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63-821: Potchefstroom ( locally / ˈ p ɒ tʃ ɛ f s t r ʊər m / POTCH -ef-stroorm ; Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˌpɔtʃɛfˈstruəm] ), colloquially known as Potch , is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa . It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University . Potchefstroom is on the Mooirivier ( Afrikaans for "pretty river"), roughly 120 km (75 mi) west-southwest of Johannesburg and 45 km (28 mi) east-northeast of Klerksdorp . Several theories exist about

126-569: A Boer Republic known as the Republic of Winburg-Potchefstroom. Voortrekker leader Andries Hendrik Potgieter was elected as chief commandant. In October 1840, after a meeting between Potgieter, Andries Pretorius and G. R. van Rooyen, it was decided that Potchefstroom would unite with "Pieter Mouriets Burg" ( Pietermaritzburg ). On 16–17 January 1852, the Sand River Convention was signed between Andries Pretorius (representing

189-682: A British victory. As the Boers used a 'guerrilla warfare' strategy, they lived off the land and used their farms as a source of food, thus making their farms a key item in their many successes at the beginning of the war. When Kitchener realized that a traditional warfare style would not work against the Boers, he began initiating plans that would later cause much controversy in the British public. According to historian Thomas Pakenham , in March 1901, Lord Kitchener initiated plans to deter guerrillas. In

252-613: A gold medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in the marathon . McArthur was known in his home village of North Antrim for his training routine, which consisted of racing a narrow-gauge train. Potchefstroom is home to five tertiary institutions, 30 other schools and a number of research bureaus and training centres, including: Public primary and high schools in Potchefstroom's townships include Boitirelo Primary School, Lesego Primary School, Boitshoko High School, Tlokwe High School and Hoerskool Ferdinand Postma Potchefstroom, known as

315-411: A low cost of living , and often a pedestrian - or public transit -friendly development pattern. Several development companies now specialize in constructing retirement communities in college towns. In some cases the communities have developed formal relationships with the local institution. The demand for housing from students, faculty, staff, and retirees kept college town home prices stable during

378-421: A nation that came to dominate the last phases of the war. As Boer farms were destroyed by the British under their " Scorched Earth " policy - including the systematic destruction of crops and the slaughtering or removal of livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms to prevent the Boers from resupplying themselves from a home base, many tens of thousands of men, women, and children were forcibly moved into

441-522: A pitiable condition and the enemy uses those families to force us to surrender .. and there is little doubt that that was indeed the intention of Kitchener when he had issued instructions that no more families were to be brought into the concentration camps ". Thomas Pakenham writes of Kitchener's policy U-turn, No doubt the continued 'hullabaloo' at the death-rate in these concentration camps, and Milner's belated agreement to take over their administration, helped change Kitchener's mind [some time at

504-399: A population of 128,357 in the 2007 community survey. Of these, 69.6 percent were White, 27.0 percent were Black, three percent were Coloureds and 0.4 percent were Asian. However, the city itself and surrounding suburbs have a population of 43,448, of which 69.9 percent are White, 25.4 percent are Black, 2.8 percent were Coloured and 1.3 percent were Asian. Ken McArthur of Potchefstroom won

567-622: A report in June 1901 that contradicted Brodrick's claim, and Lloyd George then openly accused the government of "a policy of extermination" directed against the Boer population. The same month Liberal opposition party leader Campbell-Bannerman took up the assault and answered the rhetorical question "When is a war not a war?" with his own rhetorical answer "When it is carried on by methods of barbarism in South Africa", referring to those same camps and

630-405: A series of systematic drives, organised like a sporting shoot, with success defined by a weekly 'bag' of killed, they captured and wounded Boers. They swept the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas including women and children. Large epidemics of diseases including measles, killed thousands, affecting children the most. It was the clearance of civilians and uprooting

693-509: A shortage of modern medicine facilities and medical mistreatment, many internees died. Although the 1900 UK general election , also known as the "Khaki election", had resulted in a victory for the Conservative government on the back of recent British victories against the Boers, public support quickly waned as it became apparent that the war would not be easy. Further unease developed following reports filtering back to Britain concerning

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756-491: A term with somewhat derogatory connotations. While noise, traffic, and other quality of life issues have not been resolved, some advocates of New Urbanism have led the development of neighborhoods in college towns by specifically capitalizing on their proximity to university life. For instance, some universities have developed properties to allow faculty and staff members to walk to work, reducing demand for limited on-campus parking; Duke University 's Trinity Heights development

