The truth about the Van Riebeecks

The fake Van Riebeeck

The well-known portrait of Jan van Riebeeck (left) is in fact not Van Riebeeck at all, but Bartholomeus Vermuyden. 

The face on the previous South African banknote, too, was not Van Riebeeck’s but Vermuyden’s. 

The real Van Riebeeck

This authentic painting of Van Riebeeck (left) is from De Stichter by E.C Godée Molsbergen. 

Maria van Riebeeck (?)

No image of Maria van Riebeeck exists. “Her” statue in Cape Town in fact shows the wife of the chairman of the Dutch committee that helped to organise the 1952 Van Riebeeck festival in Cape Town. 

VOC emblem

It is also interesting that the mighty Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) paid most of the officials in its empire a measly salary. To compensate for their low pay, many of its staff stole from their employer, embezzling or trading for their own account. Jan van Riebeeck, the man the VOC chose to oversee the establishment of the Cape way station, had earlier been fined for private trading and recalled from a post in Japan. 

(From: Hermann Giliomee and Bernard Mbenga. (Eds.). 2010. New History of South Africa. Cape Town: Tafelberg)