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Polokwane

City in Limpopo, South Africa

  • 13 min read
  • 15 chapters
Vue du Limpopo en Afrique du Sud.
South African Tourism from South Africa · CC BY 2.0

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History

Early history

In the 1840s, Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter established Zoutpansbergdorp, a town 100 km (62 mi) to the north. This settlement had to be abandoned because of clashes with the local tribes (Lebelo, Langa & Ledwaba clans), they founded a new town in 1886 and named it "Pietersburg" in honour of Voortrekker leader Petrus Jacobus Joubert. A small number of Indian/Asian and coloured people settled into the region before the end of the 19th century. It was the capital of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State for a short time in 1900 during the Second Boer War. The British occupied Pietersburg in 1901 and built a concentration camp to incarcerate almost 4,000 Boer women and children.

Years of apartheid

Like many places in South Africa at the time of apartheid, racial segregation and inequality were fundamentally ingrained into the town, following the end of the Second Boer War, together with the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, institutional laws were in place in terms of divided urban planning which were implemented continuously throughout this era. The commencement of apartheid in 1948 meant that Pietersburg was clearly segregated in both residential regions and for business ventures.

The institutionalization of the notorious Group Areas Act in 1950 and its amendments in 1966 ensured that the spatial development of the Central Business District (CBD) was exclusively for people of European descent while other regions of the CBD being exclusively for races such as "Indian centre" for Indians/Asians. Many regions were designated to only a specific race of people such as the suburbs of Nirvana and Westenburg at the northwest of the town only being occupied by Indian/Asian and Coloured groups respectively, while the suburb of Bendor being reserved for Whites. The townships of Seshego and Mankweng were occupied by the Black population. Removals of minority groups for white residency, whites-only owned industrial sectors and a regular barrier between people of different races were heavily enforced.

Since 1994

The town officially became a city on 23 April 1992 and on 27 April 1994, it became the capital of the newly formed Northern Transvaal province (Later changed to "Northern province" and thereafter Limpopo) following the 1994 South African general elections. On 25 February 2005, the government declared the official name of the city as Polokwane, a name that was generally in use by the speakers of Northern Sotho (Sepedi). The city was host to the 52nd national conference of the African National Congress, held in December 2007 at the University of Limpopo and saw Jacob Zuma voted as President of the ANC, beating former president Thabo Mbeki.

Present

Today the city of Polokwane has seen respectable development in terms of infrastructure and services. The city provides a wide variety of shopping, malls, restaurants, entertainment venues, religious venues, civic halls, as well as modern housing developments and office buildings.

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