819-579: A university expands its facilities, the potential loss of property tax revenue is thus a concern, in addition to local desire to preserve open space or historic neighborhoods. As a result, local people may resent the university and its students. The students, in turn, may criticize the local residents' taking jobs at the university provided by student tuition and fees, and accepting the tax revenues (e.g. local sales tax, property tax on rented properties) that students generate, but resenting students' lifestyles. Some students refer to other inhabitants as "townies",

882-567: A volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900. In his widely distributed and translated pamphlet 'The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct' he justified both the reasoning behind the war and handling of the conflict itself. He also pointed out that over 14,000 British soldiers had died of disease during the conflict (as opposed to 8,000 killed in combat) and at

945-556: Is a home away from home for international athletes and teams. At 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) altitude, it provides a good balance between altitude and quality training. The city has no large factories, and good air quality. Athletes and professional teams train at the North-West University's High Performance Institute of Sport. Cricket is popular, with Senwes Park the home ground of the Highveld Lions . During

1008-655: Is a key example. In many cases, developers have built communities where access to the university (even if not directly adjacent) is promoted as an advantage. Student housing is also an important component of college towns. In the United States most state universities have 50 percent or more of their enrolled students living off-campus. This trend, which began in the 1960s, originally meant the conversion of near campus single-family homes to student housing, creating " student ghettos ." Colleges and other developers began building purpose-built off-campus student housing areas in

1071-589: Is the second-oldest European settlement in the Transvaal . The oldest European settlement is Klerksdorp , about 40 km (25 mi) west. Some historians challenge this, because the first settlement was in the "upper regions of the Schoon Spruit" (believed to have been between Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom). However, Potchefstroom was the first to develop into a town. Until 1840, the towns of Potchefstroom and Winburg and their surrounding territories were

1134-610: The 2003 Cricket World Cup , Potchefstroom hosted matches between Australia and the Netherlands , Australia and Namibia , and South Africa and Kenya . Potchefstroom co-hosted the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier . The South Africa national cricket team has regularly chosen Potchefstroom for off-season training and has hosted the Australian team's off-season cricket camps. During the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Australia's cricket team chose Potchefstroom as their home base and won

1197-464: The Potchefstroom Campus ' Varsity Cup matches. PUC McArthur Stadium, the athletics stadium, was renovated for the fourth time in 2014. Built in 1892, it was named in honour of 1912 Olympic marathon gold medalist Ken McArthur . Noted local athletes include Godfrey Khotso Mokoena , the silver medalist in the long jump at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games , Hezekiél Sepeng , Jorrie Muller , Justine Robbeson and Ryan Diedericks . The visit of

1260-579: The Second Boer War , the British established a concentration camp in Potchefstroom for Afrikaner civilians, primarily women and children, who were captured in the Boer republics by British forces as part of a scorched earth campaign. At the opening of the city hall in 1909, colonial secretary Jan Smuts was asked about the possibility of Potchefstroom becoming capital of the Union. He replied that

1323-572: The South African National Defence Force , hosting the provincial command headquarters. Potchefstroom regularly holds military displays and parades. The city had an airfield used by the South African Air Force which was closed in budget cuts after the end of apartheid. College town In Europe , a university town is generally characterised by having an ancient university . The economy of

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1386-625: The Spain national football team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup brought a new level of sport to Potchefstroom and the NWU. Spain, who won their inaugural FIFA World Cup title, chose Potchefstroom as their base camp. A new sports complex was built at the North-West University for the team. Mayor Maphetle Maphetle of the African National Congress was dismissed in late 2012 after a motion of no confidence passed, and Annette Combrink of

1449-413: The cost of living above that of the region. It is common for university employees to commute from surrounding areas, finding the cost of living in town too expensive. "Studentification", in which a growing student population move in large numbers to traditionally non-student neighborhoods, may be perceived as a form of invasion or gentrification . It may be due to university enrollment expanding beyond

1512-620: The housing market downturn that began in 2005 . Second Boer War concentration camps During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), the British operated concentration camps in the South African Republic , Orange Free State , Natal, and the Cape Colony . In February 1900, Herbert Kitchener took command of the British forces and implemented some of the controversial tactics that contributed to

1575-527: The 1970s in more college towns. Beginning around 2000 in the United States, nationwide real estate investment trusts (REIT) and publicly traded corporations began developing student housing complexes. Another notable development since the 1990s is the surge in popularity of retirees relocating to college towns. Retirees are attracted to these locations because of cultural and educational opportunities, college athletic events, good medical facilities (often at teaching hospitals affiliated with medical schools ),

