Welkom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welkom is a city in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality of the Free State province of South Africa, with a population in 2001 of 408.173. It is 160 kilometres northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital. The town is the hub of the Free State gold fields, serving several gold and uranium mines. In addition to mineral ore, Welkom produces such goods as steel, lumber, and beef. The town has a technical college and a technological institute. Welkom is served by a small airport and a branch of the main railway between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The town is internationally known for the Grand Prix racing circuit located at it's edge.

The town is named after the farm Welkom where gold was first found. The word welkom is Afrikaans and Dutch for welcome. It is now the second largest city in the Free State.

[edit] History

Welkom was founded in 1947 following a major gold discovery in 1946. It was planned as a model town, with a horseshoe-shaped shopping and administrative district surrounding a park of 45,000 square metres (11 acres). More than 1 million trees were planted in the town. Welkom received municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968. Limited desegregation has occurred since the repeal of apartheid laws in South Africa in the early 1990s, but the vast majority of blacks continue to live in the adjacent township of Thabong. Currently the whole of Welkom is dominated by residents from all over Africa because of the job opportunities that arise in the mining industry. On the 5 December 2000 , Welkom was incorporated into the Matjhabeng Local Municipality along with the towns of Allanridge, Hennenman, Odendaalsrus, Ventersburg and Virginia.