Named after Hans Brits, who accompanied David Livingstone on a venture to the interior and then settled on the farm, Gemsbokfontein. In 1877, an association of local men, headed by TP Theron, bought a section of the farm on which they built a community centre and a church.
A private irrigation scheme was started by the Smartt Syndicate in 1885 and liquidated in 1954. The concern built two dams, planted lucerne and wheat and grazed karakul sheep and Clydesdale horses. The 1961 floods destroyed the Smartt Irrigation Board Dam, rebuilt by the government in 1964.
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