By the Papal Decree of 1923 the Eastern Transvaal was given to the care of the Missionaries Sons of the Sacred Heart called the Comboni Missionaries and this territory was named the Lydenburg Prefecture.
On 11 February 1924 three Comboni missionaries of the pioneer group of 14, set foot on Transvaal soil.They were the newly appointed Ecclesiastical Superior, the Prefect Apostolic Monsignor Daniel Kauczor and Fathers Joseph Klassert and Alois Ipfelkofer. Disembarking at Lourenco Marques (Maputo),they travelled by train to Johannesburg in order to present their credentials to Bishop Charles Cox of the Transvaal Vicariate thus officially taking possession of the new Prefecture of Lydenburg (Witbank Diocese). The remaining 11 members of the party came from their former mission in the Sudan.They arrived later in Durban on the old Italian freighter " Favingnana." They were obliged to leave their former mission field in the Sudan where some of their Society sacrificed life for their faith in Christ. As soon as the first Comboni Missionaries arrived in South Africa in 1924 they took charge of the newly formed Lydenburg Prefecture of the Eastern Transvaal which is now called Witbank Diocese.
One of these missionaries, Fr Klassert, was put in charge of the church in the small town of Witbank and immediately began to look for land to start a new mission among the Black inhabitants. Through the intervention of one of the local Catholics, Mr J. McKenna, the T and DB Mining Company offered the missionaries a huge plot called Driefontein. Fr Klassert built a small construction on this plot which served as a church and some cattle was bought to graze on the vast land. This place became known as the Driefontein Mission of the Catholic Church in Witbank. Meanwhile Fr Klassert acquired a presbytery next to the church in Witbank town and the new Dominican convent was also completed opposite the church.