31-513: Frans Hendrik Odendaal (1898–1966) (known as Fox Odendaal ) was a South African politician, governor of the Transvaal province, best remembered for heading the commission that became known by his last name. In 1962 Odendaal was appointed as head of the officially named "Commission of Enquiry into South-West Africa Affairs." Over time the commission came to be popularly called the " Odendaal Commission ". The Commission finished its enquiry towards
62-557: A considerable amount of this section is also used for mining and industries, irrigation and power generation. The river regularly experiences pollution of its upper reaches, and this affects users downstream. During 2019 the Lekwa Local Municipality 's main water treatment plant in Standerton was in disrepair and was causing chronic pollution problems. To assist users downstream, clean water had to be pumped into
93-582: A three-phase construction that would augment water from Lesotho into the Vaal River, including four major dams. From 1954, the Natural Resources Development Council proposed that South Africa receive some water from neighbouring Lesotho . Negotiations between the two countries started in the late 1970s. A treaty for the development of the scheme was signed on 24 October 1987 by representatives of Lesotho, South Africa,
124-852: Is drawn from the Vaal to meet the industrial needs of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area and a large part of the Free State. In 1881 the Kimberley Waterworks Company, provided water from the Vaal to the Cape Diamond Fields at a cost of one shilling per 100 imperial gallons (450 L; 120 US gal). As a part of the Vaal-Hartz Scheme it is a major source of water for irrigation. Water drawn from
155-616: The Commonwealth of Nations and became the Republic of South Africa . The PWV (Pretoria- Witwatersrand - Vereeniging ) conurbation in the Transvaal, centred on Pretoria and Johannesburg , became South Africa's economic powerhouse, a position it still holds today as Gauteng Province. In 1994, after the fall of apartheid , the former provinces were abolished, and the Transvaal ceased to exist. The south-central portion (including
186-563: The European Union , United Nations and the World Bank . It was then estimated to cost R9.1 billion for the first phase of the project alone. South Africa pays R150 million to Lesotho each year whether they use all of the water that is supplied or not. According to Hogan the headwaters portion of the basin supports high endemism in reptiles, and lower in the watershed are elevated levels of endemism for small mammals. Water
217-680: The Golden Lions (formerly Transvaal ) formed in 1889. The Orlando Pirates Football Club was founded in 1937 and was originally based in Orlando, Soweto and Kaizer Chiefs were founded in January 1970. In the same year, Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. originated from Marabastad, a cosmopolitan area north west of the Pretoria CBD in the early 1960s. Cricket teams from the former Transvaal include Transvaal (later Gauteng ) which represented
248-783: The Vaal River in the south, and the Limpopo River in the north, roughly between 22 + 1 ⁄ 2 and 27 + 1 ⁄ 2 S, and 25 and 32 E. To its south it bordered with the Orange Free State and Natal provinces, to its west were the Cape Province and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana ), to its north Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe ), and to its east Portuguese East Africa (later Mozambique ) and Swaziland . Except on
279-591: The Vaal River . Its capital was Pretoria , which was also the country's executive capital. In 1910, four British colonies united to form the Union of South Africa . The Transvaal Colony , which had been formed out of the bulk of the old South African Republic after the Second Boer War , became the Transvaal Province in the new union. Half a century later, in 1961, the union ceased to be part of
310-672: The Witwatersrand . The organisation's members included officials from the Johannesburg Town Council, The Chamber of Mines and other local authorities within the Witwatersrand. Rand Water responded to water scarcity by imposing restrictions on Witwatersrand inhabitants in 1913. It also developed major water schemes that would respond to the growing demand. Between 1914 and 1998, the organisation partnered with various government and private entities to drive
341-831: The PWV) became Gauteng , the northern portion became Limpopo and the southeastern portion became Mpumalanga . Most of the North West came from the southwestern portion of the old Transvaal, and a tiny segment of the Transvaal joined KwaZulu-Natal . Even before 1994, the Transvaal Province was subdivided into regions for a number of purposes (such as municipal and district courts, and sporting divisions). These divisions included Northern Transvaal (present-day Limpopo and Pretoria), Eastern Transvaal (currently Mpumalanga ), Western Transvaal (currently part of North West Province ) and Southern Transvaal (now Gauteng Province, but which also includes Pretoria). The Transvaal province lay between
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#1732780055837372-705: The South African landscape. Districts of the province and population at the 1991 census. The province was divided into a number of sporting teams. These teams were renamed after the Transvaal became defunct, however their traditional territories have remained unchanged in many cases, even though they overlap the boundaries of the Transvaal's successor provinces. Examples of this include the Blue Bulls (formerly Northern Transvaal ), which governs rugby in Pretoria (now part of Gauteng) and Limpopo Province, and
403-411: The Transvaal ( Afrikaans : Provinsie van Transvaal ), commonly referred to as the Transvaal ( / ˈ t r ɑː n s v ɑː l , ˈ t r æ n s -/ ; Afrikaans: [ˈtransfɑːl] ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid . The name "Transvaal" refers to the province's geographical location to the north of
434-619: The Vaal River before the Vaal Dam was built in 1938; now the water flows straight into the dam. Kromelmboogspruit joins the Vaal near the Vaal Barrage . Since the Vaal River's surface runoff is erratic, large dams have been built along its course to collect the water. In the past, before the river was established as the official source of water for part of the Gauteng , several small dams were built by farmers for irrigation . When
465-645: The Vaal River from other catchment areas between the 1970s and 1990s. These include the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and KwaZulu-Natal 's Tugela-Vaal Water Transfer Scheme. The Tugela-Vaal Transfer Scheme was completed in 1974 to transfer from the Tugela River in KwaZulu Natal via canals, pipelines and dams into the Vaal River system The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was finally launched in 1997 and would entail
