Well there was a great deal of resistance from indigenous people when the British took the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch in 1795. There were a number of wars throughout the 1800s culminating in the Boers (who opposed the abolition of slavery and the allowing of blacks to own land) to move inland in 1836 to start their own independent states.

As the Boers were establishing new states (Transvaal, Orange Free State) they would kill the indigenous local population to do so, which is when the British stepped in to support tribes such as the Zulus. Following the discovery of diamonds around Cape Colony and the Orange Free state the British became more interested in that land.

Cecil Rhodes orchestrated the British expansion into south Africa which the Boers obviously objected to resulting in the 1880 Majuba Hill conflict. Part of this was due to Britain controlling the ports in South Africa and taxing any trade ships. More and more conflicts arose leading up to 1895 when Rhodes was able to convince the British to send military support in to fight the Boers. When that conflict failed the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a telegram to the Boers which further discredited Rhodes and embarrassed the British. Finally in 1899 the British were able to goad the Boers into a full scale war which decimated the farming population.

Some of the tactics used by the British were super fascinating which is where my interest in the topic comes from. Squads like the infamous (and disgraced) Bushveldt Carbineers were brought in from Australia to contest the rugged South African landscape and directly counter the guerilla style tactics used by the Boers.

I have some more sources on this stuff in my home office but I used Merrimans 'A history of modern Europe' for the dates and key points since it is in front of me.