubaas-weeks-was-an-overbearing-bully

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