496-680: The Vaal River in Deneysville just south of the border between Gauteng and the Free State. The Vaal River is the longest river wholly within the borders of South Africa. Vaal is a Dutch name (later Afrikaans ), translated by the Griquas or Boers from an earlier Kora Khoekhoe or !Orakobab name, sometimes spelled as Tky-Gariep (in Khoekhoegowab orthography it is ǀHai!garib , drab river). Both Vaal and Tky (in modern orthography ǀHai ) mean "drab" or "dull", which alludes to
527-747: The Vaal River scheme and the barrage (1914–1924). The Vaal River scheme was an initiative established to manage water distribution. The Rand Water board also established the Vereeniging Pumping Station (1924), the Zwartkopjes Pumping Station, the Vaal Dam (1938), the Zuikerbosch Pumping Station (1949) and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (1998). Rain and underground water collects in pans, vleis and streams and where these connect,
558-464: The Vaal supports 12 million consumers in Gauteng and surrounding areas. The majority of the Vaal River water upstream of the Vaal Dam is used for mining and industrial use such as coal mines and Sasol 's energy and chemical-related activities, as well as urban use and power generation. Further downstream of the dam, water is mostly dedicated to urban requirements and, although proportionally less,
589-580: The Vaal. During the late 19th century, there was an influx of people migrating to the Witwatersrand in search of gold . The Vaal River would eventually become the main water source for the Witwatersrand. The growing population initially used water from the groundwater of the Zuurbekom Wells in Gauteng 's West Rand. Eventually these would dry up and people would need a new source that could provide for their domestic, agricultural and industrial activities. Water schemes were initially established by
620-579: The border between Mpumalanga, Gauteng and North West Province on its north bank, and the Free State on its south. It is the third largest river in South Africa after the Orange River (2200 km long) and the Limpopo River (1750 km long) and was established as the main source of water for the great Witswatersrand area after the 19th century gold rush . The Vaal Dam lies on
651-472: The colour of the waters, especially noticeable during flood season when the river is laden with silt. In the upper reaches the river was named iLigwa ( Sindebele ), Ikwa or Igwa ( isiZulu ), ilikwa ( siSwati ), lekwa ( Sesotho ), or cuoa by the Khoikhoi, all referring to the plain it traverses. Historically, the river formed the northern border of Moshoeshoe I 's Basotho kingdom at its height in
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#1732780055837682-513: The construction of the Vaal Dam was completed in 1938, the dam ensured the supply of water throughout each year even when the river was not full. The dam would receive water from different catchment areas through various projects. Two water transfer schemes were developed to supply the economic heartland of the country (then recognised as the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging complex) by channelling water into
713-678: The end of 1963, but its findings were formally handed early in 1964. The Odendaal Report, as it was called, contained a series of proposals (The Odendaal Plan) regarding the establishment of territories dedicated to the "separate development" of the different ethnic groups in South-West Africa ( Namibia today). The Odendaal Plan thoroughly described the different steps needed to establish in South-West Africa bantustans similar to those already in South Africa. The report
744-685: The largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa . The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Ermelo and only about 240 kilometres (150 mi) from the Indian Ocean . It then flows westwards to its confluence with the Orange River southwest of Kimberley in the Northern Cape . It is 1,458 kilometres (906 mi) long, and forms
775-465: The mid-19th century, then became the boundary between two Boer republics : The South African Republic (later the Transvaal province) and the Orange Free State . The geographic name "Transvaal" comes from the name of this river, meaning "beyond the Vaal river". This was in respect to the Cape Colony and Natal , which were the main areas of European settlement at the time, and which lay south of
806-841: The private sector to deal with the growing demand. These included the Braamfontein Water Company's Vierfontein Syndicate of 1893 and the Sivewright Concession of 1887 by the Johannesburg Waterworks and Exploration Company. Water was expensive and largely inaccessible for most inhabitants. The Rand Water Board was established in 1903 to take over the operations of the private sector with a mandate to investigate sustainable water supply and sanitation services. The organisation would become fully operational in 1905, supplying water in bulk to
837-618: The river to dilute its high salt levels, thereby wasting a large quantity of this scarce resource. In 2021, a report released by the South African Human Rights Commission found the river to be polluted beyond acceptable levels, including the flow of raw sewerage into the River. The Vaal River is made up of 50 km of navigable water. The river basin thus offers a range of leisurely water activities that attract local and international tourists throughout
868-537: The south-west, these borders were mostly well defined by natural features. Several Bantustans were entirely inside the Transvaal: Venda , KwaNdebele , Gazankulu , KaNgwane and Lebowa . Parts of Bophuthatswana were also in the Transvaal, with other parts in Cape Province and Orange Free State . Within the Transvaal lies the Waterberg Massif , a prominent ancient geological feature of
899-401: The southern parts of the province, and Northern Transvaal (later Northerns ) that represents the northern parts of Gauteng, including Pretoria, as well as areas further north. 25°S 30°E / 25°S 30°E / -25; 30 Vaal River The Vaal River ( / ˈ v ɑː l / Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈfɑːl] ; Khoemana : ǀHaiǃarib ) is
930-660: The westward flowing Vaal River is born. The river flows west into the Grootdraai Dam near Standerton , Mpumalanga . On its course to the Vaal Dam in Vereeniging, the river is joined by a number of tributaries. The Little Vaal River starts in an escarpment near Ermelo. Near Memel in the Free State is where the Klip River begins. The Watervals River begins in Secunda, Mpumalanga . The Wilge River used to meet
961-792: Was first rejected by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations (also known as the Committee of Twenty-four because of the number of members), and then by the General Assembly . Despite all this, the South African government started formal implementation of Odendaal's plan in 1968. This article about a politician from the Republic of South Africa is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Transvaal Province The Province of