1638-548: The Boer families by themselves in desperate conditions in the countryside. It was according to one historian that "at [the Vereeniging negotiations in May 1902] Boer leader Louis Botha asserted that he had tried to send [Boer] families to the British, but they had refused to receive them" . Quoting a Boer commandant referring to Boer women and children made refugees by Britain's scorched-earth policy as saying, "Our families are in

1701-718: The Boers) and Major W. S. Hogge and C. M. Owen (representing Britain). According to the convention, the British government would allow the immigrant farmers north of the Vaal River to govern themselves with no interference from either side. This signalled the establishment of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) ( South African Republic ). In Article 17 of the Constitution of the ZAR dated 18 February 1858 (which

1764-496: The Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain ordered Alfred Milner to ensure that "all possible steps are being taken to reduce the rate of mortality". The civil authority took over the running of the camps from Kitchener and the British command and by February 1902 the annual death-rate in the concentration camps for white inmates dropped to 6.9 percent and eventually to 2 percent. However, by then

1827-495: The Commission's recommendations went even further. The Commission insisted that rations should be increased and that additional nurses be sent out immediately and included a long list of other practical measures designed to improve conditions in the camp. Millicent Fawcett was quite blunt in expressing her opinion that much of the catastrophe was owed to a simple failure to observe elementary rules of hygiene . In November 1901,

1890-532: The North West Province's "Home of Sport", is the provincial headquarters of 17 major sports. The city council emphasises the establishment, maintenance and upgrading of its sports facilities, particularly to meet the sporting and recreational needs of its youth. The Mooi River and other trails add colour and variety to facilities available to residents and tourists. Potchefstroom has hosted two World Cup-winning teams (in cricket and football ), and

1953-601: The Orange Free State from January 1901. In May 1901 she returned to England on board the ship, the Saxon . Alfred Milner , High Commissioner in South Africa, also boarded the Saxon for holiday in England but, unfortunately for both the camp internees and the British government, he had no time for Miss Hobhouse, regarding her as a Boer sympathizer and "trouble maker". On her return, Emily Hobhouse did much to publicize

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2016-508: The absence of a system for payments in lieu of taxes , the university population will disproportionately burden parts of the local public infrastructure, such as roads or law enforcement. Some analysts argue that students relieve the burden on other parts of the local public infrastructure, such as local primary and secondary schools, by far the most costly line item in most North American city and town budgets, by providing tax revenues through local sales tax and property tax paid by landlords. When

2079-416: The camps were purely "voluntary" and that the interned Boers were "contented and comfortable", but was somewhat undermined as he had no firm statistics to back up his argument, so when his "voluntary" argument proved untenable, he argued that all measures being taken were "military necessities" and stated that everything possible was being done to ensure satisfactory conditions in the camps. Hobhouse published

2142-710: The camps. This was not the first appearance of concentration camps, as the Spanish had used them in Cuba during and after the Ten Years' War. However, the Boer War concentration camp system was the first time a whole nation had been systematically targeted, and the first in which entire regions had been depopulated. Eventually, a total of 45 tented camps were built for Boer internees and 64 additional camps were built for black Africans. The vast majority of Boers who remained in

2205-500: The capacity of on-campus housing, inadequate zoning enforcement, and/or student culture. Neighborhood associations may work to limit conversion of family homes to student rentals, while some local residents may oppose the construction of large on-campus dormitories or expansion of fraternity and sorority houses, forcing a growing enrollment to seek housing in town. In the US, educational institutions are often exempted from local taxes, so in

2268-444: The case of a company town , the large and transient university population may come into conflict with other townspeople. Students may come from outside the area, and perhaps subscribe to a different—sometimes radically different—culture. Most students are young people, whose living habits may be different from older people. Economically, the high spending power of the university and of its students in aggregate may inflate

2331-717: The centuries. As an example of this, Paris also illustrates the course of educational history with the Sorbonne and the Grande école . Besides a highly educated and largely transient population, a stereotypical college town often has many people in non-traditional lifestyles and subcultures and with a high tolerance for unconventionality in general, and has a very active musical or cultural scene. Many have become centres of technological research and innovative startups . Universities with start-up centers can be large cities like Munich , but also small cities like Trieste . Although

2394-571: The city is closely related with the university activity and highly supported by the entire university structure, which may include university hospitals and clinics, printing houses, libraries, laboratories, business incubators, student rooms, dining halls, students' unions, student societies, and academic festivities. Moreover, the history of the city is often intertwined with that of the university. Many European university towns have not merely been important places of science and education, but also centres of political, cultural and social influence throughout

