Zeerust is a commercial town situated in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district of North West Province , South Africa . It lies in the Marico valley, approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg . It lies on the N4 , the main road link between South Africa and Botswana . There are large cattle ranches in the area, as well as wheat , maize, tobacco and citrus fruit farms. There are also fluorite and chromite mines in the vicinity. Tourism is also a developing industry.
30-402: The original name of the farm on which the town was established was Sefatlhane/Sebatlani (meaning dusty place ) belonging to Casper Hendrik Coetzee who bought it in 1858. The farm was later renamed Hazenjacht, and after that Hazia/Hazeah. Casper Coetzee contracted Walter Seymore to build a church and a fort on this farm, but Casper died before this was completed. In 1866, the farm then came into
60-613: 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
90-400: 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
120-446: A population of about 250 residents, a few shops, a bar, Lutheran church, and a school. There is a township nearby named Ikageleng with about 1000 people. A mall exists named Autumn Leaf, and a few complexes are in the towns CBD The Zeerust Chromium Mine was first developed in 1942. Today this mine is a surface and underground operation, consisting of four distinct surface and underground workings extending 750 hectares. The ore mined
150-474: A town was granted. The village gained official recognition in 1868, and later gained a landdrost (magistrate) in November 1871. The name Coetzee's Rust was later abbreviated to Zeerust . Municipal status was obtained on 18 March 1936. Zeerust however wasn't the first town in this area. That honour belongs to Jacobsdal , a small village about 10 km south of Zeerust situated on the farm Vergenoegd, near
180-556: 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
210-831: 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 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
240-623: Is composed of chromite and magnetite. Madikwe Game Reserve can be accessed through Zeerust about 90 kilometres north of the town. Botswana can be accessed through Zeerust at the Tlokweng Border Control Post, a further 106 km northwest and through Skilpadshek border located 52 kilometres (32 mi) north-west. Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( locally / ˈ p ɒ tʃ ɛ f s t r ʊər m / POTCH -ef-stroorm ; Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˌpɔtʃɛfˈstruəm] ), colloquially known as Potch ,
270-610: 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
300-464: 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
330-758: The Sand River Convention was signed between Andries Pretorius (representing 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
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#1732775631874360-777: 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. Tlokwe Municipality Tlokwe Local Municipality (before February 2007, Potchefstroom Local Municipality ) was a local municipality in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality , North West Province , South Africa . The seat
390-625: 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
420-820: The Constitution of the ZAR dated 18 February 1858 (which 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
450-581: The Lucerne station. The popularity of Zeerust as trading centre, caused the demise of Jacobsdal, and now it does not exist as a town anymore. Two rivers flow through Zeerust, the Klein-Marico and the Karee spruit. Irrigation farming just outside the town relies on these water bodies. In Zeerust there is also a small suburb named Olienhout Park, which is located before another suburb named Sandvlakte, with
480-533: 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
510-522: The appearance of "Potjestroom" on many documents and photographs. The African National Congress decided to change the name of 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
540-495: 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
570-476: The hands of Diederik Jacobus Coetzee, who saw the potential of developing a town on the farm. He measured out some erven with the idea of starting a town, using "Ox riems" to measure out the plots instead of the accepted surveyors chains. On 20 March 1867, the first erven of the newly established Coetzee-Rust were sold per public auction in Potchefstroom , before official recognition of the request to start
600-615: The larger JB Marks Local Municipality . Potchefstroom, founded in 1838 by the Voortrekkers , 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
630-685: 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 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
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#1732775631874660-527: The old fort, then occupied by British forces. The siege ended amicably on 23 March 1881. During 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
690-537: 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,
720-638: The opposition Democratic Alliance but was elected mayor due to disagreements in the ANC led council. She declared to be quite happy to use her nine-year-old Volkswagen Passat instead, in view of the poverty in the municipality. The ANC declared that they plan to unseat the mayor as soon as possible. The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places : The municipal council consisted of fifty-two members elected by mixed-member proportional representation . Twenty-six councillors were elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty-six wards , while
750-563: 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
780-485: The third signifying the Mooi River . The complete name "Potgieter" was gradually shortened to "Pot". In February 2013, then mayor of Tlokwe, prof. Annette Combrink declared that she would refuse to use the new official vehicle that was delivered to her. It was a customized Mercedes-Benz C350 CDI, worth R736,000.-, that the ANC ruled council had ordered in July 2012 for the previous mayor Maphetle Maphetle. Combrink represents
810-739: 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
840-400: Was Potchefstroom . After the municipal elections on 3 August 2016 it was merged into the larger JB Marks Local Municipality . The most widely accepted theory on the origin of the name Potchefstroom is that the name is composed of three words: Potgieter, chef and stroom. The first syllable is that of Potgieter , the second from the fact that he was a "chef" or a leader of the emigrants, and
870-559: Was asked about the possibility of Potchefstroom becoming capital of the Union. He replied that 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
900-492: Was the first to develop into a town. Until 1840, the towns of Potchefstroom and Winburg and their surrounding territories were 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,
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