Gourits River, named after a Khoi tribe (The Khoikhoi ("people people" or "real people") or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (or San, as the Khoikhoi called them). They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD. When European immigrants colonized the area in 1652, the Khoikhoi were practising extensive pastoral agriculture in the Cape region, with large herds of Nguni cattle. The European immigrants labeled them Hottentots, in imitation of the sound of the Khoisan languages, but this term is today considered somewhat derogatory.) This tribe was the Gouriquas. Before then the river was called "Rio dos Vaquerios" river of the cowherds by the Portugese.
The river was bridged in 1892, the bridge then being 240 feet long and over 200 feet above the river bed. In 1964 the railway crossed the river (according to Burman) by an even more imposing bridge running alongside the road bridge.