Ventersdorp

Ventersdorp
Ventersdorp
Ventersdorp
Ventersdorp

 Ventersdorp shown within North West

Coordinates: 26°19′S 26°49′E / 26.317°S 26.817°E / -26.317; 26.817Coordinates: 26°19′S 26°49′E / 26.317°S 26.817°E / -26.317; 26.817
Country South Africa
Province North West
District Dr Kenneth Kaunda
Municipality Ventersdorp
Established 1866
Area[1]
 • Total 57.47 km2 (22.19 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 22,073
 • Density 380/km2 (990/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)[1]
 • Black African 85.2%
 • Coloured 4.4%
 • Indian/Asian 0.6%
 • White 7.7%
 • Other 2.1%
First languages (2011)[1]
 • Tswana 71.8%
 • Afrikaans 11.6%
 • Xhosa 8.2%
 • English 1.9%
 • Other 6.5%
Postal code (street) 2710
PO box 2710
Area code 018

Ventersdorp is a former whites only town in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. It is the seat of Ventersdorp Local Municipality. The town's population is 4,200 and the nearby township of Tshing has a population of nearly 17,900.

History

The town grew around a Dutch Reformed Church that was established in 1866.[2] [3] The town was named after Johannes Venter who owned the farm Roodepoort and the land the church was built on.[2][4] It was proclaimed as a town during June 1887.[4] The Afrikaner nationalist Eugène Terre'Blanche was born in Ventersdorp,[5][6] and the town is the base of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), the far-right secessionist political organisation and former paramilitary group which Terre'Blanche founded.

Racial segregation

The township of Tshing houses most of the town's blacks and coloureds. The township's secondary school of 1,000 pupils is still 100% black without a single white teacher.[7]

The Ventersdorp High School has changed quite dramatically, with non-white students attending since 1995. These students are mostly Afrikaans speaking coloured residents of the smaller township Toevlug. Ventersdorp youth are bedevilled by alcoholism and unemployment. Ventersdorp has a great central location, making it easier to access more prominent urban towns such as Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Rustenburg.

The Tshing township has a diamond mine nearby: a town councillor owned it in the early 1990s. Tshing Location has one High school ( Thuto Boswa High School)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sum of the Main Places Ventersdorp and Tshing from Census 2011.
  2. 1 2 www.routes.co.za/nw/ventersdorp
  3. ↑ www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/southern/ventersdorp
  4. 1 2 Raper, Peter E.; Moller, Lucie A.; du Plessis, Theodorus L. (2014). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. 1412. ISBN 9781868425501.
  5. ↑ "Eugene Terre'Blanche obituary". The Guardian. April 4, 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Eugene Terreblanche killed in South Africa". BBC News. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
  7. ↑ Broomfield, Nicholas, and Riete Oord. 2006. His big white self revisited. [London]: Metrodome Distribution.

External sources

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