title: 1837 in South Africa
text: # 1837 in South Africa
  
  The following lists events that happened during 1837 in South Africa.
  
  ## Events
  
  * Voortrekker Louis Trichardt arrives in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique
  * Separate administrative districts are granted to Port Elizabeth, Cradock and Colesberg
  * 17 January Voortrekkers under Andries Potgieter, Piet Uys and Gerrit Maritz, helped by Rolong and Griqua tribes, defeat Ndebele at Mosega
  * 2 February - Voortrekker leader Piet Retief publishes his Manifesto which sets out the reasons the Voortrekkers are leaving the Cape Colony
  * 28 March - Piet Retief and his followers leave the Cape Colony
  * 23 April - Piet Retief orders Erasmus Smit to be ordained as a minister of the Voortrekkers, but meets with opposition because they consider him as being too old and sickly at 59
  * October - The voortrekkers under the leadership of Piet Retief arrived in Natal over the Drakensberg mountains after trekking overland from the Cape Colony during the Great Trek.
  