Venterstad was founded on 24 February 1874 and was originally named Ventersburg after J.T. Venter, on whose farm the town was laid out. The name later had to be changed to Venterstad because a town of Ventersburg had also been established in the Free State, although not until 1890. The town was granted municipal status in 1895, with the Reformed Church as the registered owner, but in 1930, the town land was transferred to the local authority.

Venterstad began life as a farmer’s town, with its tuishuise (town houses), shops and church buildings. It was quiet until the Gariep Dam was built, and then a lot more farms were established around here now that there was available water.

During the six years that it took to build South Africa’s Gariep Dam (1966 – 1971), the little Eastern Cape settlement of Venterstad became quite a cosmopolitan centre. In fact, legend has it that during this time, you heard as much French and Italian spoken in the streets of Venterstad as you heard English or Afrikaans. The Frenchmen and Italians may have departed, but they left behind a monumental piece of dam architecture in the form of Gariep Dam, South Africa’s biggest stored water resource.

Venterstad has a local hotel and a small number of self-cater establishments. The manager of the local Heron House self-cater has this to say about his town:

“A doctor visits once a week and there is a clinic. There are a couple of friendly shops for basic necessities only. The municipality is well run and service is personal and quick. Cows walk along the street, chickens peck the pavements and goats help themselves to plants and trees in the gardens. The locals are friendly and they all have a story to tell.”

Venterstad Dutch Reformed Church
The NG congregation Venterstad is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Eastern Cape Synod. The core of the congregation is the town of Venterstad, although the settlement of Oviston on the dam also forms part of the congregation.

The Reformed Church transferred 40 erven to the Dutch Reformed Church in 1878. The NG congregation was split partly from the NG congregation of Colesberg and partly from the NG congregation of Burgersdorp with Rev. J.H. Krige of the NG congregation of Hofmeyr, then Maraisburg, K.P., as the consultant. From its beginnings, the congregation was one of the smallest in the Cape Church at the time: In 1952, for example, there were 245 professing members, in 1979 155 and in 1985 223 and in 2000 149. In 2007, the congregation had 96 professing members, but the figure has not been updated for new editions of the Yearbook of the NG Churches since then.

During the Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to 1902 the congregation was vacant, but after this period of stagnation and decline the zealous young minister C.H. Stulting took up the reins and soon got the congregational affairs back on track. While Rev. Grundlingh was here, a proper school building was erected, of which he laid the cornerstone on 21 September 1912. With the increase in membership during the time of Rev. Viljoen a Church Expansion Fund was established, but it was not until 9 March 1929 that the enlarged church was consecrated under the leadership of Rev. E.J. du Toit.

Venterstad Reformed Church
In 1874, the church council of the Reformed Church Burgersdorp dealt with a petition from a number of members, who asked that they support the establishment of a new town at Kareefontein. The church council did not see the chance of losing another group of members so soon after the secession of Steynsburg and did not immediately cooperate. A few years later, however, the church council was informed that a new town had been established there and a number of plots had already been sold. Seven plots had been donated to the Reformed Church for a church building and parsonage and the hope was expressed that a congregation would soon be established.

The members in that neighbourhood asked for secession and matters had by then progressed so far that the church council could no longer stop it. The church council agreed to this and the congregation of Venterstad was established on 16 June 1875. Rev. Dirk Postma laid the cornerstone of the church building, which is still in use today, on August 19, 1876. This building is a national monument.

St Paul’s Anglican and Methodist Church
This small small church, located on the edge of the Gariep Dam, represents a joint Anglican and Methodist presence in the town.