2457-410: The city stood no chance, but should aim to be South Africa's largest educational centre. This has led to Potchefstroom's being the "city of expertise", with numerous tertiary educational institutions. It has hosted the annual late-September Aardklop Arts Festival, a predominantly-Afrikaans arts festival, since 1997. The Potchefstroom Municipality, which encompasses several neighbouring settlements, had

2520-579: The concept of a university town has developed since the European Middle Ages, equivalents already existed in earlier times and in non-European cultures. For example, in later Classical times the city of Athens – no longer having any political or military power, but renowned as the greatest center of learning in the Roman Empire – had many of the characteristics of a university town, and is sometimes called such by modern scholars. As in

2583-449: The constant disruption of communication lines by the Boers. The food rations were meager, and there was a two-tier allocation policy, whereby families of men still fighting were routinely given smaller rations than others. The inadequate shelter, poor diet, bad hygiene, and overcrowding led to malnutrition and endemic contagious diseases such as measles , typhoid , and dysentery to which the children were particularly vulnerable. Due to

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2646-475: The cracks that appear in the soil of the Mooi River Valley during drought resembling a broken pot". M. L. Fick suggests that Potchefstroom developed from the abbreviation of "Potgieterstroom" to "Potgerstroom", which became "Potchefstroom". However, this does not account for the appearance of "Potjestroom" on many documents and photographs. The African National Congress decided to change the name of

2709-424: The damage had been done. A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 24,074 [50 percent of the Boer child population] were children under 16) had died in the camps. In all, about one in four (25 percent) of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died. "Improvements [however] were much slower in coming to the black camps". It is thought that about 12 percent of black African inmates died (about 14,154) but

2772-688: The deaths of women and children in the camps than of the wounded Dervishes after Omdurman , or of his own soldiers in the typhoid-stricken hospitals of Bloemfontein ." However, to Lord Kitchener and British High Command "the life or death of the 154,000 Boer and African civilians in the camps rated as an abysmally low priority" against military objectives. As the Fawcett Commission was delivering its recommendations, Kitchener wrote to St John Brodrick defending his policy of sweeps, and emphasizing that no new Boer families were being brought in unless they were in danger of facing starvation . This

2835-543: The distress of the camp inmates. She managed to speak to the Liberal Party leader, Henry Campbell-Bannerman , who professed to be suitably outraged but was disinclined to press the matter, as his party was split between the imperialists and the pro-Boer factions. St John Brodrick , the Conservative secretary of state for war, first defended the government's policy by arguing dry, rough, puckering feeling that

2898-433: The end of 1901]. ... By mid-December at any rate, Kitchener was already circulating all column commanders with instructions not to bring in women and children when they cleared the country, but to leave them with the guerrillas. ... Viewed as a gesture to Liberals, on the eve of the new session of Parliament at Westminster, it was a shrewd political move. It also made excellent military sense, as it greatly handicapped

2961-494: The following sites have been placed on the municipality's provisional list: Potchefstroom is an industrial, service and agricultural growth point of North West province. Industries include steel, food, and chemical processing. The chicken industry is important, and companies around the city include Chubby Chick, Serfontein Poultry, Haagner's Poultry, Crown Chicken and Highveld Egg Cooperative. The city plays an important role with

3024-606: The guerrillas, now that the drives were in full swing. ... It was effective precisely because, contrary to the Liberals' convictions, it was less humane than bringing them into camps, though this was of no great concern to Kitchener. The exact number of incarcerated victims of the concentration camps for Afrikaners is estimated to number around 40,000 by May of 1902, the majority of which were women and children. The total deaths in camps are officially calculated at 27,927 deaths. By May of 1902, when The Treaty of Vereeniging

3087-418: The height of epidemics he was seeing 50–60 British soldiers dying each day in a single ill-equipped and overwhelmed military hospital. It has been argued that "this was not a deliberately genocidal policy; rather it was the result of [a] disastrous lack of foresight and rank incompetence on [the] part of the [British] military". Scottish historian Niall Ferguson has also argued that "Kitchener no more desired

3150-467: The leader of the women's suffrage movement was a Liberal Unionist and thus a government supporter and considered a safe pair of hands. Between August and December 1901, the Fawcett Commission conducted its own tour of the camps in South Africa. While it is probable that the British government expected the Commission to produce a report that could be used to fend off criticism, in the end it confirmed everything that Emily Hobhouse had said. Indeed, if anything

3213-492: The local camps were women and children. Between 18,000 and 26,000 women and children perished in these concentration camps due to diseases. The camps were poorly administered from the outset, and they became increasingly overcrowded when Lord Kitchener's troops implemented the internment strategy on a vast scale. Conditions were terrible for the health of the internees, mainly due to neglect, poor hygiene and bad sanitation. The supply of all items were unreliable, partly because of

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3276-548: The municipality and some street names in 2006, favouring "Tlokwe" as the new name. In 2007, its name was changed from Potchefstroom Municipality to Tlokwe Municipality . However, the city continued to use the name Potchefstroom. The Tlokwe Municipality merged with the Ventersdorp Municipality in 2016, forming the larger JB Marks Local Municipality . Potchefstroom, founded in 1838 by the Voortrekkers ,

3339-534: The opposition Democratic Alliance was elected mayor. Three months later a motion of no confidence removed Combrink, and Maphetle was reinstated. Since then, municipal-council and mayoral elections have been keenly contested. Since the Heritage Resources Act of 1999, monuments are classified as grade I (national), II (provincial) and III (local). Many national monuments were downgraded to grade II. Although Potchefstroom has no local heritage sites,

3402-536: The origin of the city's name. According to one theory, it originates from Potgieter + Chef + stroom (referring to Voortrekker leader and town founder Andries Potgieter ; "chef" indicates the leader of the Voortrekkers, and "stroom" refers to the Mooi River ). Geoffrey Jenkins writes, "Others however, attribute the name as having come from the word 'Potscherf', meaning a shard of a broken pot, due to

3465-475: The policies that created them. The Hobhouse Report caused uproar both domestically and internationally. Although the government had comfortably won the parliamentary debate by a margin of 252 to 149, it was stung by the criticism. Concerned by the escalating public outcry, it called on Kitchener for a detailed report. In response, complete statistical returns from camps were sent out in July 1901. By August 1901, it

3528-404: The precise number of deaths of black Africans in concentration camps is unknown as little attempt was made to keep any records of the 107,000 black Africans who were interned. The main decisions (or their absence) had been left to the soldiers, to whom the life or death of the 154,000 Boer and African civilians in the camps rated as an abysmally low priority. [It was only] ... ten months after

3591-562: The stadium for some matches. Profert Olën Park was named after Carl Ludwig Theodor Olën , president of the Western Transvaal Rugby Union between 1922 and 1934. Profert , a local fertiliser company, maintains the playing field. The Absa Puk Oval is on the North-West University campus. The university sport grounds is known as the Fanie du Toit Sports Complex. The main rugby field has hosted several Leopards games and

3654-524: The subject had first been raised in Parliament ;... [and after public outcry and after the Fawcett Commission that remedial action was taken and] ... the terrible mortality figures were at last declining. In the interval, at least twenty thousand whites and twelve thousand coloured people had died in the concentration camps, the majority from epidemics of measles and typhoid that could have been avoided. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had served as

3717-739: The tournament. Rugby is arguably Potchefstroom's most popular sport. Olën Park , the main rugby stadium, is primarily used for rugby union matches by the Leopards in the Vodacom Cup and the first division of the Currie Cup . The stadium is also used for football matches, and has hosted the South Africa under-23 team . Jomo Cosmos , a Premier Soccer League , team relegated to the National First Division , also uses

3780-680: The treatment of Boer civilians by the British. Public and political opposition to government policies in South Africa regarding Boer civilians was first expressed in Parliament in February 1901 in the form of an attack on the government by the Liberal Party MP David Lloyd George . Emily Hobhouse , a delegate of the South African Women and Children's Distress Fund, visited some of the camps in

3843-640: Was accepted in Rustenburg), it was stated that "Potchefstroom, located on the Mooi River, would be the capital of the Republic and that Pretoria would be the seat of government". In May 1860, Potchefstroom became the "chief city" of the republic and the capital moved to Pretoria . On 16 December 1880, the First Boer War began when the Boers laid siege to the old fort, then occupied by British forces. The siege ended amicably on 23 March 1881. During

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3906-509: Was clear to government and opposition alike that Miss Hobhouse's worst fears were being confirmed – 93,940 Boers and 24,457 black Africans were reported to be in "camps of refuge" and the crisis was becoming a catastrophe as the death rates appeared very high, especially among the children. The government responded to the growing clamor by appointing a commission. The Fawcett Commission, as it became known was, uniquely for its time, an all-woman affair headed by Millicent Fawcett who despite being

3969-524: Was disingenuous as the countryside had by then been devastated under the "Scorched Earth" policy (the Fawcett Commission in December 1901 in its recommendations commented that: "to turn 100,000 people now being held in the concentration camps out on the field to take care of themselves would be cruelty" ) and now that the New Model counter insurgency tactics were in full swing, it made little sense to leave

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